It’s True … The Secret Is Definitely In The Barbecue Sauce

Some people say that barbecue sauce isn’t the most important part about barbecuing.

Some people don’t have the sense God gave geese.

Of course the barbecue sauce is the most important part! As cookbook author (and barbecue bubba) Susan Puckett puts it: “If the secret isn’t in the sauce, how come so many sauces are secret?”

And how come it took her and Jim Auchmutey, co-authors of a “The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce Cookbook” (Longstreet Press) seemingly forever to drag some of those secret sauces out of the people who make them?

Says Puckett, food editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The challenge in doing this book was not testing barbecue sauces every weekend for five months, including Thanksgiving. The challenge was getting the recipes in the first place. People just didn’t want to give them up.”

But fortunately for barbecue fanatics, many of them did, and this handy little book has a sauce or dry rub to please just about everyone from just about everywhere.

There are sauces from the places you’d expect (Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee), as well as places you wouldn’t. (Massachusetts? Cleveland??)

Of course, there were a few obstinate souls who wouldn’t ‘fess up about their recipes, so Puckett and Auchmutey just kept experimenting in their kitchens until they figured them out - or came very close.

“There was one I didn’t think we’d ever get right,” Puckett recalls. It was for the sauce from Dreamland, a little rib shack near the University of Alabama. Dreamland owner John “Big Daddy” Bishop Sr. told her the recipe for the sauce came to him in a dream from God. “It’s kind of hard for me to talk about,” he confided.

So Puckett kept experimenting until she and Auchmutey felt they had gotten very close to the right flavor, but the consistency was still off.

“By that time, I was sick of it and decided to just leave it out of the book. So I took the pot of sauce, put it in my sink and turned on the faucet to rinse it out.”

Turns out the last secret ingredient she needed was water.

Swine Lake Ballet Sauce

The Swine Lake Ballet, a group of lawyers and insurance agents from Corinth, Miss., has been known to don pink tutus to entertain contest judges. There’s nothing silly about their delicious sauce, however. Dark as Mississippi mud, it’s sneaky-hot (mustard), a little sweet (brown sugar) and positively sinus-opening (vinegar - lots of vinegar).

1 cup yellow mustard

1 cup cider vinegar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons paprika

1 heaping tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground red pepper

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon MSG (optional)

In a medium saucepan, combine ingredients over medium-low heat, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Refrigerate unused sauce up to several weeks. Use as a marinade, baste and table sauce for pork or poultry. (Be careful: It doesn’t wash out of tutus.)

Yield: About 2 cups.

Nutrition information per tablespoon: 27 calories, 6 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 101 milligrams sodium, trace protein, trace fat.

Death Row Bourbon Sauce

Barbara Correll of Washington, D.C., is chief cook for the Death Row team, so named for a line in a skit they used to perform at cook-offs: Asked to choose his last meal, an inmate requests Barbara’s brisket - “barbecue to die for.” This sauce took first place at the 1994 Jack Daniel’s cook-off in Lynchburg, Tenn.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups ketchup

1/2 cup whiskey

1/4 cup raspberry vinegar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons molasses

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons Crystal hot sauce (or 1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce)

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)

In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.

Add ketchup, 1/4 cup of the whiskey, the raspberry vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, mustard, soy sauce, hot sauce and ground peppers. Mix thoroughly.

Cook the mixture for 2 hours in the smoker or simmer over low heat 20 minutes on stove top, and add the liquid smoke. After cooking, stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of whiskey.

Refrigerate unused sauce up to several weeks. Use as a baste, finishing or table sauce on pork, beef and chicken. It’s also good in baked beans.

Yield: About 3-1/2 cups.

Nutrition information per tablespoon: 22 calories, 3 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 123 milligrams sodium, trace protein, trace fat.

Ol’ Hawg’s Breath

Vice President Al Gore, a rib man from way back, has cooked several times with the Washington Pigskins team. The team’s captain, Lewis Nolan, contributed this sugary rub, which has been seen, smeared and greasy, on the face of the No. 2 Big Guy.

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons lemon pepper

3 tablespoons paprika

3 tablespoons dry barbecue seasoning

2 tablespoons MSG (optional)

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon ground red pepper

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients. Rub on pork ribs or shoulders. Let sit for an hour or cook immediately on the grill, in a smoker, or in an oven. Meat can be brushed with a finishing sauce during the last hour, if desired.

Yield: 1 cup.

Nutrition information per tablespoon: 26 calories, 6 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 158 milligrams sodium, 1 gram protein, trace fat.