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Feeling a little Saucy


You can make homemade barbecue sauce from common kitchen ingredients like vinegar, Tabasco sauce, mustard, Worcestershire, molasses, ketchup, onions, garlic, chili powder and cayenne pepper.
 (Photos by JESSE TINSLEY / The Spokesman-Review)
Carolyn Lamberson Correspondent

There’s barely the hint of a chill in the air. The leaves haven’t yet begun to change color.

Still, soon, it’ll be time to park the barbecue for the long, cold winter.

Between now and then, however, there still is time to do something new and bold. Cap the summer grilling season by foregoing that bottle of barbecue sauce in the fridge. Instead, make your own sauce. From scratch.

It’s not hard. A few pantry items and a little time and voila! Homemade barbecue sauce that will make that rack of ribs or grilled chicken memorable.

The best part of homemade sauce is that there’s really no wrong way to do it. As Bob Hemphill, owner of Spokane’s Chicken-n-More and CHKN-N-MO in Spokane Valley, put it: “There’s 1,001 barbecue sauces. Hawaiian. Chinese. Texas. Tennessee. California. New York. Every state has a different barbecue sauce. Every country has a different barbecue sauce.”

First, a definition or two: When we’re talking sauce, we’re thinking of the sweet and spicy tomato-based concoctions, the type of sauce normally found in bottles on grocery store shelves. There are other kinds of sauce out there, however. In North Carolina, for instance, barbecue sauce is heavy on the vinegar and light on the sugar.

The distinction is important because it affects the cooking method. Sauces that are oil-and-vinegar based, or citrus based, or even yogurt-based like tandoori chicken, can be applied to the meat throughout cooking. Put a sugary tomato-based sauce on a piece of meat too early, however, and you risk a barbecue flambé – food that’s burned on the outside and potentially raw inside. Nasty.

Instead, these types of sauces are best left for finishing, either applied to the meat near the end of cooking time or passed at the table as a dipping sauce.

Sure, it’s easy to grab a bottle of KC Masterpiece – the nation’s best-selling sauce – or a locally produced sauce. The best part of homemade sauce is that you can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. You can control the spiciness and the sweetness. You’re in charge.

You can even cut out the high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives. There plenty of recipes out there that begin with tomatoes. If you don’t mind the corn syrup, things just got easier for you. Many sauces are nothing more than ketchup supercharged with sugar and spice. Like the ease of a ketchup recipe but want something at least approaching natural? Look for organic ketchup. Chances are they’ll be made with natural sugar rather than the high- fructose corn syrup.

Hemphill, who sells his sauce, Old South BBQ Sauce, in area markets and in his restaurants, has a sauce secret to share: citrus.

“I tell everyone that you have to use some citrus juice. It gives it flavor,” Hemphill said. “I love to use citrus. There’s nothing on earth you can cook that you can’t cook with a little orange juice or apple juice or pear juice or pineapple juice.”

His other tip? “Barbecue sauce should not have one flavor dominate the other flavors,” he said. “It shouldn’t be too hot. It shouldn’t be to syrupy or sugary or have too much ketchup flavor. It should be a blend. It should be smooth. It shouldn’t beat you over the head with the spice.”

If you’re not sure how to achieve that blend, Hemphill said, just ask. Pitmen generally are willing to share tips and information, if not their exact recipes.

“I give out a lot of information,” he said. “That’s how you learn. You don’t know it all. There’s someone out there who can give you some information on how to make the food better. That’s why moms are so valuable.”

Moms and celebrity chefs. Bookstore shelves are packed with tomes devoted to the art of grilling. Steven Raichlen (“The Barbecue Bible”), Bobby Flay (“Boy Gets Grill”), Al Roker (Al Roker’s Big Bad Book of Barbecue”) and hundreds of lesser-known authors have turned out books about barbecue. The Internet plays host to thousands of recipes. We’ll give you four sauce recipes to get you started. From there, you can invent and adapt as you like.

“Barbecue sauce is basically like any other kind of sauce,” Hemphill said. “You put the type of spice and the type of ingredients and come up with your own sauce with a taste you like.”

Fra Diavolo Barbecue Sauce

From “Bobby Flay’s Boy Gets Grill”

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 Spanish or yellow onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon hot red pepper flakes

3 cups canned plum tomatoes, pureed

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the onion and cook, stirring until soft, about 5 minutes; do not brown. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for one minute. Add the remaining ingredients, season to taste with sat and pepper, and simmer until thickened, 35 to 45 minutes.

Note: The sauce can be made two days in advance, cooled, covered and kept refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Yield: About 3 cups

Approximate nutrition per 3-ounce serving: 127 calories, 3.5 grams fat (.5 grams saturated, 24 percent fat calories), less than 1 gram protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, less than 1 gram dietary fiber, 62 milligrams sodium.

Redeye Barbecue Sauce

From Steven Raichlen, BarbecueBible.com

1 slice bacon, finely chopped

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup brewed strong coffee or espresso

3/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Coarse salt (kosher or sea) and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place the bacon and onion in a heavy saucepan cook over medium heat until lightly browned, 3 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the remaining ingredients and gradually bring to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer the sauce until thick and richly flavored, 10 minutes, whisking from time to time. Correct the seasoning, adding salt and pepper, to taste.

Yield: About 2 cups

Approximate nutrition per 3-ounce serving: 60 calories, 1.8 grams fat (less than 1 gram saturated, 25 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 11 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 304 milligrams sodium.

Classic Barbecue Sauce

From “American Classics,” from the editors of Cooks Illustrated

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, minced

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes with juice

3/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons liquid smoke (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

1/4 cup orange juice

Heat oil in large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until hot and shimmering (but not smoking). Add the onion and sauté until golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer, uncovered, until thickened, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Puree the sauce, in batches if necessary, in a blender or the workbowl of a food processor. Transfer to a bowl and use immediately or cover in an airtight container.

The sauce can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen for several months.

Yield: About 3 cups

Approximate nutrition per 3-ounce serving: 100 calories, 4 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 34 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 16 grams carbohydrate, 12 milligrams cholesterol, less than 1 gram dietary fiber.

Quick Barbecue Sauce

From “American Classics”

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered

1 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

5 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke (optional)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Process onion and 1/4 cup water in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade until pureed and the mixture resembles slush, about 30 seconds. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve over a liquid measuring cup, pressing on the solids with a spatula to obtain 1/2 cup juice. Discard the solids.

Whisk onion juice, ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, molasses, hot pepper sauce, black pepper and liquid smoke (if using) together in a medium bowl.

Heat the oil in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat until shimmering, but not smoking. Add the garlic, chili powder and cayenne; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the ketchup mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gently, uncovered, until the flavors meld and the sauce is thickened, about 25 minutes. Cool the sauce to room temperature before using.

The sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Yield: About 1 1/2 cups

Approximate nutrition per 3-ounce serving: 130 calories, 4.5 grams fat (less than 1 gram saturated, 29 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 585 milligrams sodium.