Barbeque Sauce

Most of my life, I thought barbeque was this fancy sauce that required a lot of time and a lot of ingredients to make well.  Boy was I ever wrong!  barbeque sauce is very simple to make and can be as varied as you are!  The only thing limiting the complexity of your BBQ is what's in your fridge and spice cabinet!

So here is the most basic that I can break down BBQ:

1/2 cupketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp yellow mustard
2 drops tobasco sauce

Mix it all together and coat what ever your heart desires with it. 

With that said, if you desire to make a higher quality BBQ, you might want to read the following tips and ingredient suggestions!  I no longer use ketchup as the base for my sauce.  I don't need the extra sugar and I find it's more cost efficient to buy cans of tomato sauce.  I also have a handy little tool that I use for multiple things in my kitchen called an immersion blender (I will discuss a little at the end of this entry).  It generally comes with a graduated cylinder to mix things in, but if you are making a large batch of sauce, you will want a bigger vessel, a mixing bowl works fine. 

I generally make a good sized batch of BBQ at once and using 2 medium siz cans of tomato sauce it makes about a quart and a half.  I find that I make the best sauce when I put the tomato sauce in the bowl, add a squirt of mustard and a scoop of brown sugar, blend and then go exploring my fridge and spice cabinet.  You can substitute spicy brown mustard for plain yellow mustard, though I have never used the stone ground mustard, I imagine that it would work too. 

Here are a few of the things that usually make it in to my sauce: liquid smoke, garlic (I prefer minced), Shae's hot pepper mix, black pepper, vinegar.  I am also going to list a bunch of things that you can put in your sauce.  The best suggestion is to taste the sauce, see what you think it is lacking and add a little.  Taste again and repeat until you are happy with the result. 


Some things to try in your sauce:
cumin
paprika
onion
onion powder
ginger
chili powder
honey
lemon juice
molasses
White wine


Now mix it up, taste it and enjoy it!  You will notice that I did not list any salt.  Canned tomato products have an obscene amount of sodium in them already.  I try to stay away from adding more to them when I can.  If you feel it must have more salt, then add it sparingly, your blood pressure will thank you for it.

                                                                       

Now a note on immersion blenders.  You will find that an immersion blender is a handy tool for your kitchen if you make a lot of sauces, soups or gravies.  It is the funny looking thing on a stick type handle that you just put down in the bowl or pot with what ever you are making.  I find it adds creaminess to most gravies and it tends to chop up  pieces of things to make the sauce smoother.  You can blend to your content and make the smoothest gravy ever with the aid of this handy item.  Check them out at your local department store, it should be relatively inexpensive and worth it to add to your array of gadgets!