| What would grilling or barbecue be without barbecue | | | | experimenting. A good barbecue sauce will have a |
| sauce? Either slowly cooking into the meat in a | | | | balanced blend of flavors to it, sweet, sour, smoky, |
| barbecue, or forming a thick tasty glaze on grilled food, | | | | spicy. Just add a little bit of each ingredient at a time |
| outdoor cooking just would not be the same without a | | | | until you get the blend that you want. You can always |
| good barbecue sauce. | | | | add more, but you can't take away, so just add a little |
| Barbecue sauces vary from region to region, and from | | | | bit at a time. Feel free to experiment with your sauce, |
| chef to chef. If you go to North Carolina, you'd find a | | | | people have added coffee, cola, cherries, and other |
| thin, vinegar based sauce, soaking into the thin shreds | | | | ingredients that you wouldn't think to find in a barbecue |
| of pulled pork. In Kansas City, they like their sauce thick | | | | sauce. If you want, you can buy a sauce at the store, |
| and sweet. If you go to Texas, you'll find a thinner | | | | and then doctor the sauce with your own additions, to |
| sauce than you'd find in Kansas City, and less sweet. | | | | suit your own tastes. |
| Barbecue sauces are usually categorized according to | | | | A quick note on storage. You can store the barbecue |
| their base. Sauces can be based on ketchup, tomato | | | | sauce in a sealed container in your refrigerator for a |
| sauce, mustard, vinegar, even mayonnaise. Depending | | | | few days. If you want to keep the sauce longer than |
| on the base, and the preference of the cook, they can | | | | that, you'll need to learn some canning techniques, to |
| be thick or thin, sweet, sour, spicy, mild, or any | | | | sterilize the food and containers, and properly process |
| combination. | | | | the sauce. |
| A basic sauce consists of several elements, each | | | | How you use the barbecue sauce depends a lot on |
| adding another layer of flavor and complexity to the | | | | the sauce itself. Most barbecue sauces can be used |
| sauce. First of all is the base, as stated above, that | | | | at the table as a dipping sauce for food. But different |
| can be tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, or | | | | types of sauces are used differently in cooking. Thin |
| mayonnaise. Or if you want to experiment, you can try | | | | sauces can be used as a marinade for the meat |
| something different. The next element is the | | | | before grilling, and can also be applied during the |
| sweetener. Usually, this is brown sugar or molasses, | | | | cooking proces. Thicker sauces, especially those with |
| but you can also use fruit juice, or any other sweet | | | | a lot of sugar should not be applied to the food until the |
| flavor. The sweetener helps to take the edge of of | | | | last few minutes of cooking time, or they could burn. If |
| the next flavor... sour. Lemon juice and lime juice can | | | | you are doing a true barbecue, however, cooking the |
| be added for a sour tang, or vinegar will do the trick. | | | | meat slowly for a long time, you can get away with |
| Aromatics, herbs, and spices add another layer of | | | | putting some of the sauce on the meat at the |
| flavor to the barbecue sauce. Onion and garlic are | | | | beginning of the cooking time, as the lower |
| common aromatics. | | | | temperature would be less likely to burn the sauce. |
| You can buy sauces at the store. You'll probably find | | | | A good outdoor cookout just isn't the same without a |
| at least a dozen brands and flavors at your local | | | | good, flavorful barbecue sauce. Get in the kitchen, and |
| grocery store. But nothing beats a good homemade | | | | whip up a batch, and brush it on your steaks or |
| barbecue sauce. If you want to create your own | | | | chicken for an element of flavor that just screams |
| barbecue sauce, it isn't hard. Just choose your base, | | | | barbecue. |
| and the rest of the flavors that you want, and start | | | | |