Kate's Global Kitchen: Championship Barbecue Sauces

Championship Barbecue Sauces

"For great barbecue, all you need is this book and a match... Absolutely the best book on barbecue I have ever read."
—Mark Miller, author of the Coyote Cafe
and The Great Salsa Book

Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces (Harvard Common Press, $11.95) may also be the only cookbook you need this summer—if you're a barbecue maniac like me. Besides his chapters on dry rubs and marinades, the book includes every style of barbecue sauce found across the many regions of the US. To make the most of your Memorial Day cookout, here's a few excerpts from Paul Kirk's book. Also, check out Barbecue Flavors.

Paul Kirk on Regional Barbecue Sauces

"When most people talk about barbecue sauce, what they are really talking about is Kansas City-style sauce—tomato-based, sweet, and spicy, with some bite. Paul Kirk It is also, as a general rule, thicker than most of the regional sauces. Texas-style sauces are also tomato-based, but they are thinner in body, less sweet, and usually have molasses and Worcestershire sauce to give them distinction. Western-style Carolina sauces are found west of Raleigh. They are like Kansas City- and Texas-style sauces: tomato-based, primarily ketchup, with a lot of vinegar and sugar. They are on the order of a sweet-and-sour sauce. Eastern-style Carolina sauces are found east of Raleigh and on to the coast. These sauces are vinegar-based, with sugar, crushed red peppers, salt, and pepper for flavor. South Carolina and Georgia are where you get into the mustard-based sauces. One of the major barbecue styles that doesn't get much attention in cookbooks is the Memphis-style barbecue sauce, which is based on a combination of tomato, mustard, and vinegar."

How to Use Barbecue Sauce:

"Barbecue sauce can be utilized in a few different ways to add flavor to your barbecue. You can pour it on your meat or pool it on your plate for dipping. Or it can be painted on to glaze. To put a sauce glaze on your barbecue, pour some of your sauce into a separate bowl and dip your brush in it to paint or mop the sauce onto meat during the last 30 to 45 minutes of cooking. Discard whatever sauce is left in the bowl. Be careful not to cook the glazed sauce for too long or over heat that is too intense, because it will caramelize and burn."

Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

Here it is: the sauce from the sauce capital of the country. When people say "barbecue sauce," they mean Kansas City barbecue sauce—thick, tomato-rich, sweet and spicy. The old-style recipes, like this one here, start with butter or bacon drippings, which makes them a little on the rich side.

Makes about 8 cups

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 garlic doves, pressed
1 cup minced onions
1 lemon, unpeeled, seeded and minced
1 32-ounce bottle ketchup
1 cup tomato juice
1 cup V-8 juice
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cupWorcestershire sauce
1/4 Cup chili powder
1/4 Cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter in a nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, onions, and lemon, and sauté until the onion is tender but not brown, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until the sauce has thickened.

Use the sauce warm or chilled. It will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

How to Use It:

Glaze this sauce on your chicken or pork ribs about 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, and you will be the neighborhood barbecue "King." It's also really good as a topping for hamburgers.

From:
Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces
Harvard Common Press, 1998, $11.95
Reprinted by permission

Tried-and-True Barbecue Sauce

You were wondering what to do with all that Master Barbecue Spice you mixed up after reading chapter 1? Well, here is your chance to use it. This is a good all-purpose barbecue sauce made with a tomato sauce base. You can probably whip this up with ingredients you have on hand, any time you hear the call of the "Q". This is very similar to my family's barbecue sauce, which I started barbecuing with when I was nine years old.

Makes about 2-1/2 cups

2 tablespoons Master Barbecue Spice
1 tablespoon chili seasoning
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white vinegar

Combine the Barbecue Spice, chili seasoning, black pepper, ginger, garlic powder, and salt in a nonreactive saucepan. Blend in the tomato sauce, brown sugar, and vinegar. Make sure the tomato sauce is mixed in well. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Or, instead of cooking, combine the ingredients, blend them well, and set the mixture aside for 2 to 3 hours before using.

This sauce will keep for several weeks in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

How to Use It: Use this sauce warm or chilled. It is a good all-purpose sauce you can use to finish just about any meat—beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, you name it. Just paint it on warm about 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time—or serve it as a dipping sauce alongside the meal.

From:
Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces
Harvard Common Press, 1998, $11.95
Reprinted by permission

Barbecue Flavors

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