primitive screws up home-made barbeque sauce

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x66372

Really, the cooking and baking primitives need to get a clue.

Most of the time it's just easier, cheaper, and cleaner just to dash to the grocery store.

eridani  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-26-09 06:31 AM
Original message
 
Homemade BBQ sauce needs some help with thickness. 
 
Ingredients:-
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch cube fresh ginger crushed
• 1 red chili finely chopped and deseeded (Chili powder? Cayenne?)
• 1 440ml can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoons cider vinegar (Balsamic?)
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons of brown turbinado sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder

Method:-
In a saucepan, fry the garlic and onion gently in the vegetable oil for 3 or 4 minutes for the onion to soften and turn translucent. Then add the ginger and chili.

Continue to cook until you smell the fragrance (no more than a minute) then throw in the rest of the ingredients.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 – 45 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

The sauce was thin and tended to separate when mixed with the shredded pork, even after 45 min. Add tomato paste? Cornstarch or flour? Pectin?

elleng  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-26-09 08:12 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. Might have drained tomatoes.

I'd suggest tomato paste.

The warped primitive:

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jun-26-09 10:50 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. Cornstarch would be my guess

If you liked the flavor of the sauce, cornstarch wouldn't add another flavor you didn't want, unlike tomato paste. Flour would make it starchy and, even if you use buerre noisette, add an unpleasant, uncooked flavor.

Cornstarch thickened sauces don't reheat all that well, but there probably wouldn't be a problem if the sauce were adorning pulled pork. That would reheat just fine.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-26-09 01:29 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. you could sweat the onion without that much oil

this seems odd. my BBQ recipe uses two cups of water, two cups of catsup, worcestershire, vinegar, etc., and it cooks down to a nice thick sauce that has zero separation. I wonder if it is the oil plus the acidy tomatoes that is making yours thin.

The hip-deteriorating vindictive primitive:

Vinca  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-26-09 03:15 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. Maybe simmer it longer to reduce it more.

The Rita Hayworth primitive:

Tangerine LaBamba  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-26-09 03:52 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. That's what I'd do - 

The cornstarch idea is a good one, but you're going to have a gloppy mess on your hands. Not good.

Just cooking it down should do it........................

On edit: This just occurred to me - have you put the whole thing through a blender or food processor? It might thicken if you do that.............

[crockspot]

One of my college roommates taught me a very simple bbq sauce recipe that really wasn't too bad. Its major benefit was that most of the ingredients could be obtained at a five finger discount from the college dining hall.

Ketchup
Honey
Grated ginger root
Worcestershire sauce

Mix together well, and slather.

[Traveshamockery]

My secret for BBQ sauce?  I just buy a few different bottles of different brands and mix 'em together. 

[miskie]

All it would take is to blend some honey in. It would also help balance it because this sauce is going to be quite acidic without it.

[The Village Idiot]

One of my college roommates taught me a very simple bbq sauce recipe that really wasn't too bad. Its major benefit was that most of the ingredients could be obtained at a five finger discount from the college dining hall.

Ketchup
Honey
Grated ginger root
Worcestershire sauce

Mix together well, and slather.

BBQ sauce:
grape jelly
mustard (not too much)
ketchup
brown sugar

.. feel free to add a bit of honey or whatever

[jtyangel]

Perhaps it is just a thin sauce recipe to begin with? I've seen some more vinegary sauces that don't have the consistency of a traditional BBQ sauce. Probably doesn't need any changes, it is what it is.

[Chris_]

What the hell are these drug-addled 'tards doing in a kitchen in the first place?  If these screwballs could **** up a rock fight, they sure as hell could burn the damned place down fixing anything more complicated than a bowl of cold breakfast cereal and milk.

[The Village Idiot]

All it would take is to blend some honey in. It would also help balance it because this sauce is going to be quite acidic without it.

did you notice the grape jelly in my recipe?

[miskie]

did you notice the grape jelly in my recipe?

I did ! It actually looks like something I may try once I get the grill going ( I haven't yet because even though Its June, we have had constant rain and 65 degree temps here - Its starting to annoy me )

[BlueStateSaint]

I did ! It actually looks like something I may try once I get the grill going ( I haven't yet because even though Its June, we have had constant rain and 65 degree temps here - Its starting to annoy me )

FGL and miskie, one of the guys in the deer camp I belong to has a recipe for bear roasts that uses a bottle of ketchup and a bottle of grape jelly over the roast (after all of the fat has been trimmed--very important).  We've had it up at the camp twice in the last three years, and it's pretty good.  Helps the bear meat taste similar to . . . beef, not chicken.

[NHSparky]

2 tablespoons of sugar?  WTF?  Are these people HIGH?  I found this one and tried it.  Not easy, but dayum!!!!  And it's from a guy named Mark Kirk, who happens to be a seven-time world BBQ champ.  Yeah, it was worth it.

It's a wet/dry combination.  They call for at least 3 racks of St. Louis ribs, but obviously, use whatever the hell you want.  Make sure you trim the excess fat and cut off the membranes.

Dry:
1/4 cup garlic salt
1/4 cup onion salt
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup annato powerder (or more paprika)
1/4 cup black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 teaspoons ground celery seeds

Combine and blend, season and place ribs bone side down in 230-250 degree smoker.  Turn and base with apple juice every hour (4-5 hours) unil ribs separate easily.  During the last 30 minutes, glaze with the following sauce and cook for 8-10 minutes per side.  Remove, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

WET

2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon horseradish
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Heat all ingredients in saucepan until bubbly, spread on ribs.

[RobJohnson]

Perhaps it is just a thin sauce recipe to begin with? I've seen some more vinegary sauces that don't have the consistency of a traditional BBQ sauce. Probably doesn't need any changes, it is what it is.

I agree. Why it might not be the best for pulled pork, I bet it would be great on ribs!

[NHSparky]

I doubt it--they're using CHOPPED tomatoes, not sauce or ketchup.

[Crazy Horse]

1 gallon of apple cider vinegar (nectar of the gods)
some crushed red pepper
some black pepper
some salt

boil, and you're done

Nothing better for chopped or pulled pork and for that matter chicken

You can vary it

I've added Carolina Treet, Garlic, worstershire, mustard, cayenne,...etc

If it gets too hot add honey

[miskie]

I doubt it--they're using CHOPPED tomatoes, not sauce or ketchup.

I noticed that too - But that may be a colloquial term - I know that the Mid-Atlantic states refer to ground beef (or what l call 'hamburger meat') as chopped beef. It could be true that a can of chopped tomatoes there is what would be called tomato paste here.

But if it is a can of chopped tomatoes as would be used in a hearty soup stock, the OP's sauce is going to be very thin and acidic. There are no ingredients in there to actually bind the sauce, So the whole ingredients are going to sit dotted here and there on the meat, and the stock to the sauce is going to run right off and burn away.