Posted on 06/24/2014 7:16:57 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
In the 19th century, the French declared the mother sauces. Bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomate, and hollandaise all became the bases for other sauces in classical French cuisine. Barbecue sauce is sort of the same deal. Key ingredients such as vinegar, tomato and mustard have all come to define regional barbecue in the United States.
While sauce on its own is never enough to save bad barbecue, it can perfectly complement the flavors of good barbecue, giving it an identity and elevating it to greatness.
So, what are the "mother sauces" of barbecue?
(Excerpt) Read more at seriouseats.com ...
I take a small can of tomato sauce and rinse the can out with apple cider vinegar and add course black pepper. if i want it sweet I put molasses in it if it needs to be hotter I add white pepper and red pepper. I cook it till it boils them cool and put into a squeeze bottle and put it on the table.
You must have gone to a yankee joint. Imagine my disappointment when I first ate “bbq” is Texas and they served beef!
Heathens.
Having successfully refused to eat Memphis style BBQ for most of my life, I can't tell you the difference, based upon my one-time sampling of it.
Which I was forced to do out of pure politeness.
I think, but cannot verify, that they use pig's feet and armadillo skins and disguise it with bottled smoke.
Texans don’t ‘baste’....we marinade!
Understood. But brisket isn’t barbecue. It’s grilled meat.
The original “mother sauce” was Elizabethan “catsup,” which was vinegar, herbs, spices and sometimes mushrooms. This came over to Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Relations with the natives were sometimes good, sometimes not, but the pit cooking method of the Powhatan and other tribes was introduced to the English there. The original vinegar, herb and spice “catsup” was introduced to season the meat. Pork was preferred there because pigs can forage for themselves in forested frontier and fend for themselves, a practical thing when your very survival on the verge of a howling wilderness was at question.
Other styles of pit cooked meat or barbecue arose as settlement pushed west due to availability and conditions. I’ve often thought beef became favored as settlers reached natural open grasslands favorable to cattle. Different seasonings and sauces were required for beef, vinegar doesn’t sit well with it in my opinion, whereas it does with pork which is itself sweet, providing a contrast.
Then came all the awesomeness of the various regional specializations that came from different settlers from different parts of Europe. Vinegar is English. Mustard is German, etc., it’s truly the American food. We should serve it at Thanksgiving.
Let the religious (and regional) wars begin.
LOL! You sound like me. I'll admit one of the best sauces I've had came from Georgia - thick and sweet with a hint of peaches. Been so long, though, I don't even remember the brand.
For heathens, the ignorant and hopelessly confused...behold true barbecue as artfully practiced by the master and Arch Angel Ed Mitchel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJVWk1coEbY
Brisket is grilled meat? Huh?
I smoke mine either in an offset smoker with mesquite/oak for 16+ hours (dry rub over yellow mustard baste), or in an electric smoker with mesquite/pecan/hickory for 12-15 hours. No grill. It is tender melt in your mouth goodness. I also do Boston Butt (same rub) but hickory for pull-apart deliciousness. Add some Stubbs sauce to that and ya got something good. Sauce on brisket is sacrilege. Prefer both Texas and KC style here. But I also do like the Carolina and Memphis styles. It’s just different. No need to be nasty about it. BBQ = low and slow, and lots of smoky goodness. You can smoke most anything. Gonna try a turkey at Thanksgiving in the electric smoker. Sausage also good as is chicken and of course ribs. It’s an art-form and a rite of passage here in Texas to do your first successful brisket. I put mine up against any of the local restaurants. Takes patience, but it is so worth it!
I barbeque year around. That includes when it’s snowing.
I accept your contempt. What I choose to put on my sandwich is nobody's business. I doubt if your barbeque is so good that it would change my mind. If the meat is done right the smoke flavor is augmented by the sauce. If I can only taste sauce you screwed up.
BBQ = low and slow.
True enough. But BARBECUE is as I defined earlier.
YUCK!
Meh...semantics.
But I know what you mean.
It is sometimes easier to use the term with the uneducated than to waste valuable cooking time attempting to explain the difference.
I am astounded at the number of people that think a Sloppy Joe is BBQ.
Yes, they exist.
(Both, unfortunately.)
I knew that was coming...
Pennsylvanians do love their processed foods. I was shocked to learn that an authentic Philly cheesteak was Steakum and Cheez Whiz.
“Eastern NC BBQ is the best”
I’m with you, Pappy!
Native son of Texas here, and enjoy our BBQ the best.
I lived in KC for a short while, and they have a fine product as well.
But that Carolina BBQ is a whole different thing, and it is some damn good eating. I truly wish there was some of it around San Antonio. They would gratefully get some of my BBQ dollars.
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