We've had some great success with rubs and injecting a barbecue sauce mixture into meat, and now that we're starting to get pretty good at this grilling thing, it's time to take our game to the next level by making our own accompaniments. First up we've tried our hands at making a homebrew barbecue sauce: the Six-Seven-Eight Smoky Raspberry Sauce!
Here you can see all the base ingredients that went into the sauce, including: apple cider vinegar, salt, liquid smoke, onion powder, garlic powder, light corn syrup, cayenne, powdered mustard, molasses, seedless raspberry jam, tomato paste, brown sugar, and even southwest chipotle flavored Mrs. Dash.
The Mrs. Dash gave us several flavors all at once, but it was a bit too thick to properly work, so to start off with I ground up the seasoning with a mortar and pestle.
To start the process, the various seasonings and water are mixed into a medium sauce pan, and then we poured in the corn syrup to add a sweetness and to thicken up the mixture.
Here we've added in most of the rest of the ingredients, including the tomato paste and the apple cider vinegar.
Once all the ingredients are thoroughly whisked together the actual cooking begins, starting by bringing the mixture to a vigorous boil.
To get the perfect flavor and consistency, the sauce needs to simmer over low heat until it reduces down and thickens, which gives all the ingredients time to mingle together. Here you can see the first ring around the top of the sauce as it begins to reduce and thicken.
Many of the recipes we read through as inspiration for our BBQ sauce said to only simmer for around 45 minutes - which is total hogwash. To reach the consistency of what you'd find in a store bought barbecue sauce it actually had to simmer for about two and a half hours.
After cooling down a bit we transferred the finished sauce over to a container to sit in the fridge overnight and finish mixing flavors. Not only does the sauce look amazing, but the smell was almost indescribably good. The flavor was easily as good or better than any store bought sauce we've ever had. There's a sweetness to it from the jam and corn syrup, but it's offset by a heat from the cayenne and chipotle and a smokiness that screams "Barbecue!" from the liquid smoke. Our first attempt was a rousing success, but we're not going to rest on our laurels: there are many more sauce experiments coming down the line.
That sauce isn't just for dipping though! We had to try out the sauce for some proper grilling, this time by making beef ribs, which are generally much cheaper than the more tender pork ribs. Unfortunately, sometimes the best laid plans go astray, and a sudden bout of snow prevented us from grilling. We weren't going to let that stop us from using our delicious BBQ sauce though, so we moved inside and decided to slow cook the ribs in the oven with a very low heat.
Many barbecue recipes call for either a rub or an injection, but that seems silly to us, when doing both adds so much more flavor! To start our ribs, we're putting a store bought rub all over both sides of the ribs. While the rubs we've bought during shopping day have been great, soon we'll be making our own to experiment with different flvors.
After being rubbed, the ribs are tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and set in the fridge for a few hours.
Here the ribs are fresh out of the fridge and ready to get injected and basted before going into the oven. Sitting with the rub gives the ribs an amazing flavor and the smell is positively mouth-watering when the plastic wrap comes off.
We used the injecting needle we found on clearance at a grocery store for 99 cents to get our BBQ sauce (along with some melted butter and extra liquid smoke) directly into the meat. Not only does it add an explosive amount of flavor inside the meat, instead of just on the outer layer, but it also keeps the meat more moist and tender during a long cooking process.
After I was done injecting there was still BBQ sauce left, so we basted it over the top and bottom sides of the ribs.
After several hours of cooking at 225 degrees, along with some extra basting, here's the finished product with a beautiful char just along the edges.
Although we didn't get to grill, we still wanted our meal to have a very BBQ theme, so our sides were corn on the cob, baked beans, and homemade potato salad.
Why didn't we chronicle the potato salad creation? Soon we'll devote an entire blog entry just to making different kinds of this American favorite, including Italian, Chicken Bacon, and Southwest varieties. Check back soon for more cooking adventures.
Up on the horizon we've got lots more coming on grilling different meats, trying out Canadian cuisine, and more ways to turn cheap food into extraordinary meals.
No comments:
Post a Comment