Barbeque Sauces
Sunday, June 28th, 2009Barbeques are an American tradition, and for many of us, summertime and The 4th of July bring to mind visions of barbeque parties in the back yard with friends and families.
There are a number of different methods to prepare and season the meat prior to grilling.
Some cooks prefer to soak the meat first in special marinades and some prefer rubbing the seasoning whether wet or dry prior to cooking. The preparation and ingredients for marinating may be regional; and we now have foreign inspired marinades (Korean, for example) thrown into the mix. The preferred wood that is used can also differ. However, no barbecue will taste as good without the perfect barbecue sauce.
Barbecue sauces can generally be categorized by what they are based on. Common examples are tomato, vinegar and mustard based sauces. To give the barbecue its distinctive taste and prevent the meat from burning easily, barbecue sauces are applied to the meat while being cooked, with the exception of tomato based barbecue sauces as tomato based sauces burn easier than the other types.
Barbecue sauce preparation can either be sweet, sour, tangy, spicy, hot, thick or thin. The varieties are almost endless which makes barbecues popular because anyone can make his own special preparation depending on taste and anyone can create his own way of serving the barbecue.
Recipes for barbecues sauces can sometimes even be a family secret to be guarded and passed down. On the other hand, good barbecue sauces can also be purchased at almost any store. But the only perfect barbecue sauce is the one that you can create for yourself.
The basics of Barbecue sauces…
Tomato based barbecue sauce is the most widely used and probably the most popular. Its popularity however may be due to the simplicity of preparation and besides; tomatoes are ingredients that are easily found. The point to remember in preparing tomato-based barbecue sauces is to cook the tomatoes very well in order for the flavor to blend with the other ingredients.
Tomato based barbecue sauces are acidic. Because of this, they have the property to breakdown all the flavor of other ingredients and blending them with their own. But because of its propensity to burn, limit the usage of tomato based barbecue sauce while cooking. To make it even more flavorful, prepare tomato barbecue sauces a day in advance.
Mustard based sauces are preferred in North Carolina. Mustard based barbecue sauces are great for grilling pork.
Vinegar is agreat meat tenderizer. It is also more acidic than tomatoes. Because of its acidic content, vinegar based sauces have a tendency to penetrate deep into the meat. To make this barbecue sauce more flavorful, experiment mixing it with chili, cider vinegar or red pepper, sugar, salt and all the other ingredients that you want it to have.
Coming up with your own “secret sauce” can be fun and rewarding, but if experimenting with food is not your forte, there are also many great sauces available at the store.
