Barbecue Tricks

BBQ Tips and Tricks

Archives for December 2012

Recipes

Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

mustart cooking sauceIn the hunt to find a traditional mustard based sauce that South Carolina is known for… I came across this notable tangy mustard sauce that Pitmaster Jack Waiboer called ‘ “The Best mustard sauce” he’s ever had.   He passed this recipe along and we plugged it into the Barbecue tricks test kitchen and decided it is indeed a winner.

The finished color ends up more rusty than mustard yellow but the mustard flavor cuts through nicely.  The last moment addition of the butter and the soy sauce adds a bold richness that sets it a part from our traditional South Carolina Mustard Sauce.  It deserves a category of it’s own.

Also the use of both white pepper and black pepper gives the sauce some additional heat.    We used freshly ground black pepper for our test batch but if you are heat sensitive stick with standard issue black pepper.  It really makes a difference.

Try this Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce recipe the next time you are pulling pork.  It’s also flavorful enough to use as a dipping sauce.

Print
Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 cups sauce

Serving Size: 2 Tablespoons

Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

Use this rusty colored kicked up mustard sauce for your next pork or chicken dish for a hint of Carolina with kick of spice.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup mustard
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 5 drops Tabasco sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

  1. Mix all but soy and butter in a sauce pan and simmer for fifteen minutes. Add Soy and butter to finish and serve.

Recipes

Blue BBQ Sauce Recipe

dried blueberriesFeeling BLUE?  This is just the thing to brighten up your day and spiff up your barbecue.  A Blue BBQ Sauce Recipe that is unlike anything you’ve tried before.

My wife was skeptical.  “It won’t work it will look bad and you need tomato,” she said.

True it’s not really a Smurf blue color… but that’s probably a good thing. The color is subtle (in fact hard to see in some of these photos). The “blue” comes from the rich blueberry sweetness that you immediately recognize when you drip the sauce on your favorite barbecue.    Sweet, tangy, fresh, and slightly fruity… it really works.
Perfect for beef or chicken.  A side of blue potatoes?

The added bonus is there is a nice  hint of blue in the sauce and it’s a great conversation starter.

blue sauce strain

 

Team this Blue sauce up with our almost award winning red sauce and a unique Alabama White sauce and you have a RED, White, and Blue  patriotic BBQ.

If you are looking for more blue color double the mustard and steep the dried blueberries an additional ten minutes.

Try the Blue BBQ Sauce this weekend!

Print
Blue BBQ Sauce Recipe

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 24 minutes

Yield: 1 cup sauce

Serving Size: 1 tablespoon

Blue BBQ Sauce Recipe

This rich barbecue sauce is more blueberry than blue in color. If you desire a more blue appearance increase the mustard and allow the berries to steep in liquid longer.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup tomato catsup
  • 1/2 cup dried blueberries minced
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sriracha
  • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Add water, blueberries and vinegar to sauce pan and simmer for five to ten minutes.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and simmer on low heat until desired thickness.
  3. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Strain out blueberry pulp using spoon to force out additional liquid. Discard pulp.

Recipes

CocaCola BBQ Sauce Recipe

cocacola sauceSome BBQ sauce mixologists have a secret ingredient they’ll never real.  In this BBQ sauce recipe the secret ingredient isn’t very secret. The trick is right there in the name. Cocacola is the secret ingredient in the CocaCola BBQ sauce and it’s super easy to make.

This sauce is a great addition to an everyday cook out.  The distinct cola flavor actually fades away in the mixing and simmering so your guests will be left wondering what the secret ingedient is.

Feel free to experiment with your beverage of choice. Root Beer and regional favorites like Cheerwine are common choices. In fact, the Dr. Pepper company actually mass produces a Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce.

The 90 minute to two hour simmer will allow this sauce to thicken as much as you like, and as most sauces do, it will thicken more when cool.

Print
CocaCola BBQ Sauce Recipe

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Yield: One Pint

Serving Size: Two to Four Tablespoons

CocaCola BBQ Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 Cans Coca-Cola (12 oz. each)
  • 1 and 1/2 Cups ketchup
  • 1/2 cup cider vinegar
  • 1/2 onion, minced
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons salt
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

Instructions

  1. Combine ingredients in medium saucepan and simmer for one to two hours or until desired thickness.
  2. For a less chunky sauce strain out remaining minced onions.

Featured

12 Sauces Of Christmas

Sure the Holidays are really about Family and Giving and mainly God.  But at here at BarbecueTricks.com we thought we’d celebrate by giving you a gift of one of our favorite things.  Barbecue sauce.  We can’t get enough.  And apparently most of America has an insatiable appetite for barbecue sauce.  The supermarket store shelves are stocked with dozens upon dozens of different bottled varieties.

So instead of just one gift you’ll get twelve this Holiday season… Twelve sauce recipes.  One per day until Christmas Eve.  That’s just how we roll.

Here’s the FULL LIST – Enjoy:

Special Sauce Knockoff

Day 1 – South Carolina Mustard Sauce

blue sauce strain

Day 2 – Western Carolina Vinegar Sauce

Day 3 – Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce

Day 4 – Blue BBQ Sauce

Day 5 – Alabama White Sauce

Day 6 – Spicy Mustard BBQ Sauce

Day 7 – Texas Coffee Mop

Day 8 – Danny’s Glaze

Danny Gaulden's Glaze

Day 9 – Kansas City Sweet and Smokey Sauce

Day 10 – Chinese BBQ Sauce – sweet and sticky!

Day 11 – McDonald’s Special Sauce

Day 12 – Best For Last Almost Award Winning Sauce

mustard BBQ Sauce

Sign up for our free BBQ Tricks Newsletter to get future fun BBQ updates and recipes in your email!

Free Here

Featured

South Carolina Style Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

carolina flagThe Palmetto state is home to a different kind of Barbecue sauce.  It’s Northern brethren in Western North Carolina have staked their claim in a vinegary thin and spicy sauce that cuts the fattiness of whole hog pulled pork.  But South Carolinian’s like to keep their options open and are in fact one of the only places you can find a different – mustard based style of barbecue sauce.

The origins of the mustard infusion is said to have been passed down from German influences from settlers on the Carolina coast.  In the mid 1700 the British Colony of South Carolina brought in thousands of  families to the area to settle in and make the state their home.  They brought with them a traditional German fair in food with the common use of mustard.  To this day most of the biggest names in South Carolina are of German decent including the Bessinger family who still wave the mustard flag in their BBQ joints in the Columbia and Charleston area.

Although the thought of a mustard sauce is foreign to many.  Barbecue fans tend to like this tangy take on a thick sweet sauce. There are hundreds of variations that can be created with different variety of mustard but tradition leans to a simple affordable yellow blend that we’ve adapted below.  This mainstream blend of mustard and vinegar makes for another tangy way to cut through fatty pulled pork at your next pig pickin’.

Print
South Carolina Style Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: One Pint

South Carolina Style Mustard BBQ Sauce Recipe

Serve this sauce warm on the side with pulled pork or mix above amount with one shredded/pulled boston butt.

Ingredients

  • 1 Small White Onion, Minced
  • 2 Tablespoons Butter
  • 1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
  • 1 Cup Yellow Mustard
  • 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup Pickle Juice or Cider Vinegar
  • 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
  • 1 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  • Hot Sauce To Taste

Instructions

  1. Saute garlic and onion until translucent. Add mustard and remaining ingredients and simmer for ten minutes until thickened. Strain out onion pulp (optional).

 

mustard sauce
Print

South Carolina Mustard Sauce

Also known as “Carolina Gold” this tangy and sweet sauce uses basic yellow mustard as the key ingredient. Serve this sauce warm, on the side, with pulled pork or mix below amount directly with one shredded/pulled Boston butt.

 

Ingredients

1 small white onion, minced Small 2 Tbsp butter1 clove of garlic, minced1 cup yellow mustard 3/4 cup brown sugar3/4 cup pickle juice or cider vinegar 1 tsp kosher salt1 tsp fresh ground black pepperHot sauce to taste

Instructions

Saute’’ garlic and onion until translucent. Add mustard and remaining ingredients and simmer for ten minutes until thickened. Strain out onion pulp (optional).

Featured

3 Ways to Better Bratwurst and Not Poisoning People

bratA good bratwurst grill master – or brattender as some call them – knows there are several different ways to serve the perfect beer bratwurst.  But the most important thing to know you need to really COOK it.   Bratwurst is almost always sold in stores as a raw meat product.  That means, unlike it’s lowly cousin the hot dog, it is not already cooked and safe to eat per USDA food guidelines for pork.   Bottom line you don’t want to get sick eating raw meat.

There are three common ways to cook brats:

 

Hot Off The Fire Brats

The most basic way to cook a brat is to brush it with a light oil and grill it over indirect heat for fifteen to 20 minutes.  Indirect heat will allow you to get the internal temperature of the sausage hot enough without over-charring the rest of the brat.   You want the final product to appear golden brown with unbroken skin (but don’t worry too much about that).  Use an instant read thermometer to make sure you reach the recommended 170 degree internal temperature.

Par Boiling Brats

If you want to be extra careful about under cooked brats or just want to shorten the live grilling  time (really?) you can easily  pre-cook or par boil the bratwurst in a pan from the comfort of the kitchen.   Just add one to two inches of your favorite beer into a pan over medium heat.   Add sliced onions and peppers if desired and bring to the lowest possible simmer.  Avoid boiling.  You don’t want to rupture the skin of the brats  by getting the liquid too hot or boiling.  Cook for 6 to 8 minutes and finish off on the grill as described above with a shorter grilling time of 3 to six minutes.

Brat Tub Bath

The most social way to cook brats is by enlisting the help of the legendary BRAT tub.   A simple shallow pan filled with an inch or two of beer, butter and onions that acts as the brats warm bath after our first grilling step. Keep the pan just off the fire and barely simmering so a hot brat is always on hand.  Plus the grill master gets a pass to take his focused attention off the grill to chat and have a beer.

Some other pointers:

Use tongs.  Never a fork.  You don’t want to prick the casing. That would diminish the juiciness of the end product and could encourage  a crazy flare up.

A brush of light oil before the brat hits the grill can help add a crisp texture to the casing.

You can add a lick of smoke even to a gas grill by tossing a foil smoker pouch under the grate before cooking.

Too charred?   Keep it handy some joker always wants the burnt one.

Print
Bratwurst Brat Tub Bath Recipe

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 5 to 10 bats

Serving Size: One Bratwurst

Bratwurst Brat Tub Bath Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons Butter
  • 5 Bratwurst
  • 2 Twelve ounce Beers
  • 1 sliced Onion
  • 1 sliced Green Pepper

Instructions

  1. Place disposable foil roasing pan on indirect heat on the grill close enough to the heat to stay hot but not boil.
  2. Add butter and after melting fill pan with two robust beers (not lite). Add sliced onions and peppers,
  3. Maintain low simmer and add bratwurst to bath after grilling ten to twenty minutes on indirect heat.
  4. Serve with mustard and fresh baked bun.

 

Featured

Smoke Ring Hack for BBQ

Brisket Smoke Ring

A smoke ring is often thought to be a sign of barbecue perfection. It’s a coveted low and slow cooking phenomenon that looks like a luscious pink edge that boarders the outside border of the meat. It’s vital to competition pulled pork and especially beef brisket. Pit Masters use it as a sign of true craftsmanship but you can achieve this mark of cooking success too.

The smoke ring by itself will not enhance the flavor of your meat. It is not smoke flavor soaking into the meat. It is, in fact, a mark made by a chemical reaction. When nitric acid is absorbed back into the surface of the meat it changes the color of the flesh. Nitrogen dioxide comes from the natural wood smoke and combines with the wet surface of the meat to create this reaction.

Some people say cooking with green or water soaked wood will enhance the color of the ring. Others insist you must put the meat on the grill or smoker while it is still cold and fresh from the refrigerator to get a better ring. One competition team actually fakes the smoke ring by painting the edge of the meat strategically with sauce!

One of the most common ways to “hack” a barbecue smoke ring is by using a curing solution like Morton’s Tender Quick. The package reads, “Tender Quick is a blend of the finest quality salt, sugar and meat curing ingredients. It is perfectly blended for fast cure action and improved flavor and color of the meats.” The secret is that it contains the sodium nitrate/nitrite that you can use to make your smoke ring with no smoke at all. It’s the kind of stuff that makes cured ham pink.

Add some Tender Quick to a rub or dissolve it in a brine and you will see an immediate difference in your meat’s smoke ring. Many competitive cookers will also use products referred to as “pink salt,” Prague Powder or Fab (a meat enhancer).

A spoonful of Tender Quick mixed into your rub before coating the meat should do the trick. For an extreme smoke ring some cooks rub the meat with Tender Quick and then let the meat set for an hour before rinsing and cooking. Use caution with the amount of Tender Quick you use on you meat. You don’t want to end up with corned beef or cured ham.

There are many ways to manufacture a smoke ring on your barbecue but remember using a chemical nitrate like Tender Quick will not add any smoke flavor and that is the true hallmark of great barbecue. Visit Barbecue Tricks to discover more tips to enhance your outdoor cooking.