Consumed

Secret sauce, continued

To pick up where we left off last week: Having forsworn bottled barbecue sauce, it was incumbent on me to find a promising recipe and actually cook it up. A few days ago, I dug a pack of St. Louis cut pork spareribs (differing from other cuts in that the brisket bones/rib tips have been removed; well-marbled, lots of meat between the bones, easy to cook; the origin of the name is a mystery) out of the freezer, and knew that I would need to have a sauce ready when they thawed.

When in doubt, turn to trusted sources. In this case, that meant my copy of Stephen Raichlen’s How to Grill and his recipe for Basic Barbecue Sauce. Prudence dictated that I prepare the sauce as directed, and wait until later to experiment, but I disregarded that. Even with a formula from a respected guide in hand, some petulant part of me wouldn’t let me follow the directions without variation. I wanted to put some kind of personal stamp on the concoction. The Third Important Thing About Barbecue Sauce, learned just last week, still resonated with me:

Say that there is a “secret” ingredient in it, then tell no one, even upon threat of bodily injury.

And so I combined my ingredients, including my secret ingredient, and cooked it down.

Long before the sauce had thickened, I knew I had a success on my hands. Sweet yet smoky, deliberately not tangy (not a vinegar lover) but instead infused with a salt-slash-savour imparted by my secret ingredient. This will sound like beginner’s braggadocio, but I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a bottled sauce as good as the stuff I made. Behold - my creation:

Immediately upon completion of the sauce, I put it to work with the spareribs. I had intended to grill out with the Weber, but the day was so windy that I opted for oven-simmered ribs.

Beforehand, I cut the ribs into two sections so they would easily fit a 13-inch long glass baking dish. I coated both sides of the both portions with my homemade barbecue rub (based on Raichlen’s basic but tasty recipe) then lightly covered them with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge.

I set the oven to 300° F. Low and slow cooking was the plan.

I poured all of the sauce (alas!) into the baking dish. I put the rib portions in the dish, turning them to coat both sides, placing the meaty side of the slabs down in the sauce. I then tightly covered the dish with foil and put the pan in the oven. After an hour, I turned the slab-lets over, recovered them in foil, let them go for another hour.

I next removed the foil altogether, turned the ribs again and let them cook further for fifteen minutes uncovered. Then I turned them again - meaty side up - to cook uncovered for another fifteen minutes uncovered.

So: two and a half hours altogether, and it could have gone a bit longer. The meat was tender - not quite falling off the bone, but tender enough and delicious, full of flavor. The sauce complemented the pork wonderfully, if I say so myself.

And now I have to make some more. This won’t be a chore. I’m looking forward to using this with chicken, and to trying a variation or two on the sauce. Now that I have a base from which to work, the prospect is a pleasure.

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Oh. Some (few) of you may be interested in the actual recipe I used, including my secret ingredient. Well, jeez, if I divulged that, it wouldn’t be very secret, now would it?

Just kidding. I’m a kidder. Here ’tis (annotated where it varies from the original Raichlen recipe):

1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup hoisin sauce (secret ingredient!)
1/4 cup cider vinegar (none used)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (not yellow)
1 tablespoon Tabasco Sweet & Spicy sauce (not regular Tabasco)
1 tablespoon of your favorite barbecue rub (as mentioned above, Raichlen’s Basic Barbecue Rub)
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

As Raichlen says, combine and bring to boil in non-reactive sauce pan. Reduce heat to medium and gently simmer “until dark, thick, and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes.” You don’t really need to be told to put the sauce in a clean jar, do you? Nah.

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