Jamison Cheryl Alters - The barbecue lovers big book of BBQ sauces : 225 extraordinary sauces, rubs, marinades, mops, bastes, pastes, and salsas, for smoke-cooking or grilling

The Harvard Common Press

www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 2015 by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

Photographs copyright 2015 by Gabriella Marks

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Jamison, Cheryl Alters.

The barbecue lovers big book of BBQ sauces : 225 extraordinary sauces, rubs, marinades, mops, bastes, pastes, and salsas, for smoke-cooking or grilling / Cheryl and Bill Jamison. First edition.
pages cm
Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55832-845-7 (acid-free paper)

1. Barbecuing. 2. Barbecue sauce. I. Jamison, Bill. II. Title.

TX840.B3J339 2015

641.76dc23

2014041185

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eISBN 978-1-558-32846-4
v1.0315

FOR ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS, WHO ADD THE SPICE TO OUR LIVES

In his epic science-fiction novel Dune, Frank Herbert in 1965 envisioned a future in which He who controls the spice controls the universe. Herbert speaks of a particular fictional spice, but his words ring true today in a broader sense. In our twenty-first-century universe, its open season on seasonings.

Just two decades ago, when we wrote Smoke & Spice, our first outdoor cookbook, many American home cooks seldom ventured beyond salt, pepper, mustard, and ketchup for seasoning food cooked outdoors. Jerk was beginning to catch on, but it was still a newfangled notion. Our range of flavoring options was pretty much limited to what the neighborhood Safeway or Piggly Wiggly stocked.

One expert, John Beaver of Oaklands fabulous Oaktown Spice Shop, reckons that the current universe of seasonings has multiplied many times over since then. Almost anything used anywhere in the world is on our doorstep today, sold even in some chain groceries and always in specialty stores and on the Internet.

In addition to individual spices and other flavoring ingredients, purveyors also peddle numerous packaged blends intended to enable a cook to quickly and easily prepare a dish. Some of these commercial sauces, spice rubs, and other products are quite tasty, but buyers must beware. Many manufactured goods rely heavily on salt and sugar, skewing food flavor instead of enhancing it. Its nearly always better, cheaper, and more fun to put together your own signature creations, as we hope to inspire you to do with our recipes.

TAILORING SEASONINGS TO THE FOOD AND COOKING METHOD

WE TAKE A DIFFERENT approach with our recipes than most books on this subject. After many years of experimenting, we feel strongly that outdoor seasonings should be fine-tuned to what they are flavoring. A concoction that works great on a pork dish wont necessarily taste equally right on a hamburger, chicken breast, or ear of corn. So weve put the focus on the food being cooked rather than the seasoning method, reversing the approach taken by conventional cookbooks. Instead of separate chapters on presumably all-purpose marinades, rubs, bastes, sauces, and other condiments, we have organized the chapters to focus on the meat, poultry, seafood, or produce you are grilling or smoking.

Some seasonings do a fine job on different foods, as we note in the recipes, but every primary ingredient boasts a special affinity for a particular flavor profile. Pork, the most traditional of barbecue-smoked meats, benefits better than other foods from classic barbecue flavors, including both the tangiest and sweetest blends. Because of its assertive inherent taste, beef should be seasoned simply but boldly, and usually in a savory rather than a sweet fashion. Poultry perks up smartly from dry and wet rubs applied under the skin, while seafood has something of a split personality, sometimes favoring a delicate touch and other times a heavier hand. Fruits and vegetables both like a gentle lick of fire and some woodsy smokiness.

Our recipes rely on these underlying principles, but no one should take them as absolute dogma. We dont do that and you shouldnt either. If you find an herbal blend in the lamb chapter that you want to try on pork tenderloin, go for it.

The same applies to our guidance in the recipes about whether a particular seasoning works best for traditional barbecued meats, other foods smoked in a more contemporary style, or grilled dishes. Many cookbooks ignore this distinction, suggesting instead that their sauces, rubs, marinades, and other preparations are suitable for any kind of cooking method. To us, there is an immense difference in the flavor of smoked and grilled foods, which means that they should often be seasoned in different ways. We developed our recipes with this point in mind and always indicate what we intend as the most appropriate use; each recipe has a notation that specifies one or more of these uses: traditional barbecue, contemporary smoked food, or grilled dishes. If youre in a contrarian mood, just follow your own instincts.

THE MANY WAYS TO ADD FLAVOR TO OUTDOOR FOOD

IN THE RECIPE CHAPTERS , we categorize seasonings according to when they are introduced in the preparation processthat is, before, during, or after the cooking. In the past, most outdoor cooks counted on finishing sauces as the key to flavor, minimizing accents added in advance or at the time of cooking. This works well in some cases, but it can also be a one-dimensional approach. In many situations, what you do before lighting the firethrough the application of a dry spice rub, a paste, or a marinadecan contribute significantly to your results.

Mixtures of dry seasonings massaged onto food, rubs add robust flavors quickly. Allow the spices to meld on your meat or other chow for a little time to concentrate their impact and form a crust. We seek out coarse ingredients when feasible to give greater texture to the crustfor example, using cracked peppercorns and kosher salt or coarse sea salt (also purer and more flavorful than regular table salt). If a recipe calls for dried herbs, resist any temptation you might have to substitute a fresh version, which in this case can compromise taste and texture.

Sometimes called wet rubs, pastes are similar to rubs in nature and effectiveness, but include liquid as well as dry ingredients and dont produce the same crusting effect. They do spread easily, however, making them more adaptable for use in hard-to-reach areas, such as under poultry skin.

Completely liquid, marinades usually impart a subtler touch than other advance seasonings and require more time on food to have an impact. They do not, contrary to lingering myths, keep lean ingredients moist during cooking or tenderize tough cuts. Some food professionals believe that marinades dont do anything, but we disagree. We find them particularly useful for adding flavors that come in liquid form, such as soy sauce and red wine.

Some cooks employ other liquid-based techniques for precook seasoning, including brining and injecting fluids. Weve tried both methods numerous times, and have in the past recommended injections, but we have grown skeptical of their value in both cases. Brines are intended to keep lean foods juicy, but they do that by pumping them up with salt water. We wont buy meats treated that way in a grocery store to add weight, so why would we do it at home? The same concern applies to injections, which add moisture as well. Neither technique is necessary to retain juiciness. Mostly they mask flaws in the cooking process. If you grill or barbecue properly, the food will be fine.