Recipe: Creative Cooking Hot Sweet and Sour Barbecue Sauce

This is one of my favorite barbecue sauces. Mr. Big Food used it on the grilled chicken that was accompanied by the zucchini lasagne. But don't forget! Don't start slathering on sauce as soon as you put the chicken on the grill. Start with a "mop" to keep the chicken moist. Then baste with the sauce during the last few minutes. Mr. Big Food like to use tea-- green tea-- with a dash of Tabasco and what have you on hand as his chicken mop.

Here's what the authors of Creative Cooking have to say about barbecue and sauce. (Recipe below the fold.)

Regardless of whether you roast meat on a spit over an open fire, grill it over charcoal or cook it in an oven, you can turn it into delicious barbecue by basting it with a special sauce. This sauce is made by combining onion, garlic, catsup and various seasonings and is named Basic Barbecue Sauce.

            All over this country, people barbecue for private get-togethers and special events, on holidays and other important occasions. The Spanish word “barbacoa,” from which our word barbecue probably comes, means “a framework of sticks on which meat is roasted.” It is a good guess that the first barbecue sauce was developed to enhance the flavor of meat roasted over such a structure. The sauce is almost as important to today’s hostess as the wooden spit was to early barbecue cooks.

            If you are planning a barbecue anytime soon, we know you want to make yours stand out. Because of this, we have included three distinctively delicious barbecue sauces. These recipes combine such ingredients as catsup, onions, vegetables and apples. They are guaranteed to turn meat or poultry into a real treat.

            The first recipe we’ve included is for Basic Barbecue Sauce, which teams especially well with beef or chicken [see recipe in this section]. The other two sauce, Hot Sweet and Sour Barbecue Sauce and Hot Apple Barbecue Sauce [see recipe in this section], are culinary delights in themselves. Try them both on pork and chicken, the two meats we think they best compliment. Whichever you try, we know your barbecue will be a smashing success.

“Use as a basting sauce for barbecuing pork and chicken.”—The Creative Cooking Course (1982)

 

CREATIVE COOKING HOT SWEET AND SOUR BARBECUE SAUCE

1/3 C salad oil

½ C celery, chopped fine

1 small sweet bell pepper, chopped fine

¾ C (packed firm) brown sugar

¾ C red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp minced chives

2 tsp dry mustard

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp sea salt or table salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Simmer celery and bell pepper in oil in a covered saucepan for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Purée vegetables in a blender and mix thoroughly with brown sugar, vinegar, chives, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. “Sauce may be stored in a covered jar in refrigerator. Sauce must be stirred before using to blend ingredients.”