Question about "missing flavor" in homade bbq sauce

cliffcarter said:

 
Probably it's the liquid smoke that most commercial sauces contain that is the "dark flavor" you are missing.

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Thanks for the tip. I have tried some liquid smoke. I think what I tried was applewood liquid smoke since that is the wood I like most for pork. Maybe I didn't use enough or maybe I need a stronger smoke flavor like oak, cherry, or hickory. Do you have an opinion on this?

LMHmedchem

cliffcarter said:

 
Hickory will be the most recognizable and strongest of those you listed.

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Thanks, I smoked the peppers, onions, garlic, and tomatoes today and made the first part of the sauce. I generally let that sit in the fridge for a few days before adding all of the seasonings. I will get a bottle of hickory liquid smoke and try adding some after I get the rest of it finished.

Hopefully that will do the trick.

LMHmedchem

I will post the recipe in a few days when I have finished this batch.

The recipe makes ~2 gallons of sauce and probably has more ingredients in it than are necessary. I haven't got around to reducing it, meaning leaving out ingredients one at a time to see if it makes a difference. I can convince myself that I can taste all of the different ingredients, but it would be interesting to have some other opinions. I get the tomatoes, red peppers, and pablano peppers out of my garden, so I make it at this time of year and put up 16 pint jars to use next summer. I get the onions, garlic, jalapenos, scotch bonnets, Big Jim, and green chilli peppers from a local farmers market. It has very little added salt, which is one of the reasons I make it. Both of my folks need to watch their salt and that eliminates most bottled sauces. There are a few ingredients that have salt like mustard and soy sauce. I have looked at making my own mustard from mustard seed, dry mustard, and vinegar but I haven't got around to that yet.

Any suggestions on the best Bourbon to use. I have used JD and Makers Mark and can't tell a difference.

LMHmedchem

Well here is the recipe as I used it this year.

This sauce is made from,

Pepper Base

Tomato Base

3 flavor syrups - Dr. Pepper reduction, apple cider reduction, orange ginger reduction

Seasonings

Bourbon

The recipe makes ~2 gallons of sauce. The year, I ended up with close to 20 pint mason jars. It keeps for several years after it is canned, so if you like it, the quantity is not a problem.

The tomato and pepper bases are made with the smoker, grill, and a blender.

Vegetable Base

Tomato Base:
8  lbs  fresh garden tomatoes
20 garlic cloves
6  yellow onions (medium, size of a tennis ball)
10 6oz  cans tomato paste

Pepper Base:
6   large red peppers
6   pablano peppers
10  green jalapino peppers
6-8 big jim or white jalapino peppers
2   green chillies
2   scotch bonnets, or 1 thai chillie

Equipment:

Grill

Smoker or Grill with smoker boxes

Blender

Food mill

hand mixer

Grill the red, pablano, big jim, and jalapeno peppers until they get grill marks and char some. Remove most of the loose charred skin.

For the red, pablano, and big jim peppers, remove the stems, cut in half, and remove the seeds. Place in a metal baking dish, drizzle and toss with olive oil and fresh black pepper. For the jalapeno, green chillies, and scotch bonnet peppers, cut in half, put in a second small metal pan (including the seeds), drizzle with olive oil and toss with fresh black pepper.

Quarter the tomatoes. Peel the garlic and onions and quarter the onions. Add to a large metal pan, drizzle with olive oil, and toss with fresh black pepper.

Place all three pans in a smoker or gas grill with smoker boxes at about 325 F. Smoke the peppers for about 1-1.5 hours and the tomato and onion mixture for two hours. All of the vegetables will be soft. Reserve all of the liquid from the metal pans seperately.

Put the sweet pepper mix in the blender with the liquid from the pan. Blend on high for a minute or so until fully liquified. Put the mixture through a food mill and set aside. Do the same for the hot pepper mix. Finally, put the tomato and onion mix in the blender in batches and liquify. Run each batch through the food mix and add to a large stock pot. When all of the tomatoes have been processed, add both pepper mixtures to the stockpot as well.

Add the 10 cans of tomato paste to the stockpot and fully incorporate using a hand mixer. This completes the vegetable base of the sauce. It's not a bad idea to taste at this point to see where you are at. Next, add the seasonings below.

Seasonings

4 tbl Wrights hickory or applewood liquid smoke (hickory is stronger)
1 tbl smoked cinnamon
2 tsp ancho chili powder
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dry mustard

1.5 cups  blackstrap molasses
1  cup  apple cider vinegar
1.5 cups  maple syrup
1/2 cup   maple sugar
10  oz    Maille or Inglehoffer whole grain mustard
6   tbl   dark soy sauce
2   tsp   anchovy paste

Add all of the above to the vegetable base and incorporate with a hand mixer. Put the sauce in the refrigerator for a day or so to let the flavors come together. I never have room for the stockpot in the refrigerator, so I transfer the sauce in 2 one gallon pitchers. Again, it is a good idea to taste the sauce here. After some time in the refrigerator, make the flavor reductions below.

Flavor syrups

1 cup  Dr. Pepper reduction
1 cup  apple cider reduction
1 cup  orange ginger reduction
2 cups Bourbon (I used Jim Beam Black)

Make the following reductions,

Dr. Pepper reduction: Reduce 2 liters of Dr. Pepper to ~1 cup.

Apple cider reduction: Reduce 1/2 gallon of Macintosh cider to ~1 cup

Orange Ginger reduction: Juice 4 oranges and add pulp. Reduce by half and press through strainer resulting in 1 cup reduction. Add 1 additional cup oragne juice, the zest of two oranges, and 4 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger and further reduce to 1 1/2 cups.

Add all three reductions and the Bourbon to the sauce and incorporate with a hand mixer. Let sauce sit for another day or two in the refrigerator to allow flavors to come together. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings. The main things that may need to be adjusted are the tomato flavor, mustard flavor, acid, heat, and sweetness. Add additional tomato paste, whole grain mustard, dry mustard, cider vinegar, scotch bonnet sauce, or maple syrup/maple sugar/molasses as needed. A little more Bourbon never did any harm that I know of. I use scotch bonnet sauce to adjust the heat, but you could use any chili powder.

Canning

I can this sauce since I make it in October and don't end up using much of it until the next summer.

Prepare 20 pint Mason jars, lids, and rings for canning by washing and sterilizing for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. Also sterilize a ladle for filling the jars and any other equipment that will come in contact with the sauce. Reheat the sauce and bring back to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. This is you last chance to taste the sauce and make adjustments. Fill a jar leaving 1/2 inch head space. Place a lid on the jar and tighten down with a ring. Invert the jar for 10 minutes. When all of the jars are filled and have been inverted for 10 minutes, start sterilizing. Place 8 or so jars in the canner at a time and boil for 35 minutes. Remove the jars from the canner and invert for another 10 minutes.

I find that the sauce still keeps changing flavor over time. There are times when I have to re-adjust the seasonings when I go to use it, but it's hard to say when you are using ingredients from the garden. Tomatoes and peppers just don't taste exactly the same every year.

I would love to know if anyone tries this or has suggestions. If you reduce the recipe to make a smaller batch (which I would expect on a first try), I would love to see the smaller version. The addition of the Hickory liquid smoke seems to have added the flavor that I was missing. I added less rather than more, so the flavor is not strong at this point. I may try adding more when I start using it.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

LMHmedchem