liquid smoke v. EU

i made this bbq sauce to go with the pulled pork i was making last week, and along with the pork, it’s quite a winner. it’s mild in your mouth with a bit of a fiery kick at the end, and pairs well with pulled pork and other things you might want to barbecue (chicken wings, etc). it mellows as you let it stand, so try to make this a day before using it.

i’ve adapted the recipe a little bit, as the original recipe called for liquid smoke. according to wikipedia, liquid smoke is “a substance produced from smoke passed through water,” and apparently, carcinogenic compounds such as tar and ash are removed in processing the liquid. however, i just can’t get on board with semi-artificial ingredients like this – who knows what went into this stuff, anyway? also, the EU version of the FDA, which has higher standards, is currently investigating liquid smoke, so that’s good enough for me – no liquid smoke. instead, i swapped in smoked salt that i got from the whole foods bulk section in tribeca. you’ll get a bit of smoky flavor from the chipotle peppers, too; i found that this sauce was plenty smoky enough.

the original recipe also called for just combining the ingredients in a pot, but i sauteed the aromatics (onion, garlic, allspice) before adding everything else, for that added dimension of flavor. it’s likely that i can’t taste the difference, as my palate isn’t sensitive enough, but i like any adaptations that have the potential to add more flavor.

perhaps i should have paid more attention to molasses, which is also a processed food, but i didn’t. i did use the “robust” flavor of molasses from the supermarket, which is what we had lying around. don’t use blackstrap, but if you have something that has slightly more bite than typical molasses, that’s probably perfect for this sauce.

i am not particularly well-versed with southern, mexican, or south american cuisine, so i don’t know if canned chipotles in adobo sauce count as heresy. sorry if they do, but they’re important to this sauce. i even found them in the international foods aisle of star market – a welcome surprise, since i was shopping at 11:30pm the night before people were coming for dinner.

finally, with respect to ingredients, i used fire-roasted tomatoes. if it were the season, i would have used real tomatoes, but as they’re still out of season, i substituted muir glen tomatoes. the tomatoes even have little black flecks in them, which actually creeps me out a little bit – somehow it looks like black confetti added in at the last moment, rather than being the product of fire-roasting. however, i do trust muir glen, so it is what it is.

bbq sauce

2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes (2 28-oz cans fire-roasted muir glen)
9-12 ounces molasses (“robust”)
1/2c orange juice
2T worcestershire sauce
4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped (or more if you want a hotter sauce)
2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2t allspice
1T olive oil
1/2t smoked salt, plus more to taste
pepper

additional equipment
immersion blender (a regular blender is fine too)

1. in a large saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. when the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, and allspice, stirring to combine evenly. cook 10 minutes, until the onions are glossy and the garlic is slightly browned, then add the tomatoes, molasses, onion, sherry, worcestershire sauce, chipotles, and 1/2t smoked salt. bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

2. reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes – stir occasionally to make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom of the pan. take the pot off the heat and use your immersion blender to blend the mixture into a homogenous sauce. simmer, stirring frequently, for at least 45 minutes longer (i simmered mine for about 4 hours, all told). see step 3 before adding additional salt and pepper.

3. if you are roasting a pork shoulder while making this sauce, add any rendered pork cracklings (the shiny, crispy, dark brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan) to the pan. if you, like i had when i made this sauce, made pork belly recently, add the pork jelly (the brown liquid that renders from the belly, minus the fat) to the sauce as well. the cracklings and jelly are salty and will add body and a slightly meatiness to your sauce. if you are using cracklings, make sure you don’t add additional salt beyond the smoked salt until after you add the cracklings.

4. when the sauce is reduced to the amount you want (in the neighborhood of 2 quarts), take it off the heat and let it cool. transfer to an airtight container and store for up to a month. this sauce also freezes well.

[makes 1.5 to 2 quarts of sauce]