I knew that we were in for a good dinner on Friday night when my wife mentioned that she was making pork ribs with grandmother's barbecue sauce and Spanish rice with handmade chorizo sausage from the butcher. Now, this is a barbecue sauce recipe that my mother made often during the summer when I was a boy. I guess I didn't realize it then, but it's a very versatile sauce that works well on ribs as well as for pulled pork or chicken sandwiches. I have no idea how old this recipe is but as it was my great grandmother's recipe, I'm guessing that it is a prewar recipe from perhaps the 1930s, from an era long before store bought barbecue sauce. I remember as a kid that I liked the vinegar and lemon tang and that commercial sauces tasted too sweet, and well, sort of all the same. This tasted like home. The ingredients aren't really very special, but the resulting sauce is classic.
Great Grandmother H's Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons lemon (basically one whole lemon is just about right)
3 tablespoons Worchester sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
salt & pepper to taste
salt & pepper to taste
1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan, and sautee onion and celery in butter until golden and soft.
2. Place the remaining ingredients in the sauce pan with the onion and celery and mix well. Simmer for a half hour over a medium low flame, stirring occasionally and reducing by about a quarter or so. Best if made a day ahead of time and refrigerated until used.
Then she mixes in grandmother's barbecue sauce and lets it all heat together for about an hour, resulting in a pile of great tasting finger licking good ribs. As usual the dog liked the bones.
My plate with some Spanish rice and my four bean salad. I mean, I had to make something, and I had the strangest taste for a bean salad. This was good.
Now, there was leftover barbecue sauce. What to do? So after a good night's sleep dreaming good dreams after all those ribs, I awoke with Barbecue Sandwiches On My Mind. So later that day I cooked and pulled apart a few chicken breasts.
A little coleslaw was in order, so I made some vinegar based coleslaw with cabbage, chopped onions and cucumbers. Then I mixed the chicken with grandmother's warmed up leftover barbecue sauce.
This is what I was dreaming about. It's a wonderful thing when everything comes together in the kitchen.
This sauce makes a sandwich that can compete with most BBQ joints. It is a bit sweet, but has just the right amount of tang. Pile on some slaw and suddenly all is right with the world.
Barbecue music. Sippin' music. Nappin' music.
"Big electric fan to keep me cool while I sleep..." and dream barbecue summertime dreams.
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band 10/21/87 Lunt-Fontaine Theatre, NYC
Image may be NSFW.
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Clik here to view.
