It’s a holiday weekend twofer!
First, I’ve rethought the prescribed amounts for making my kinda spicy and oh! so tasty ‘sup! – with the idea that, like me, you probably do NOT want a large-ish stock pot filled to the rim with thick, bubbling tomato product that is only to happy to shoot steaming hot balls o’ tomato goo into the atmosphere when you least expect it – check out my spatter shield from an earlier batch this year, and I still got nailed! Never wear white when making ketchup.
Second, I still have some ‘sup! canned and in the pantry from my last, messy effort, so this time – with an eye to the holiday weekend and ‘cues coming up – I turned my fresh (and more reasonably sized) batch of ‘sup! into 7+ pints of most everybody’s favorite sweet and spicy barbecue sauce.
Perfect! Bring on the summer, we now have the sauce!
INGREDIENTS
‘Sup!:
•3 (18 oz) cans tomato paste
•1-1/2 cup sugar
•1 tbsp sea salt
•1 tbsp seasoned salt
•1 tbsp celery salt
•1-1/2 tbsp Cayenne – feel free to use less
•1 tsp ground cinnamon
•1 tsp ground cloves or allspice
•2 cups cider vinegar
•4-1/2 cups water
•1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
•2 tbsp Bittercube Jamaican #1 Bitters
Buzzyfoods Best! Barbecue Sauce:
•One batch ‘sup!
•3 cups brown sugar
•1-1/2 cup cider vinegar
•2 tbsp Coleman’s dry mustard
•1 tbsp cayenne
•1 tbsp Caribbean Calypso Seasoning
•1 tbsp Aleppo pepper
•4 tsp lemon juice
•1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
•1 tbsp granulated garlic
•1 tbsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic sauce
•2 tsp Earl’s (or your favorite hot sauce)
First up, the ‘sup! This slightly spicy version (you can make it milder if you like by cutting down on the Cayenne) is great right out of the bottle, on burgers, fries, sushi rice, whatever you happen to like ketchup on.
Combine all the ingredients in a large, tall stock pot (you will want to have a spatter shield handy) and stir over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring every now and again, for twenty minutes.
That’s your ‘sup! If you want to use it as is, ladle the hot ‘sup! into prepared canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes – it’ll be good on your pantry shelf for a good long while.
Note: if you’d rather not can, you can still keep these pints of ‘sup! – but in the fridge – for several months with no worries.
I had other plans…
I had just discovered I was out (!) of barbecue sauce – and just before the long holiday weekend!
Quicklikeabunny, I made the batch of ‘sup! above, then added the brown sugar, cider vinegar, and seasonings to the still warm pot.
With the flame on medium-low, and with my spatter shield still at hand, brought the now enhanced mixture back to a bubbling simmer, stirring quite often – it will smell quite pungent.
Let the sauce simmer, still stirring quite often, for 60 to 90 minutes, until the aroma has mellowed out and the color deepened to a deep, dark red.
Taste the sauce. It’s good, no?
To preserve, ladle the hot sauce into prepared jars and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. I didn’t plan well, and wasn’t really set up to process this batch, so I just ladled it into a little over 7 pint jars and stashed ’em all in one of the fridges – they’ll still be good to use for several months at least. As a side note, a friend from Massachusetts emailed me last year to ask if I could set him up with a fresh jar of sauce. He’d just used the last one I gave him, and his partner loved it.
Ermmm, I gave him that (canned) jar of sauce before I moved to Illinois – so, 1996? – and it was, apparently, still good. Well, at least they haven’t died. I sent them a batch of freshly made, but have no idea if they’re waiting until 2018 to use it…
‘sup! made, and then the best! barbecue sauce prepared and stashed in reserve; bring on the summer! The barbecue sauce is great on chicken, salmon, ribs (beef or pork), burgers, and some folk I know like to use it in place of mayonnaise on a pork sammich.
It’s all good, and all up to you.