Finally.
He we are, the pinnacle we have been working towards all frikkin’ week.
Holidaze Barbecue Sauce!
But first, a story (hey, it’s a food blog)…
A few months back, an unplanned medical incident brought all of my in-laws to our house for a weekend. The unplanned medical incident worked out, and we
decided to have a feast of celebration the night before everyone went to their respective homes.
I decided to make a couple of racks of ribs, and just to jazz them up a bit, stirred my Barbecue Sauce together with some of my Pepper Relish, pineapple juice, Arby’s Sauce, and Sherry Peppers Sauce.
The table was crowded, the room, noisy, but when the third (or fourth) family member asked about the sauce, I hatched an idea for a specialty gift; which is this…
INGREDIENTS
Single Batch:
•12 oz Barbecue Sauce
•8 oz Pepper Relish
•6 oz pineapple juice
•1 tbsp Arby’s Sauce
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce*
For Gift Giving:
•3 quarts Barbecue Sauce
•2 quarts Pepper Relish
•48 oz pineapple juice
(I used 36 oz this time + 12 oz orange juice)
•1/2 cup Arby’s Sauce
•1/2 cup Sherry Peppers Sauce*
*No Sherry Peppers Sauce? No Problem! Simply add a bit of decent sherry (none of that “cooking” stuff) and a dash or three of your fave hot sauce, to taste.
Note: measure the pineapple and/or orange juice into the barbecue sauce and pepper relish jars, then cover and shake to get any good bits lingering to the sides of the jars before adding to your pot or slow cooker.
Stir all of the ingredients together in a large pot, or a six quart slow cooker.
If making this on the top of the stove: cook over medium low heat, stirring quite often, until the sauce thickens and darkens, about 90 minutes or so. Give it a run with your immersion blender, if you can.
If making this in the slow cooker: Combine all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for eight or nine hours, stirring every now and then – I usually set this part up to work overnight.
Set your slow cooker to high and continue to cook until the sauce thickens and turns this lovely dark red color. Again, a run with the immersion blender to chop up any really large pepper bits is nice, but not required.
Ladle the sauce into prepared canning jars, seal, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Transfer the jars to a rack to cool, then check that they have sealed by pressing a fingertip to the center of each lid. If it is already or stays down when pressed, your seal is good. If it pops back up (you can hear it), reprocess those jars for another 15 minutes or so and test again. I have rarely had this happen to me.
I ended up with 15, twelve ounce jars; enough to make the holidaze merry for many!