Many people ask the question “Which is better? Store bought or home made barbeque sauce?” It really comes down to what your personal preference is but if the run of the mill taste of the bbq sauce found on grocery store shelves just doesn’t cut it then creating your own secret sauce can be part of the grilling fun.
Let’s face it, using the right or wrong kind of barbecue sauce can make or break your barbecue. The flavor of your meat, poultry or pork will live or die by the sauce that you choose. Barbecue sauce provides that extra kick that barbecue is known for and with the right kind of sauce any dish you prepare will taste that much better.
Let’s look at store bought barbecue sauce for a moment. We’ve all seen the bottles lining the shelves. They come in different flavors and colors, in small bottles and large bottles, but are they really the best choice for the ultimate in barbecue tastiness? It seems that most people are satisfied by what they offer, otherwise they wouldn’t buy them. But for most people it’s probably just a matter of convenience. What most consumers don’t realize is that barbecue sauce bought at the local grocery store is nothing more then a watered down version of the homemade sauces that make barbecue so popular in the first place.
Foods that sit on grocery store shelves have been manufactured with a long shelf life in mind. The ingredients used are chosen because they will not go bad quickly and in many cases are less then healthy. The barbecue sauce found on store shelves uses high fructose corn syrup as a sugar substitute because it is a whole lot cheaper to use than natural sugar.
While sugar is not necessarily healthy high fructose corn syrup is even less so. It is a sugar substitute that is a low grade quality food. The human body is actually unable to metabolize and break it down so when it gets to your liver it is almost always instantly turned into fat.
There is an easy way around this problem, make your own barbecue sauce. Nobody is saying that barbecue sauce is the healthiest of food products, but by making your own recipes you can cut out some of the processed foods such as high fructose corn syrup. The way real barbecue sauce is made is with natural cane sugar or brown sugar. There are also hundreds of spices and herbs readily available as well as other ingredients that if combined right can make a tasty sauce that will have friends and family asking you for your secret recipe.
You start with a basic sauce and add to it from there. A base sauce consists of melted butter, sugar and small portions of chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Once you have a basic foundation sauce made you can add some tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, maybe some onion powder. Mixing these basic ingredients in different amounts and combinations will give you a multitude of flavors to start with. After that you can start adding any number of other spices, herbs or flavorings such as lemon juice, hickory or mesquite flavoring to make a truly personalized barbecue sauce. With a little patience you can create a sauce that can compete with the best of them.
Store bought barbecue sauce will work in a pinch but for truly remarkable barbecue taste creating your own home made barbecue sauce is the best way to go.
Andrew Bicknell is a barbeque aficionado with a website about barbequing. For more tips for a successful barbeque visit his web site Backyard Barbeque.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/barbecue-sauce-store-bought-or-home-made-928281.html
Filed under Source by on Oct 26th, 2009. Comment. 
Long before the advent of charcoal briquettes and propane people were cooking their meals over wood fueled fires.
From the days of cave-men to less than one hundred years ago wood was the fuel of choice when it came to cooking. In this modern age we are constantly looking for a faster, cleaner and easier way to do everything, including preparing our meals. This has led to the development of bigger accessory laden gas fueled grills lining the isles of home improvement stores and showing up in our backyards.
But for the barbeque purists out there nothing tastes quite the same as preparing their favorite barbeque dish over a wood fired grill.
Why is this? What could possibly work better then the latest and greatest in barbecue technology?
Depending on the type of wood used the “Grill-Master” (that guy who hovers over the grill creating barbecue master pieces) can create flavors in the meat, poultry or fish that just cannot be had over a more modern gas fueled grill. This flavor can further be adjusted just by the amount of wood used, how hot the fire is, and how much smoke the meat is allowed to marinate in.
There are several types of wood fired barbeques on the market today. They are sometimes referred to as smoker grills. The offset firebox is the one most of us are used to seeing. These come in all sizes, from small family sized units to large trailer born monsters capable of feeding several hundred people.
The distinguishing characteristic of the offset firebox is, well the offset firebox. Set off to the side and slightly below the main cooking chamber is the firebox. This separates the food from direct heat and allows for a nice slow cooking temperature.
The bullet style smoker is not actually a smoker but more of what is called a cold smoker or water smoker. They use a pan of water between the heat source and the meat, thereby blocking any direct heat that would cause any overcooking. In a sense they are not really considered a barbecue because of the way they work.
The main chamber cooker is the third type of wood fired barbeque. These are barrel shaped and allow the fire to be built off to one side with the meat offset from the wood allowing for an indirect cooking method. You do need to be careful with how large of a fire gets built because there is no physical separation between the heat source and the meat. The fire need to be kept small and tended in a timely manner throughout the cooking process.
Of course all this is a moot point if you do not select the right type of wood.
For a wood fired barbecue nothing works better than a fruit bearing hardwood such as oak, hickory, pecan, maple apple and of course from Texas mesquite.
Do not use softwoods or the wood from evergreens or conifers. Aside from burning at a lower temperature they are loaded with sap which will leave a bad taste on anything you cook.
Cooking meat over a wood fire has been something humans have been doing for thousands of years. With the newer and more modern wood barbecue smokers on the market today it is possible for just about anyone to enjoy real wood fired barbecue.
Andrew Bicknell is a barbeque aficionado with a website about barbequing. For more tips and trick about wood fired barbecues visit his web site Backyard Barbeque.
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/cooking-with-a-wood-fired-barbecue-952127.html
Filed under Uncategorized by on Jun 3rd, 2009. Comment.
