Barbecue sauce
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Pork steaks cooking-1.jpg Barbecue sauce (also spelled barbeque sauce, or abbreviated BBQ sauce) is a liquid flavoring sauce or condiment ranging from watery to quite thick. As the name implies, it was created as an accompaniment to barbecued foods. While it can be applied to any food, it usually garnishes meat after cooking or during barbecuing, grilling, or baking. Traditionally it has been a favored sauce for ribs and chicken.<ref>Michelle Moran, The Gourmet Retailer (2005-03-01). Category Analysis: Condiments. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref> On rarer occasions, it is used for dipping items like fries, as well as a replacement for tomato sauce in barbeque-style pizzas. In some barbecue circles, it is frowned upon to add any condiment, including barbecue sauce, to barbecued food.<ref>DeWitt and Gerlach (2001). Barbeque Inferno: Cooking with Chile Peppers on the Grill, 24. ISBN 1-58008-154-1.</ref>
Barbecue sauces may combine sour, sweet, and spicy ingredients or focus on a particular flavor alone. It sometimes carries with it a smokey flavor. The ingredients vary, but some commonplace items are tomato paste, vinegar, spices, and sweeteners. These variations are often due to regional traditions and recipes.
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[edit] History
The precise origin of barbecue sauce is unclear. Some put back its history hundreds of years to the formation of the first American colonies in the 17th century<ref name=Garner>Bob Garner (1996). North Carolina Barbecue: Flavored by Time, 160. ISBN 0895871521.</ref>. References to the substance start occurring in both English and French literature over the next two hundred years. South Carolina mustard sauce, a type of barbecue sauce, can be traced to German settlers in the 18th century.<ref name="ref2">Lake E. High, Jr.. A Very Brief History of the Four Types of Barbeque Found In the USA (HTML). Associated Content. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.</ref>
Early cookbooks did not tend to include recipes for barbecue sauce, and the first commercially-produced barbecue sauce did not appear until 1948, when Heinz released a product in the United States.<ref>A Market Evaluation of Barbecue Sauces (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-10-11.</ref> Kraft Foods also started making cooking oils with bags of spices attached, supplying another market entrance of barbecue sauce.<ref>Bruce Bjorkman (1996). The Great Barbecue Companion: Mops, Sops, Sauces, and Rubs, 112. ISBN 0895948060.</ref>
Many restaurants have specialty barbecue sauces.
[edit] Variations
Different geographical regions have allegiances to their particular styles and variations for barbecue sauce. For example, vinegar and mustard-based barbecue sauces are popular in certain areas of the southern United States, while in Asian countries a ketchup and corn syrup-based sauce is common.<ref name="recipes">Essortment barbecue sauce recipes. Retrieved on 2006-10-11.</ref> Mexican salsa can also used as a base for barbecue sauces.
[edit] Australia
In Australia, barbecue sauce is simply a blend of tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce.
[edit] United States
The U.S. has a wide variety of differing barbecue sauce tastes:
- Kansas City – thick, red-brown, tomato, molasses<ref name="ref1">Different Regional Styles of Barbeque Sauce Converge in the Midwest (HTML 4.01). Associated Content (June 28, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-10.</ref>
- North Carolina – liquidy vinegar, pepper flakes
- South Carolina – mustard, vinegar, black pepper, light or thick tomato<ref name="ref8">Barbeque joints can be found across state (HTML). Gwinett Daily Post (November 11,2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-16.</ref>
- Alabama – traditionally mustard and vinegar based and seasoned with roasted or smoked chile peppers, although a white, mayonnaise based sauce is equally popular in the Northwest regions of the state
- Georgia – a tremendous variety exists within the state, but "traditional" Georgia barbecue sauce features a ketchup base flavored with garlic, onion, black pepper, brown sugar, and occasionally bourbon
- Arkansas – thin vinegar and tomato base, spiced with pepper and slightly sweetened by molasses
- Texas – tomato based with hot chiles, cumin, less sweet
- St. Louis – generally tomato-based, thinned with vinegar, sweet and spicy. It is not as sweet and thick as Kansas City-style barbecue sauce, nor as spicy-hot and thin as Texas-style.
- Wisconsin – smoky taste, spicy, and not sweet.
[edit] Asia
Hoisin sauce, a type of Chinese style barbecue sauce, serves as a base ingredient in many other recipes for Chinese barbecue sauces.
