I’m going to show you how to make this wonderful smoked barbecue sauce. It can be used to in brekkie wraps, burgers, it’s great as an accompaniment to toasted sandwiches (or jaffles as they are called here in Australia), on pizza and of course it can be lashed on to pork sausages (or bangers in English parlance).
It can also be used in cooking; for example when making baked beans, or barbecuing and slow cooking meat. It is also brilliant as a marinade on ribs and chicken wings. You can say it’s pretty much an all-rounder, and the smokiness introduced from the cherry wood smoked tomatoes elevates it to cosmic standards.
And of course let’s not forget the bleeding obvious – this sauce is an intimate friend of the old bacon butty, the sarnie, the sandwich.
So breaking down this recipe, the taste (as opposed to flavour) profile is of sweetness, acidity, a little saltiness and bags of umami – that all round savoury feel. The sweetness comes from unrefined sugars; dark muscovado, light muscovado and molasses. I’m finding white refined sugar too sweet for my palate these days; and the advantage of the muscovado sugars is that they have a deep caramel flavour which is essential for a good barbecue sauce – the molasses in particular turns this in to what I would call a proper barbecue sauce.
Next there is some acidity or sourness; we are going to add varying layers of acidity using white wine vinegar, orange juice and green tart apple. The orange and apple also add a fruity depth of flavour to the sauce as well as some natural sweetness; enough to let you know they are there but not too much as to overpower the sauce.
And for the slight saltiness I use a little sea salt.
Now the really creative bit is adding the flavour to the taste and of course we have to start with those wood-smoked tomatoes. First you’re getting the umami hit (taste) and then the smokiness (flavour), a characteristic I reckon is synonymous with a good barbecue sauce. Hickory is a classic wood to use for smoking, but as we are using fruit in this sauce a fruit wood is also great – I used cherry wood but apple wood is also great.
The other flavourings I’ve used are garlic, allspice, cloves, black pepper, English mustard, and smoked paprika – these give the sauce it’s distinct personality and the great things is, you can play around with these and others to create your own.
I think that’s enough talking for now so let’s get to it and start cooking. The video will show you how I made the sauce – down below is the written recipe and method. Bon appetit!
