It has been a long time since I’ve wanted to taste this one and I got the opportunity to receive 2 bottles for doing a review. It’s time to take a closer look at it !

First off, the visual identity is great – I love the typo, it’s simple but effective, looks very clean and very professional.

Let’s switch to the contents of the bottle. It’s an Eastern North Carolina sauce (made in South Carolina), thus a thin, watery, vinegar based sauce. If your idea of BBQ sauce is a thick and sweet sauce, this one is just the opposite.

When you open the bottle and take a sniff, it strikes the nose hard ! It’s pungent but if you like (apple cider) vinegar like me, it opens a lot of possibilities: you might wanna try replacing vinegar in your daily cooking with this sauce. That’s what I did by deglazing diced ham with the sauce or used it as a salad dressing. I’ve even added some Big Ed’s alongside the Worcestershire sauce (and soy sauce) in my Brunswick stew.

I also had a try on smoked ribs. I rubbed them with Uncle Joe’s Original Blend and after being smoked with hickory for 3 hours and wrapped in foil for 2 hours, I gave the ribs a little glaze with Big Ed’s and put them back in the smoker for 20 minutes. Finally, as advised by Matthew (the Sauce Boss at Pigtrail Brands) I poured some sauce on the ribs once served. 
I usually baste some KC style sauce in the last minutes of cooking and this was a refreshing change: the subtle and lightly sweet flavor of the sauce was a great combination with smoked pork and didn’t cover the taste of the meat.

I had a first try at smoked beef short ribs, though the short ribs were a bit overcooked and tough, the sauce poured on hot thin slices of short ribs was nice too, but suited pork better (I also tried it on cold slices of short ribs but didn’t really like it, it’s way better with warm meat !)

The sauce can also be used as marinade. My final test was thus to marinate chicken breasts before searing them in a pan. The chicken turned out pretty good, with a light tangy taste due to the apple cider vinegar and a bit of caramelization going on on the outside.

Notice the nice texture of the sauce

Final thoughs

As you’ve guessed, I really like this sauce. It’s not for everyone (for beer lovers I’d compare it to a good gueuze) but the cool thing is that it’s quite versatile, unlike sweet and sticky BBQ sauces. It’s great with pork (I’ve saved some to pour on the first pork butt I’ll be smoking soon) and chicken but suits beef less in my opinion.

You can read more about the sauce on BBQ Sauce Reviews, on the Pigtail Brands website or on their Facebook page.

Everyone which is into barbecue knows about the famous “smoke ring” that develops on the edge of smoked meat.

Being the son of a former chemistry teacher, I’ve always asked myself how this pink ring is being formed… And I’ve just came across the answer in Harold McGee’s “On Food And Cooking”, a kitchen classic.

Meat cooked over wood, charcoal, or gas flames – barbecued pork or beef, for example, or even poultry cooking in a gas oven – often develop “pink ring”, which reaches from the surface to a depth of 8-10 mm. This is caused by nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) gas, which is generated in trace amounts (parts per million) by the burning of these organic fuels. It appears that NO₂ dissolves at the meat surface to form nitrous acid (HNO₂), which diffuses into the muscle tissue and is converted to nitric oxide (NO). NO in turn reacts with myoglobin (responsible for making meat red) to form a stable pink molecule, like the molecule found in nitrite-cured meats.

One day, I was sipping a Sprite and I though '”mmmh, that would make a good marinade !”. I realized I wasn’t the only one who thought about that when I googled on “sprite marinated chicken” and found a lot of recipes.

Ingredients

For 300 g of chicken breasts
Adapted from Diva’s Dinners

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) soy sauce
• 1 cup (250 ml) Sprite
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon (or more) wasabi sauce (or wasibi/mustard/horseradish, as you like)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (or ziplock bag), make sure all faces of the chicken breasts are exposed to the marinade and marinade from 1 to 3 hours then grill or sear the chicken (I cooked it inside as the weather was quite rotten)

It caramelizes while cooking and tastes a bit like teriyaki chicken but with a lighter and fresher tone. As a side dish, you can cook some coconut/lime sweet potatoes

Ingredients

For 2 persons
Adapted from Weber's Way To Grill by Jamie Purviance

• 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• 200 ml coconut milk
• The juice of 2 limes
• 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• A pinch of salt

Procedures

• Jump-start the sweet potatoes by cooking them in the microwave for 8 minutes (flip them after the first 4 minutes)
• Mix the coconut milk, lime juice, cayenne pepper, brown sugar and salt in a pan and let everything simmer at low heat
• Peel and dice the sweet potatoes
• Put the potatoes in the coconut/lime sauce

Don’t dice the sweet potatoes in too small chunks, or their taste will be hidden by the coconut milk. My wife didn’t really like this recipe because she likes the taste of plain sweet potatoes but I enjoyed it (be careful though, it could become a bit queasy if you eat too much of it)

Ok, this has nothing to do with BBQ sauce – but the recipe itself could be done with your backyard grill.
It comes from Cooking for Geeks and it’s so good that I wanted to share it.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash (about 660g)
• olive oil
• 2 cups chicken stock – to make it quick, I mix 1 stock cube to 2 cups of water

Procedures:

1. Peel and dice the squash
2. Coat it with olive oil and roast it in your oven (around 400°F/200°C) – or grill it, until it begins to brown.
3. Mix the chicken stock and roasted squash and purée with an immersion blender.

If the soup tastes too umami or salty, you can add some honey. Try it with cilantro, cream or “backerbsen” (fried soup dumplings.. yummy !)

I love reading about barbecue, but sometimes I would like to read something else than recipes and reviews. Being an history addict and enjoying reading history books, this book instantly attracted my attention because there are few books that tale the history of barbecue… and barbecue sauce.

The story begins in the early 18th century, when English colonists started cooking meat above a wood fire, inspired by the Native Americans. Barbecue started spreading from Virginia to the Carolina’s, mostly happening at political meetings and stump speeches. A pit filled with hot coals was dung in the ground and the meat was held above the fire on wood sticks or metal rods. 
The spreading of barbecue through the United States is strongly bound to the Civil War, the Gold Rush and the abolition of slavery.
The book depicts the first pitmasters and how regionalization of barbecue appeared, when the first BBQ joints opened at the beginning of the 20th century. Around WW2, drive-ins and barbecue joints emerged along Interstate highways and barbecue quickly found his way in the backyard. Then it was slowly distanced by hamburger franchises like McDonald’s until the mid-70s. The rebirth of barbecue is mainly due to the first published guidebooks and the first BBQ competitions.

Of course, the history and evolution of barbecue sauce is also part of the book:
From the 17th to the 19th century, barbecue sauce was mainly made of butter, vinegar, pepper and salt and used to mop the meat while cooking to keep it moist.
The first barbecue cook books published in the 20s progressively feature sweeter and even sweeter barbecue sauces. Regional sauces also appear around that period, together with the regionalization of barbecue.
Barbecue sauce became a mass-market product when Heinz (in the 40s) and Kraft (in the 60s) started commercializing thick and sweet barbecue sauce. As fuel used for backyard barbecue evolved from wood, to charcoal and finally gas and electric cookers, smoke flavor was added to barbecue sauce.
Nowadays, due to the explosion of varieties, the regional distinctions in barbecue sauce are beginning to fade.

The book also tales the story of famous BBQ restaurants like Arthur Bryant’s, Stamey’s,… and the story of Weber-Stephen, Kingsford lump charcoal and KC Masterpiece as well.

If you wanna know more about the history of barbecue and the history of the United States, you should really read this book !

Buy it on Amazon