I’m having a hard time starting this blog post.  I’ve been sitting here trying to come up with a cute way to kick off this review of “T&R Taste of Texas BBQ” on Broadway in Sacramento but I can’t.  The main reason is that there isn’t anything cute about this restaurant.  It’s restaurants like this that make me lose even more faith in the BBQ eaters of the world.  It’s quite obvious many of the people who have written reviews on the usual review sites that they are either family members or completely void of any or all taste buds.

I met my Twitter friend @hathman (Jeremy) last night for what we hoped would be a good, if not great BBQ dining experience.  There are not a lot of good BBQ restaurants in the Sacramento area and our desire to have some place good probably clouded our judgement.

Jeremy arrived a few minutes before I did so he already had his food and the look on his face should have been an indication of what I was going to get served.I ordered the three meat combo.  I got pulled pork, pork ribs and hot links for my meats.  The place is called “Taste of Texas” and I didn’t even get brisket as a meat choice.  The serve tri-tip, but were out when I was there.  My sides were tater tots, cole slaw and beans.  So how bad was the food.  The tater tots and the white bread served with it were the best things I got.  Oh wow, did I just say that?  Yeah, I did.  It was that bad.

The meats came drenched in some type of sauce that appeared and tasted like a store-bought bottled sauce with a little vinegar added.  There was nothing even slightly taste of Texas in the sauce.  As a matter of fact it didn’t fit any type of BBQ style that I’ve ever eaten.  Jeremy asked if there was another sauce and were given a sample of the “hot” sauce.  We figured a little heat would make it better, but we were wrong.  You can’t just take your normal sauce and toss in some cayenne pepper and expect to get something tasty.

The ribs were actually cooked quite well.  They weren’t over cooked and the meat came off the bone with just a little tug of the teeth.  Just like it was supposed to.  But, like the pulled pork (more on this abomination in a second), it lacked any flavor at all other than the strange BBQ sauce.  The meat had no smoke flavor and doesn’t appear to have been rubbed with any seasoning.  The no smoke flavor is a little baffling considering they smoke with mesquite and hickory.  How do you smoke with mesquite and not get any smoke flavor?  That’s a question that will perplex me for quite some time.

Now for the pulled pork.  How in the world do you smoke pulled pork and have it come out the color of boiled chicken breast?  It’s a marvel of cooking science.  That’s the only answer I can come up with.  The taste was…well…bad.  It didn’t taste like any pork I’ve ever eaten.  Three bites, that’s it, that’s all I could handle.  It was that bad.

The cole slaw was cabbage that someone had put some kind of dressing on but there wasn’t enough dressing on slaw to even dampen it.  The dressing had no flavor.  No salt, no vinegar, nothing.  It tasted just like cabbage.  The beans were not warmed over, gussied up canned beans, they appeared to be cooked fresh.  They were okay.

“T&R Taste of Texas” is located at 3621 Broadway in Sacramento.

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I have to admit my inner “Tool Man” wants me to have anything that runs on electricity, but so far I’ve avoided buying that one.  When it comes to pulling pork I’m pretty much a two forks and lots of arm action kind of guy.  I’ve always found my technique to be adequate.  So why try anything else.

I found a good reason to try something else recently when I got an email from the gang at Meatrake offering me a couple sets of Meatrakes.  One for me to try and and another to give away.  I replied and told them sure, go right ahead and send them out.  I mean trying something out for free beats the heck out of buying something and discovering it’s not the product you thought it was going to be.  I have to admit, though, I already knew I wasn’t going to like this “tool” at all and I felt a little guilty accepting their offer.

But, I was wrong…

The Meatrake actually did make pulling the pork a lot easier.  I ripped through two 8 pound butts in around five minutes.  This is pretty fast for me.  I thought it was a great tool and now I’m glad I got them.  I’ll probably use them every time I shred me some meat.

The handles are made from polypropylene and fit nicely into my hands.  I wish the handles were a little bigger around than they are, but it’s not really much of a problem.  The tines are make from professional grade stainless steel and tear through meat with ease.  I was even able to separate the pork fat from the pork using the Meatrakes with very little difficulty.

I suppose I could pad this review with lots of hyperbole and big words of praise. Instead I’m just going to tell you these things work and they work good.  In my opinion they are work $19.95 if you are pulling lots of meat.  You can purchase from Meatrake.com.

Now for the giveaway details.  The rules are quite simple.  Leave a comment on this post with why you want a set of Meatrakes.  Then tell all your friends about it.  Have them come here and leave a reply to your comment.  The person who gets the most replies to their comment wins.  Drawing will be held at Noon (Pacific time) on January 2nd.  Winner will notified via email, so make sure you leave your email.  In the case of a tie, I’m just going to pick someone…

Simple enough?  Ready…set…comment!

(And if you don’t mind would you please retweet for me)

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Then there’s the “hot sauce” aspect.  I love food with a little heat.  A “little heat” is a subjective term but I like foods with more heat than the average person.  But I don’t like products with heat, for heat’s sake.  It’s got to have flavor, and I don’t want something so hot it ruins my taste buds for the whole meal.  So, what in the world was I doing to agreeing to review a product called “Devil’s Tongue?”  Chances were I wasn’t going to like it.

I know a lot of hot sauce fans like the burn.  I don’t.  I like to work up a nice forehead sweat and even once in awhile a meal that requires a towel to wipe my whole head is a good thing.  But that’s about it.  When the “Devil’s Tongue” arrived I did what I always do with a new sauce.  I got a spoon out and tasted it.  Normally, this is with BBQ sauce.  Fortunately I had enough common sense to to not eat a whole spoonful.  This stuff is hot.  So hot (at least in my book) that I decided to not even bother trying it on the nice ribeye I had ready for the grill.

After my steak was grilled, rested and about ready for consumption I heard a little voice saying “you’ve got to try me on the steak.  Go ahead…you know you want to.”  Was I being tempted by the “Devil’s Tongue?”  I quickly finished getting my baked potato ready and was anticipating the joy of a perfectly grilled medium rare steak when I realized the temptation was going to work.  I was, in fact, going to give in and eat this stuff on my ribeye.

When you see a steak sauce commercial on television they usually just pour a river of sauce down the middle of the steak and dig in.  That doesn’t happen at the Grail home…no way…no how.  And it certainly wasn’t going to happen with “Devil’s Tongue Steak Sauce.”  The first thing I did was enjoy several bites of steak without any sauce on them.  Regular readers of this blog know I am a huge advocate of just kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper on my steaks.  That’s it!  Nothing fancy, I want to taste the beef.  And just in case this steak sauce screwed up my steak I wanted a couple of good bites to remember it by.

After the first couple of bites I put a little dab of “Devil’s Tongue” steak sauce on my plate and with a fork full of beefy goodness I gently dipped the corner of the steak bite into the sauce.  Just a little, maybe a micro dot, of sauce found it’s way onto the steak.  I could have sworn I heard a voice coming from the bottle of sauce…”Wimp.”  But I’m sure it was just my imagination.  I tried it, I put the bite in my mouth.

It tasted good.  It had the right level of heat for my tastes and the flavor profile of the steak sauce complimented the beef flavor very well.  Now I know the heat level was because I had enough sense to start with just a little and the flavor could have easily overpowered the steak if I had used too much.  But what it comes down to is I actually liked this stuff.  Hot Sauce fans would probably use more, but for me a little dab will do ya.  Over the course of my meal I did slowly increase the amount of sauce on each bite of steak and I eventually reached a level of heat that was not good for me.  But the flavor was always good.

There is one way I do use steak sauce.  A couple times a summer, when I grill tri-tips I baste them with a 50/50 mixture of A-1 Bold and melted butter.  The flavor is awesome with a good Santa Maria seasoning.  I’m thinking a couple tablespoons (0r teaspoons) of “Devil’s Tongue Steak Sauce”  mixed with the butter would make a great basting sauce.  I’m going to have to give it a try.

For those that really like heat and flavor this steak sauce is going to be good for you.  If you’re a little on the wimpy side go slow…use caution.  “Devil’s Tongue Steak Sauce” can be purchased from it’s maker at Ed’s RoadHousE Jerky.

Disclosure:  Ed’s RoadHousE gave me the steak sauce for free.  The fact that I got the sauce for free, had no bearing on whether or not I liked it.  And it certainly didn’t influence my review.

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Well, “like” is just a little to mild of a term.  This seasoning tastes, simply amazing.  One of the highlights of my year is when the hatch chiles arrive at the local grocery store.  Hatch green chiles are famous for their great flavor and a gentle heat that doesn’t overpower the other ingredients in your dish or your taste buds.  This rub captures the flavor profile of the hatch chile perfectly and then compliments it with a little garlic, black pepper and a few other spices.

Honestly, calling this a “rub” limits the uses of this product.  At my house it’s going to become “Green Chile Seasonal-All.”  I used the seasoning the first time on some grilled chicken.  If I’m being honest I didn’t want to risk the pork ribs or pork loin I had on an untested rub.  The grilled chicken came out about as perfect as you can get.

When I grill chicken, or any other meat, I’m always careful to use a seasoning that isn’t going to overpower the meat or the char flavor from the charcoal grilling.  The AlbuKirky Seasonings “Green Chile Rub” accomplishes that goal.  It has just the right amount of heat without burning your tongue.

The next time the seasoning got put to the test was with roast beef.  I didn’t use it on the meat.  Because the garlic is pretty pronounced in the seasoning I got the bright idea to make “garlic” mashed potatoes.  It was using this way the made me realize it could be used for a lot more than just a rub.

I’ve got some plans to try it out as a seasoning in a brine for the pork loin.  I’m thinking this just might turn out fantastic.

You can purchase “Green Chile Rub” from AlbuKirky Seasonings’ Website.

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Gloria took an interesting approach to writing this book.  It really is just what the title states…it’s a guide…nothing more, nothing less.

Each entry consists of two pages.  One page with the restaurant logo, hours of operation, address and phone number along with the website.  The second page is a short concise “review” of Gloria’s visit(s) to the restaurant.

You’ve got to give the author some credit.  She ate a lot of BBQ compiling this list.  Her “reviews” are not overly critical nor are they overly favorable.  Just some simple words to describe the food and her dining experience.

I like the approach used in this book.  I found it interesting to read about all the different BBQ restaurants and their individual approaches to cooking and serving BBQ.  I’ve already made notes in the margins and marked the places I’m going to want to eat at during my “bucket list” BBQ adventure in Central Texas.   When I eventually make that trip I will be depending on Gloria’s book for some guidance.

“In 2008, Gloria moved to Austin, Texas, and fell in love with the long-smoked meats that Texas barbecue practitioners produce for the many barbecue aficionados. As she got to know them, she was awed by these craftsmen and for their respect for tradition. Eat your way through the Central Texas Barbecue Belt!”

The book, other than the cover, is all in black & white but it did not really bother me.  It’s probably because BBQ is so unpretentious that it doesn’t seem to matter.

As much as I like this book I would have enjoyed a little more “personality” about  the restaurant owners and/or pitmasters.  A quote or two about the pitmasters food philosophy or techniques would have been great.  And I certainly wouldn’t have complained if a couple of recipes had been included.

Overall, though the book is a fun read and if you plan to spend some time touring the BBQ world of Central Texas I’d make sure I had a copy in the car.

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The Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook is a proudly Texan collection of more than 100 recipes from chef Louis Lambert’s popular restaurants. The signature cooking style is unapologetically refined but not fussy, impeccable but with a hearty, rustic flair—what he calls “elevated ranch cuisine.” Each dish showcases Lou’s classical French training and sure-handed facility for combining crowd-pleasing, soul-satisfying flavors.

If you’re serving up a down-home feast fit for a cattle rancher’s table, you’ll want to try the Achiote-Seared Chickpeas, Spicy Oak-Smoked Chorizo, Wood-Roasted Chicken with Mexican Chocolate Chile Rub, Hot Smoked Pecan-Cured Salmon, Crispy Wild Boar Ribs with Fresh Plum Barbecue Sauce, and Fried Green Tomatoes with Crab Rémoulade.

The Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook is a lot like the great state of Texas itself—if you don’t already call it home, you’ll want to return again and again.  — Cookbook Description from Ten Speed Press

It’s not often I come across a cookbook that I enjoy as much as I do this cookbook.  Louis Lambert and June Naylor has come up a collection of “Recipes from Lambert’s Texas Kitchens” that may actually replace Adam Perry Lang’s “Serious Barbecue” as my favorite cookbook.  And if it’s going to do that, it must be a good cookbook because I love “Serious Barbecue.”

The first thing that stood out was the photography.  It’s not often the photography in a cookbook is so amazing that I have the urge to to Google the photographer’s name to find out more about them.  Ralph Lauer is a Texas based photographer that has put together a collection of photographs of Louis Lambert’s recipes that not only makes this an enjoyable cookbook but a nice “coffee table” book.  I’ve found myself just sitting down and looking at the pictures over and over.  They’re that good.

The cookbook contains 125 of the most amazing recipes.  This is a cookbook I’d love to be able to cook from cover to cover.  A combination of indoor and outdoor cooking techniques makes this a resource any home cook would find valuable.  I’ve found at least 10 recipes that will find their way onto a plate at my house sometime in the near future.  Theirs also a great collection of stock and sauce recipes in the back of the book.

You’ll also find little tidbits of information about ingredients in each section.  These valuable snippets of knowledge will help you be a better cook.  Not only is important to know how to cook an ingredient it’s important to know how and why the ingredient does what it does.  Louis Lambert and June Naylor have also provided various “Guides” in each chapter.  The guides will help you better understand the nuances of each of the main ingredients.  And the “Techniques” sections will explain in precise, yet easy to understand language the “how-tos” that go along with each main ingredient.  Example:  The techniques section for beef has great explanations on Braising, Brining, Roasting, Barbecuing.

The first recipe I’m going to try from “Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook” are the Valley Grilled Porterhouse Pork Chops.  The first time through this cookbook this picture and recipe just jumped out at me and screamed COOK ME! 

Photo By Ralph Lauer

Valley Grilled Porterhouse Pork Chops

Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 6 (12-ounce) porterhouse pork chops
• Citrus Brine
• ¹/₂ cup Brown Sugar Dry Rub
• Fruited Herb Grain ?Mustard, ?for serving

Directions:

Place the pork chops in a plastic container or large sealable plastic bag and pour the brine over the chops. Cover or seal the container, place it in the refrigerator, and allow the pork chops to brine for 8 to 12 hours.

Start a medium-hot fire in your grill and season the grill grates with a little oil. Remove the chops from the brine, scrape off any of the spices, and pat dry. Lightly coat each side with the dry rub.

Grill the pork chops until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the middle reaches 165°F, 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Because the chops have a brown sugar rub, watch that your fire does not flare up and that the coals are not too close to the grill grates to help keep the chops from charring.

Transfer the cooked pork chops to a plate and allow them to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Citrus Brine

(Makes 4 Cups)

 Ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• ¹/₂ cup kosher salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon coriander, toasted
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted
• 1 teaspoon black ?peppercorns
• ¹/₄ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ¹/₂ cup coarsely chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 orange, quartered
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme

Directions:

Bring 1 cup of the water to a simmer and add the salt, bay leaf, coriander, fennel seeds, peppercorns, brown sugar, onion, and garlic. Whisk and simmer until the salt has dissolved, about ?1 minute. Add the spice mixture to the remaining 3 cups water. Juice the orange into the brine mixture and add the orange quarters and thyme. Refrigerate until cool.

Brown Sugar Dry Rub

(Makes ¹/₂ cup)

Ingredients:

• ¹/₄ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, toasted and ground

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Store in an airtight container.

Fruited Herb Grain Mustard

(Makes 2 Cups)

Ingredients:

• ³/₄ cup whole grain mustard
• ¹/₂ cup Dijon mustard
• ³/₄ cup fruit chutney
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• ¹/₄ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¹/₂ teaspoon finely ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

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There is a school of thought that soaking meat in a marinade doesn’t do all that much.  I pretty much subscribe to that thought process.  A lot of times when you buy a bottle of marinade it suggests a 30 minute marinade time.  That’s the case with the KC Masterpiece Buffalo marinade.  I went with a 2 hour soak time and don’t think it imparted a great deal of flavor in the meat.  Certainly not as much as you’d like in a “buffalo chicken” dish.  But, there was away around this little problem.  I not only did the marinate thing I used it as a glaze too.

I wasn’t in the mood for chicken wings so I decided a “chicken wing” inspired sandwich would be the way to go.  Check out the great dish I came up with.

When it comes to grilling chicken I am a big fan of thighs.  Okay, it doesn’t matter if it’s grilled, fried or roasted, my favorite piece of chicken is the thigh.  But I digress…

I took a couple of chicken thighs, removed the skin and trimmed as much fat off of them as I could.  The trimmed thighs were put in a bowl and covered with the KC Masterpiece Buffalo marinade.

The flavor of this “buffalo” sauce is very, very tasty.  Just the right amount of heat.  As you can see from the label KC Masterpiece thinks it’s HOT.  And right out of the bottle it does have a little kick.  This kick doesn’t transfer to the meat all that much after the cooking process.  But the marinade does have that stereotypical buffalo flavor.  And that’s good a thing.  There’s nothing worse than ordering anything “buffalo” and having it not taste of that wonderful red pepper/cayenne flavor.

 I grilled the chicken on the Weber kettle over medium high heat until it was done.  After removing the chicken from the grill I noticed the flavor just didn’t have the kick I would have expected.  It had a very nice grilled, buffalo chicken flavor but lacked the heat I wanted.  So I mixed a half cup of fresh marinade (don’t use the stuff you used on the chicken) and mixed it with a couple of tablespoons of honey.  I put the chicken back on the grilled and glazed it with the honey buffalo sauce.  Bingo…heat and sweet all in once.

When I think of buffalo chicken wings I also think of Bleu Cheese dressing.  A buffalo chicken sandwich wouldn’t be complete without something bleu cheese on it.  I decided a bleu cheese sauce would be proper.  So I quickly came up with something.  And truth be told I think the bleu cheese sauce came out amazing. 

Grail’s Quick & Easy Bleu Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mayo
• 1 tablespoon Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend
• Bleu Cheese crumbles
• Milk

Directions:

Mix mayo, buttermilk blend, bleu cheese and two tablespoons of milk until blended.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Just before use thin with more milk until you have a sauce that’s easy to spread.

Get yourself some slaw and place it on your bread.  A layer of nice chopped up buffalo chicken thighs and top with some of the bleu cheese sauce.

This sandwich was fantastic!  I loved the flavor of the buffalo marinade along with the tang of the bleu cheese sauce.  It was so, so good.  You’ve just got to give this a try.

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If you’ve read this blog for very long you know that good reviews of BBQ restaurants are few and far between.  As an official “BBQ Snob” I just don’t come across restaurants that warrant praise very often.  This weekend I’m in Des Moines, Iowa for the 14th Annual Niman Ranch Hog Farmer Appreciation Dinner and tonight I had the good fortune to eat at a wonderful BBQ restaurant.  Smokey D’s…

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ restaurant should have.  You can smell the wonderful sweet aroma of good BBQ from a block away and you can smell the wood smoke in the parking lot AND the restaurant smells like BBQ.  Everyone that knows good BBQ knows you can tell you’re going to have at least a decent dining experience before you’ve left the parking lot.

Smokey D’s has everything a good BBQ establishment should have.  Great food, a good vibe and fantastic  customer service.  It’s Thursday night and the restaurant was very, very busy.  Darren Warth, one of the owners, said it was a little slow.  This is a good sign…a packed restaurant and it’s a slow night.

I ordered the two meat dinner combo with brisket, chopped pork, mac & cheese and beans.  By the time I filled my drink cup and sat down our food was making its way to the table.  Super fast service is not always a plus in my book.  This often times means the food is sitting under heat lamps or drowning in sauce in warming pans.  It was obvious when the food arrived this was not the case.  Sauce on the side and everything freshly cut and plated.  BBQ perfection so far…

 The Food…

First and most importantly the meat was served with sauce on the side.  This is always a good sign.  When a restaurant serves it’s meats without sauce I’m always happier.  In my mind this means they aren’t trying to hide something.

The chopped pork was flavorful with little pieces of bark mixed in.  It wasn’t soggy or over cooked.  It was very good.  The brisket was good.  Nice beautiful smoke ring with just a hint of smoke (more on that later).  I prefer my brisket a little “juicier” than it’s served at Smokey D’s.  I don’t mean the brisket was dry, it wasn’t, I just like to get some of the fat cap on my brisket.  Smokey D’s serves it with almost all the fat trimmed off.  It’s not bad this way, in fact, most people probably prefer it without the fat, I just like the fat.

You can tell a lot about a BBQ restaurant by the sides they serve.  I ordered the beans and mac & cheese.  Both were excellent.  The beans weren’t cooked to mush and had great flavor.  The mac & cheese was awesome.  I loved it.  There was a little spice to it.  Not really a “heat” spice, but it did tickle the tongue on the way down.  Darren shared with me the pepper that’s in it and I can’t wait to give it a try at home.  (Since I didn’t ask if it was a “secret” I won’t share it just in case it is)

Now for some BBQ Restaurant Review hyperbole!

The cornbread is like crack.  I could sit down at Smokey D’s and eat just this stuff.  It is without a doubt the best cornbread I have ever eaten.  It’s just cornbread.  No peppers, no pieces of corn…just cornbread.   The cornbread does have a little sweet crunch on the top, but that’s just sugar sprinkled on the batter before baking.  Darren said they have their own pastry chef in-house.  Whoever this person is  should win the Nobel Cornbread Award!

And I ate a whole peach pie!  Well not really.  They don’t have peach pie at Smokey D’s, but they do have these amazing Peach Sliders.  And they tasted great too.

The restaurant is full of BBQ Championship trophys.  The gang at Smokey D’s don’t just run a first class BBQ restaurant they are amazing competition BBQ cooks.  And winning the Grand Prize on the 2nd Season of BBQ Pitmasters is proof enough these folks know their BBQ.

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Barbeque Insurance.  Now that’s just downright cleaver.  There’s no guarantees in BBQ life but it’s always good to have a little insurance.  And the two products from Easy Peasy Foods can give you a bit of insurance.  It’s not going to keep you from burning your food but it should give you a little peace of mind on the flavor side of things.

I’m going to admit right from the start that I’m not one of those haters of corn syrup.  In my book corn syrup is an important ingredient in a good commercial BBQ sauce.  Don’t know what it is, but I like it.  I try to limit the amount of corn syrup in other things I eat, but when it comes to BBQ sauce I just don’t mind it at all.  So when I received my free sample of BBQ sauce from Easy Peasy and noticed that it contains no corn syrup my expectations dropped.

Barbeque Insurance BBQ Sauce is a good sauce.  I liked it.  The flavor is a little different than normal.  Not to sweet and the flavors are somewhat neutral and complimented a couple different rubs I tried.  And it definitely matched up perfectly with their BBQ Insurance Chicken Marinade.

In addition to it’s slightly sweet taste it has just the right amount of finishing heat that I like.  My preference is a sauce that’s a little sweet on the front of the tongue with just a hint of heat on the back of the throat on the way down.  It’s almost perfect in that aspect.  And the fact they accomplished it with no corn syrup is pretty remarkable in my book.

You can see from the picture on the right that the sauce has a rich, thick consistency.  It adhered to the smoked chicken and gave it not only a good flavor but a very nice color.

Barbeque Insurance BBQ Sauce is a nice sauce.  It’s not perfect, but then again not very many sauces are.  It’s not available in stores outside of a few locations in Michigan so if you’re up to mail order you can order it here.

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Shirley J is a Utah based food company that develops and sells quality “no fail, just add water” food products.  I’m not sure about any of the other food products but the BBQ sauce rocks.  I love this stuff and no one is more surprised than I am.  The first time around I followed the directions and mixed the powder 50/50 with water.  I can’t wait to do some experiments by mixing with other liquids.  Fruit juices, tomato based products and the possibilities with Asian flavors is endless.

“Shirley J BBQ Sauce is as simple as it is savory. Just add water, and use with meat or vegetables, as a rub or marinade and on burgers and fries. Sugar and spice and flavor to your liking, or serve the BBQ sauce as-is; Shirley J always promises a no-fuss process.

Shirley J BBQ Sauce can be mixed as an ingredient or dressed as a condiment. Try our flavor varieties below!”

The sauce comes in powdered form mixed 50/50 with water.  Not really sure what is in the powder but the combination of spices and flavorings is excellent and should match up with just about any seasoning, spices or rubs you might use on your BBQ.

When I first mixed the powder in thee water I was a little concerned with how thin it was, but as it heated on the stove it thickened right up into a perfect consistency.

It would be easy to thin this up add some honey or marmalade to give you a nice glaze for just about anything.  The sauce mix comes in 12 oz and 48 oz sizes and I think at least the small one is worth the investment for a try.

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