A Few Reviews Are In!

So waiting on the final review from Chief Tester Adam on the Memphis but the Carolina has been fully tested and the consensus is...Too mustardy.  So I already have some plans on fixing that.  The Memphis got better reviews from the Parker family...The text message was "dude the Memphis is legit!".  I was pleased to hear that.  They slathered their pork ribs with the sauce and everyone loved the sweet to heat ratio.  Nick said that the sauce was sweet but not to sweet and the spices were not over bearing.  He referred to other sauces as being bland and said the Memphis was not.  I will be making another batch of both, fixing the Carolina of course, and trying it on Brisket and Pork Butt.  I will also be testing a brisket injection.  I'm also thinking of inventing a pork rub for the pork butt and using my standard rub on the brisket.  Photos to follow.

Rave Reviews!!!!

Well my intiatial reviews on the Smoky 'N' Spicy Memphis and my Carolina Mustard got glowing reviews for sauce on its own.  The boys are going to take them home and slop them on some meats and put them to the true test.  Let me introduce my Chief Testers...Adam and Nick.  Let me tell ya these guys know spice and BBQ.  I appreciate them greatly.  Hopefully in the next few days I can fix that sweet KC base...Something is off with it and I really want to have three finished sauces done in one week, I do have a brand to invent you know.

                                                  Left: Nick Parker  Right: Adam Peevler

THE MEMPHIS BASE NEEDS CHARACTER

With my pride still beaming over the finished Spicy 'N' Sweet Carolina Mustard I had to attempt Adams Memphis ideas. I wasn't going to change the base, I was going to finish another sauce. I was motivated and anyone who knows me knows that I get very driven. Well I spiced it up and figured, well invented a very interesting spice combination that really popped. This sauce is done and will whoop some ass on beef of pretty much any type. The picture came out dark but its true color is a dark burgundy and the peppers in it speckle the sauce like flakes of coal. My next attempt is to figure out that Kansas City base but I ran out of ingredients.

A FINISHED SAUCE ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT

A buddy of mine was explaining to me that his family loved spicy food, the hotter the better. Well Nick became my second chief tester. After Adam had given me the idea of spicing up the base and giving it some character. I was surely going to work on the Memphis base. Then a idea popped into my head. I could make a Carolina Mustard base and spice it up for Nick's family. I got to work thinking this was going to be a base. My plan was to get 5 or 6 perfected bases then tweak them until I had 4 finished sauces for each base. I was then going to pick my favorite 2 and those would be the ones I tested against all types of meats. But this didn't happen. My mustard base ended up a finished sauce and I'm truly proud of it. It's definitely spicy like he wanted it. This bad boy is made almost exclusively for pork butt or pork shoulder. I would use it as a finishing sauce if the butt is being smoked whole but it would go great warmed up and topped on a pulled pork sandwich.

THE SWEET KANSAS CITY BASE

My second base is a fun one because you almost feel like you're making candy. This base is a tomato base as well, but instead of ketchup I use tomato paste and let the wet ingredients break it down. It's full of sugar, syrups, and aromatics. The base still is very vinagary so it can be very versatile for many meats. But this base is geared for chicken. I have a secret addition I want to include to this base so it hasn't been tested.

THE FIRST ATTEMPT THE MEMPHIS BASE

So a great BBQ sauce has to have a great base that can be manipulated and tweaked to change the flavor of profile. This manipulation could be used  for the type of meat or changing the flavor, such as sweetening or spicing the sauce up. The manipulation could also be used to change the texture or viscosity of the sauce depending on how your going to use it on the meat when cooking. My first sauce is a tomato base that resembles a Memphis sauce but is sweeter than Elvis probably would have preferred. A good friend of mine , Adam, and one of my chief testers loved it. He messed with it on his own and gave me some great feedback. The base on it's own doesn't work well with chicken. I had a feeling that would happen. The chicken is delicate and gets over powered by the tomato. On its own I would use it on brisket or ribs. It needs a meat that is bold enough to stand up to the acidity of the tomatoes because this base is made with ketchup. Adam threw some onions and jalapeños in it and put it on a burger. He said that it worked well.

A. New Beginning

Before i get into the smokey meat of my journey I want to give a little background on how my life changed dramatically.
About a month or so ago I had a mental breakdown.  For many years I had a very low mental quality of life.  I would self medicate with beer, 12 to 15 in a night.  I would get sloppy drunk and all my mental problems would come to a head.  To keep a long post short i had the worst breakdown ever.  I almost lost my family and woke up.  I went to see a psychiatrist and come to find out I'm Bipolar.  I was diagnosed and prescribed Lamictal and life saving Antibuse.  Because the meds brought clarity and focus to my life I started thinking clearly.  Things that should have been priorities before started to be obsessions of mine.  Family was #1 again, then work.  I still have problems when my day is not filled with activities.  I get bored and remember how fun it was to party.  I needed a hobby.  I've always loved to cook and have a very reputable pallet.  I've researched and experienced spices and regional differences in food.  I've also been a BBQ connesuer for over 20 years.  so I decided to meld the two passions into one.  I now had a hobby to fill my free time.
My objective for this blog is not to educate my readers on the how to's of BBQ sauce making, but share my journey and exploration from a region that is not well known for great BBQ...Colorado.