Steven Raichlen (Barbecue Bible) on Rubs, Mops and Barbecue Sauces

Rubs and Mops

Rubs are mixes of spices (freshly ground, when possible), herbs, and seasonings that are massaged onto meats before the actual cooking--thus the term rub. A mop is a flavorful liquid, often vinegar-based, that you brush or swab onto the meat while it cooks. The traditional way to apply it was to swab it on with a clean floor mop--and so the term mop. Like mops, flavored butters can be used for basting and slathering (they're particularly good on grilled bread), and I've never met a grilled steak that wasn't improved by a golden dollop of flavored butter melting on top.

How to Use Rubs

Rubs are the basic seasonings of barbecue--simple mixes of salt, sugar, and spices or herbs that add complex layers of flavor to your food. There are two basic ways to use a rub. You can sprinkle it on food just before grilling, in which case the rub acts as a seasoning. Or you can apply it several hours or even a day in advance, in which case the rub both seasons and cures the meat. The second way gives you the deep layers of flavor that are characteristic of true barbecue. By the way, the proper way to apply a rub is to sprinkle it over the food, then gently rub it in with your fingertips.

Basic Barbecue Rub Recipe

OK, this is where it all began--the American barbecue rub. Use it on ribs, pork shoulders, chickens--anything you want to taste like American barbecue. Link to Steven Raichlen's Basic Barbecue Rub Recipe.

Sauces

For many people, the sauce is the soul of the barbecue. Barbecue sauces can be used for mopping or basting but are most commonly served over on the side of the finished dish. They vary from dish to dish and region to region, and there are probably as many different types of barbecue sauces as there are individual grill jockeys. As for condiments, they include the salsas, chutneys, and relishes used by pit masters from Albuquerque to Bombay to give food hot off the grill a final bit of jazz.

How to Use Sauces

Sauce is barbecue's lifeblood. This statement might be disputed by ornery Texans (who would argue that the essence of true barbecue is long, slow cooking and wood smoke). For the rest of the world it simply isn't barbecue without the sauce. But what sauce? Sauces vary from region to region, stirring strong emotions when local traditions are violated. In the United States alone there are more than 700 commercial barbecue sauces, and I've sampled hundreds more abroad. So, picking a sauce to include here was a bit like picking the 10 best rock songs of the century. Entertaining, but all but impossible.

The barbecue sauce here can be used during grilling--for slathering on meats or chicken--as well as for serving with the finished barbecue. Sugar-based sauces, sometimes called glazes, should be applied toward the end of the grilling to keep the sugar from burning.

Basic Barbecue Sauce Recipe (Kansas City-style)

This is the type of sauce that most people in the United States think of as barbecue sauce: Brown sugar and molasses make it sweet; liquid smoke makes it smoky--there isn't a Kansas City pit boss around who wouldn't recognize it as local. Slather it on ribs and chicken, spoon it over pork shoulder, and serve it with anything else you may fancy. You won't be disappointed.

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon of your favorite barbecue rub
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan and bring slowly to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and gently simmer the sauce until dark, thick, and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the sauce to clean (or even sterile) jars and store in the refrigerator. It will keep for several months.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups