Author: Norm King

There are millions of recipes out there for BBQ sauce, with fancy names and long lists of ingredients. Everybody takes pride in their own particular recipe, which baffles me when they insist that I share mine with them. I don’t keep a recipe for BBQ sauce around, and I have probably never made it the same way twice anyway. It may depend on what I have on hand, I may shop ingredients for it, or I may be too tired to really care one way or the other. Chefs are tired a lot of the time. Regardless of the circumstance, it’s going to go something like this: Ingredients: Ketchup, 1 cup/225 ml. Worcestershire sauce, 1/3 cup/80 ml or thereabouts. Sugar, 1 Tablespoon or thereabouts. Vinegar, white but any kind will do, 1/3 cup/80 ml or thereabouts. Garlic powder, 1 Tablespoon or thereabouts. Optional ingredients: Tabasco or Durkees or Frank’s or Buffalo wing sauce or one of those. Onion powder. Liquid smoke, less is more. Pineapple juice to replace sugar. Tomato paste instead of ketchup, but then you really have to increase the amounts of the other stuff to make it real. You’re going to need some water too. Tamarind paste instead of Worcestershire. Anchovies, that’s right, anchovies. Soy sauce, not a big...

This sauce/dressing shares some similarities with what we used to call “French Dressing,” but it is not really French. These days you see it on the shelves referred to usually as “Catalina Dressing,” but it is probably not from Catalina either, wherever that is. This sauce is unique in that it is technically an emulsion, but is intended to eventually “break” somewhat. This releases a tomato colored oil that floats on the top, which has its own purpose(s). Tools needed: Stick blender or generic blender. Squirt bottles. Ingredients: Ketchup, 1 cup/225 ml. White vinegar, 0.5 cups/110 ml. White sugar, 0.5 cups/110 ml. Water, 0.5 cups/110 ml. Garlic powder, 1 Tablespoon. Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tablespoon. Salt, a pinch. Vegetable oil, 2 cups. Procedure: In a blender, or with a stick blender, combine ketchup, vinegar, sugar, water, garlic powder, Worcstershire and salt. With motor running, drizzle in the oil slowly. Store in a squirt bottle....