Seen in a sidewalk of Nashville.
Prepared meats should stand “on their own.” No A-1 or Heinz 57 or any other liquid enhancer and that also goes with BBQ. There is a somewhat famous chain of BBQ joints that offers 10 sauces for you to season their meats and truthfully, they need it because it is some of the blandest stuff I ate in my life since I moved to TN.
The same applies for steak: other than salt, pepper and a bit of garlic (I have European blood, we need garlic as matter of almost religious preference) while cooking, nothing else should touch the meat before journeying inside the mouth.
And yes, you can have a side “dip” as a choice, but not as requirement to make it edible. I am brutally fond of Venezuela’s Guasacaca, but again it is something when I feel like it and not a way to be able to pass that food down my throat.
PS: If you do the “creamy” version of the Guasacaca, you might be a Communist.
I’m pretty good at bbq. Not great, there’s places I need to improve.
The only sauce on my bbq is what I bake on in the last 10 minutes with high heat. My meat is rich, tender and full of flavor, but I also like the sweet/savory of a finishing glaze.
Call it a compromise with your philosophy.
For steak tho, we’re right on the same page!
Except for onions! Caramelized onions with steak is the epitome of civilization.
That is more of a side than a sauce IMHO
Hear! Hear!
Well said.
.
Now, I do like to add some dried onion and a small (a few grains really) of cumin to my steaks before they hit the grill, but less is more when it comes to good meat.
The name alone is entertaining if you speak Chilean Spanish…. A Guasa is a female from the sticks, so…yeah. Looks like a Chimichurri variant.
Agreed on the sauce aspect
I use alder mostly, or cherry. (Cherry orchard next door lets me raid the pruning pile when I want.)
We have some old (100 years or so,) apricot trees, and I occasionally trim them and use that as well.
I’ve always detested people using BBQ sauces as a method of ‘making BBQ.’
Pork loins get granulated garlic, oinion powder, salt and black pepper, then three or four hours in the hot smoker usually with alder at about 170 to maybe 200° depending on internal meat temperature.
I cheat a bit, it is a propane type, but it still comes out pretty good.
The BEST I’ve done was cooked over an alder fire, but that requires CONSTANT tending, and uses a lot of wood.
Salmon gets butter, garlic and cooked directly over an alder fire…
Sounds very tasty. When it comes to all things Barbeque, never rush a good thing, applies….it’s not done until the aroma compels you to engage.
I’m personally convinced that more than a few chain BBQ joints have the stacks of firewood outside the front door strictly as decoration. The place I work will occasionally order meals and I’m forced to eat that crap. My guess is the brisket gets maybe an hour of smoke (via propane and pellets/chips) and then wrapped and baked in an oven. There’s almost no red smoke band, no bark, the fat isn’t charred, etc. The secretaries who order the food simply rave about all the choices of BBQ sauce, but the meat sucks. When I bring my own brisket and microwave it, you can smell the smoke thru-out the entire office building. There’s a real difference.