I am having my 3rd Annual Summer Soltice Party in a couple of weeks so I need to spend some time in the kitchen and work on some rubs and sauces. This page is basically a one man wiki for me to plan my menu.

Menu

• 6 racks of pork baby back ribs
• 2 types of BBQ Sauces
• Baked Beans
• Hot Dogs
• Keg of Widmer Hefeweizen
• BBQ Chicken

BBQ’s

1. Gas Grill
2. Brinkman Woodfire Smoker (using Alder)
3. Half Barrel homemade BBQ
4. Weber Grill

Sauces

Sauce 1 – A Classic BBQ Sauce

I hopped on over to about.com and found this sauce http://bbq.about.com/od/barbecuesaucerecipes/r/classic-bbq-rib-sauce.htm

They say it is a classic sauce which sounds like to good place to start experimenting.

Ingredients


2 cups ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup minced onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
fresh ground pepper to taste


Instructions

Blend onion and water into a puree. Heat a medium sauce pan over a medium heat. Add olive oil. When oil is warm, pour in onion puree. Simmer until slightly browned. Add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and simmer for about 20 minutes. Yield: Makes about 2 1/2 cups

This sauce turned out very ketchupy, not necessarily bad, but not quite what i was looking. I wanted a sweet sauce so I added:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses


Sauce 2 – Kansas City Classic Barbecue Sauce

I found this one at http://www.amazingribs.com. I like this one because it uses honey and dark molasses. Here is the original link http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauces/kansas_city_classic_BBQ_sauce.html

Ingredients


2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon table salt

2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup yellow ballpark-style mustard
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 cup dark brown sugar (you can use light brown sugar if that's all you have)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium cloves of garlic, crushed or minced


Optional. If you are cooking indoors, or if your meat does not have a lot of smoke flavor, or if you just want more smoke flavor, you can add 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke.

About the chili powder. Not all chili powders are created equal. Many of the common grocery store chili powders are lifeless and dumbed down for the Anglo consumer. Buy your chili powder from a Mexican grocer or online.

About the vinegar. I like my sauce tart. If you are not big on vinegar, cut it in half.

About the steak sauce. There are many different brands and they all have different flavor profiles, but what we want here is the meaty depth of savoriness that they call umami, so use whatever you have on hand.

About the oil. You my use butter or lard or bacon fat for a bit more flavor, but they can get rancid with time, and they will likely shorten shelf life to about 1 week.

Secret ingredient. Add 2 tablespoons of tamarind paste. This exotic ingredient isn’t really that exotic. It shows up on the ingredient lists of a lot of great BBQ sauces. It has a sweet citrusy flavor and really amps up a sauce. If you can’t find it in an Asian grocery, it is available online. Worth looking for.

This sauce turned out to be very tangy and very spicey. Sarah had some tamarind so she added that. I was a little worried when I was tasting this sauce as I made it but I did a test run with some beef ribs in the crop pot. The tangy was just right with meat. I was surprised.

Rub

I am going to give the Best Rib Rub recipe a try from http://smoking-meat.com.
It can be found here . It looks interesting because it has dry mustard and ground basil. I want a sweet rub so I am going to take their advice and add 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Ingredients


1/3 cup paprika
3 tablespoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground basil
2 tablespoons red pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper