Apple City Barbecue Sauce

Note from Cheri: The recipe and text below are reprinted with permission from Peace, Love and BBQ - Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales, and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbecue By Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunicliffe (2006, Rodale). This is a great all purpose barbecue sauce that you'll use a lot, but check out the recipe for Apple City Barbecue Grand World Champion Ribs for a great starting point. The book is a loving tribute, almost in scrapbook form, of the authors' lifelong relationship with and passion for the ultimate American cuisine, barbecue. No, I don't mean grilling or merely cooking outdoors, but rather the true meaning of barbecue -- that slow cooked bit of carnivorous heaven that earns America it's rightful place in the map of the world's great culinary contributors. Author Mike Mills is the only person to win three Grand World Champion titles at the Memphis in May International Barbecue Festival. He is also barbecue guru and partner at Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke Restaurant in New York City and owner of six notable barbecue joints, two in Southern Illinois and four in Las Vegas. Along with his daughter Amy, a journalist and publicist, he's created a culinary roadmap to America's great barbecue joints and competitions, along with the characters who make them tick. Click here for more information about this fabulous book, along with more great sample recipes.

The Gospel on Sauce:
When I bought 17th Street Bar & Grill in 1985, Mama Faye was 82 years old and in excellent health. For several years, she made gallons of our family's barbecue sauce each week, but once the place got going, the amount I needed for the restaurant and for competition quickly got to be overwhelming. I had to cook hundreds of batches myself. To Mama Faye's dismay, I did alter our recipe ever so slightly. I only added some apple juice and a few different spices, but she never let me forget it. "This isn't the original sauce," she'd tell anyone who'd listen. "Mike veered off the recipe." She was awfully proud, however, when the sauce won the Grand Sauce Award at the Jack Daniel's World Championship International Barbecue Cook-Off in 1992.

This award-winning sauce enhances just about any barbecue. Some barbecue sauce is very thick and just sits on top of the meat. This sauce is smooth and on the thin side, and it seeps down into the meat.

1 cup ketchup (I use Hunt's) 2/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar 1/2 cup apple juice or cider 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 1/3 cup bacon bits, ground in a spice grinder 1/3 cup peeled and grated apple 1/3 cup grated onion 2 teaspoons grated green bell pepper

Makes 3 Cups Combine the ketchup, rice vinegar, apple juice or cider, cider vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, white pepper, cayenne, and bacon bits in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the apple, onion, and bell pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes or until it thickens slightly. Stir it often. Allow to cool, then pour into sterilized glass bottles. A glass jar that used to contain mayonnaise or juice works real well. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. VARIATION: To make this sauce a little hotter, add more cayenne pepper to taste, approximately another 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon. Be careful; a little cayenne goes a long way.