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Border Barbecue Sauce
Chili is, of course, the making of a proper Barbecue Sauce, with more or less standardized ingredients in these proportions: 1/2 CUP BUTTER 11/2 TEASPOONS SALT I SMALL ONION, MINCED 2 TABLESPOONS CHILI I I GARLIC CLOVE, MINCED 1/2 TEASPOONS POWDER 2 CUPS TOMATO SOUP 6 TABLESPOONS LEMON MUSTARD JUICE 1/2 CUP WATER Cook onion and garlic in butter until tender; add other ingredients and boil 5 minutes, or until thick.
A mid-century American barbecue mop built on canned tomato soup — thin, buttery, tart, and meant for brushing rather than dipping. It comes together in under fifteen minutes.
- Read the quantities carefullyThe ingredient column runs: 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 small minced onion, 2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 cups tomato soup, 6 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 cup water, and mustard. The two-column setting has scrambled: a stray "1/2 teaspoons" sits loose beside the mustard, so the original was most likely 1 1/2 teaspoons. The recipe does not say whether dry or prepared mustard is meant.
- "Chili" means chili powderThe blended American chili powder of the period — ground mild chiles cut with cumin, oregano and garlic — not pure ground chile and not chili sauce. Two tablespoons of a modern supermarket blend is assertive but not hot.
- Tomato soup, not tomato sauceTwo cups is about one and a half 10 3/4-oz cans of condensed soup, taken straight from the can rather than made up with water (the recipe adds its own 1/2 cup). The soup already carries sugar, salt and body, which helps the sauce thicken quickly; substituting plain tomato sauce or passata gives a thinner, sharper result that needs sugar and longer reduction.
- Don't boil it hardThe recipe says to boil five minutes, but a tomato-soup base catches on the bottom of the pan. Keep it at a low, spitting simmer and stir it, and pull it off when it coats the spoon rather than chasing a set.
- Sugar and grillingBecause of the soup's sugar, brush this on only in the last ten minutes over coals, or it blackens before the meat is done. Reserve some unheated for serving alongside.
- Salt and lemon at the endCanned soup varies a good deal in salt. Add the 1 1/2 teaspoons cautiously, taste after the five minutes' cooking, and adjust the lemon juice then — some of its brightness cooks off.
- YieldAbout 3 cups, enough to mop 4-5 lb of ribs, chicken or pork shoulder. It keeps a week covered in the refrigerator and thickens as it chills.