In barbecue as in life, it's all about balance. Take sauce: Too much vinegar, and it's only fit for basting. Too much pepper, and it burns your mouth.
Although when you're at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest Thursday through Saturday in Tom Lee Park, you'll hear again and again that when you come to Memphis, you've got to be ready to bring on the sugar, you
can get too much of a good thing.
To compensate for sweetness, you've got to have spice and acidity. Otherwise, you might as well have ketchup.
And the balance isn't about just the sauce, so let's start at the beginning.
Representatives of four family-owned barbecue restaurants in town -- ones that sell their sauce commercially -- recently came together for a blind taste-testing. Mark Neely of Neely's Bar-B-Que, Barry
Pelts of Corky's Ribs & BBQ, Frank Vernon of The Bar-B-Q Shop and John Vergos of Rendezvous gathered last week in the basement of the Vergos' restaurant.
Get four of these guys together and the conversation is easy, a "we're in this together" mix of business talk, old stories and new concerns.
There's the price of pork.
"My dad told me back in 1990, when I got in the business, 'Don't worry about pricing. It goes up and then it goes down,'" Pelts said. "But it's not going down now."
And the demand for pork internationally:
"The Japanese love boneless pork tenderloin," Vergos said. "That leaves us with a lot of loin ribs."
And nationally:
"We're having to compete with places like Applebee's and Chili's," Vergos said.
"All of us, we're just little blips on the radar, but we're affected by what goes on in the world."
From a business perspective, that's certainly true. But culinarily speaking, it's all local.
"Memphis barbecue is so good because we push each other every day," Neely said.
Pelts agreed.
"The worst barbecue in Memphis is the best barbecue you'll find other places," he said.
They all agree it comes down to the care that local restaurateurs give to their product.
Here, pork is hand-pulled or chopped -- no one uses a meat grinder, which is cost effective because very little meat is lost, but comes with great cost to the texture of the final product.
"Put some sauce on that, put it on a sandwich, and you might as well be eating a sloppy Joe," Vernon said.
"People here wouldn't put up with that," Neely said. "You wouldn't stay in business."
So the first rule is good meat, properly cooked and prepared.
"You don't want meat you're trying to hide under sauce," Vergos said.
The sauce is a complement to the meat. At Memphis in May, contestants have the right to ask that their ribs be judged with sauce, if they choose. Great care is taken to season the meat and create the sauce that, if properly done, pairs perfectly.
When it comes to a sandwich, at least in Memphis, there's a third element: slaw.
"You've got to make it work, the meat, the slaw and the sauce," Vernon said.
Neely agreed.
"Yeah. How I do it is I've got a sweet sauce and a spicy slaw."
Missing from the gathering was Germantown Commissary owner Walker Taylor, who was out of town. But his sauce was there, and when the spoons were down and the points were counted in this very unofficial judging, his came out on top of nine local sauces and about a half-dozen others.
"Wow," Taylor said. "That's a good bunch of guys, and I'm honored that they picked mine."
Coming in second was Rendezvous; third was Treger's, which no one had heard of but is made in Olive Branch; tied for fourth were Corky's and Neely's; and the Bar-B-Q Shop's Dancing Pigs was fifth.
Interestingly, no one was certain about his own sauce.
"I thought one was mine; then I tasted another and wasn't sure," Vergos said.
"The exact thing happened to me," Pelts said.
For Taylor, selling a sauce is just about good public relations.
"I don't make any money," he said. "I actually lose money. You do it just to get your name out there."
His distribution is limited to SuperLo, a few Kroger stores and Miss Cordelia's. The sauces with wider distribution, such as the Rendezvous, Corky's and Neely's, fare better.
No one bottles their sauce themselves, though some claim the bottled sauce is virtually identical in taste to the sauce served in the restaurants.
Not Vernon. He keeps a few secrets close, and the exact formula for his Dancing Pigs Sauce has remained a secret.
"Oh, I hold a little bit back," he said. "There are so many little things we do to the sauce that they just can't do."
One trick Vernon suggests, but won't say if it's one he uses, is a tip he credits it to his mentor, Brady Vincent of Brady and Lil's.
"Mr. Brady used to take a pitcher of sauce and put it in his pit for a few hours," he said.
Everyone agrees you can easily doctor up a bottle of store-bought sauce at home.
Vernon says you can get a smoky flavor similar to one from the pit by putting a pan of sauce on a charcoal grill while a quartered onion cooks directly on the hot coals.
Pelts takes a simpler approach.
"We like to open a bottle of sauce, add apple juice and apricot preserves and cook it down," he said. "It's great just brushed on meat."
Everyone agrees that simply heating sauce makes it better -- and that most of them are fine like they are.
"I think almost everybody's barbecue sauce is pretty good," Vergos said. "It becomes a matter of taste."
-- Jennifer Biggs: (901) 529-5223
Neely's BBQ Sauce
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tbsp. light brown sugar
5 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp. onion powder
1/2 tbsp. ground mustard
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Cook uncovered, stirring frequently, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Makes 31/2 cups.
Source:foodnetwork.com
Chipotle Barbecue Sauce
16 oz. tomato ketchup
2 onions, chopped
1/2 cup water
2 cans chipotle peppers, chopped
4 oz. brown sugar
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Splash of cooking oil for frying
Heat the oil gently in a sauce pan, throw in the onions and the minced garlic, and fry gently until the onions turn clear (about 5 minutes).
Now add the rest of the ingredients and simmer, bring the mixture to the boil and simmer. You'll know when the sauce is ready because it will start to thicken (and probably make a mess of the stove top at the same time).
Source: barbecue-smoker-recipes.com
Apricot-Habañero Barbecue Sauce
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. cooking oil
1 yellow bell pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded
1 cup water
2/3 cup dried apricots
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. powdered mustard
4 tbsp. habañero hot sauce
Salt to taste
Sauté onion and garlic with oil in a large skillet. Add bell pepper, water, apricots, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar. Reduce heat, stir together and simmer until apricots are soft, about 15 minutes. Combine with mustard, hot sauce and salt in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Makes about 3 cups.
Source: bbq.about.com
MIM Barbecue contest details
What: 2012 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest
When: Thursday through Saturday. Park opens 10 a.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday. Free admission 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Event ends midnight Thursday and Friday, 10 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Tom Lee Park
Cost: Advance tickets: $8 Gate tickets: $9.
Tickets sold through Ticketmaster or by calling (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be sold at the north and south gates at Tom Lee Park.
Entertainment: Thursday, Miss Piggy contest is at 6 p.m. and Cowboy Mouth plays at 8 p.m.; Friday, Sun Studio All-Stars play at 7:45 p.m.; Saturday there's an Elvis Tribute Competition at 8 p.m.
Awards: The awards ceremony is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
