Finishing Sauce - Suggestions anyone?

[buckeye024]

Hey fellas and ladies, I'm try to find a good finishing sauce for pulled pork. I have used SoFlaQuer's regularly since I joined this site, it's very good, but I want to try something different.

I tried a BBQ joint once that had a sauce to die for. It was a very thin sauce (slightly watery), dark in color, sweet and slightly tangy, with a little spice (I can't take a lot of heat). I'm guessing from the taste and color that it used vinegar, molasses and/or brown sugar.

Does anyone have a butt finishing sauce recipe, that they'd like to share, that might fit close to the above description? Thanks.

 

[tasunkawitko]

hi, buckeye -

i strongly recommend RIVET'S PPB finishing sauce - it's as good and authentic as it gets and simple to make!

here it is - the recipe calls for guinness or killians, but if you don't have one of them handy, any beer will do.

Finishing Sauce:
3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Bottle (12 oz) Killians Irish Red or Guiness Beer
1 TBSP Salt
2 TBSP Red Pepper Flakes
1 TSP Ground Black Pepper
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

Mix all sauce ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer 30 minutes, uncovered.

Once pork is pulled and chopped, mix in large bowl with sauce. Serve on buns with coleslaw.

 

[buckeye024]

Does the alcohol cook off? I have small children...

 

[smokingd]

Almost all of the alcohol will cook off a little is always left but not enough to cause any worry my kids turned out alright lol

 

[rivet]

Hey no worries about the alcohol. As the above said, it burns off long before the boil begins. If you are still not comfortable with that, give an O'Doul's NA beer a shot. Never made it with that, but O'Douls tastes pretty dang good to be a non-alcoholic beer.

Good smokes to you, bud!

 

[fire it up]

Where was I when this was posted?!!??
Not only does it sound good but Killians or Guinness, 2 of my absolute favorite beers! I HAVE to try this. Now my only dilemma, which beer to use. Tasty beer #1 or tasty beer #2...

 

[rivet]

Bud, where have you been?

I've posted this back about when I first joined and have shared it with lots of folks.....have at it, man! It's a jen-you-wine Carolina recipe from an old timer who shared it with me. Nothing fancy, but dang it is good!

I thought you had it~

Well, no worries, now you do. Give it a try, you'll never go back to nothing else!

 

[meltyface]

That sauce does sound pretty good, I'm making a pulled pork shoulder tomorrow and am going to try this. One question though. This is my first time using a finishing sauce, do I just mix it in with the whole batch once pulled, also if I do this can I still seperate the leftovers and vacumseal it for good eating later?

 

[bmudd14474]

Get both at the store and just drink the one that you dont use. Its a win win.

 

[tasunkawitko]

buckeye - yep, as these good folks have said, it will cook off! don't let the red pepper flakes scare you - while it is awfully warm at first, it tones down a LOT when in the pork and the amount specified seems just right, to me. if you want, you can cut the amount of red pepper flakes in half for the kids, but i don't think it is necessary - my kids ages 19 down to 7 drink it straight out of the jar with no problems.

FiU - where have you been, bud? i post it every time someone asks for a PPB sauce recipe. it's great!

meltyface - i've always just poued it on my own on the palte/bun or have just mixed it in to the pulled pork. i don't know the "correct" amount per pork shoulder, so i just kind of eyeball it and have never had any troubles. rivet might be able to provide some specifics, but from where i sit it's an "eyeball" thing.

 

[mballi3011]

I can tell you that both of those (tasunkawinka & rivet) sauces are really good.

 

[rivet]

Fire It Up...well what else can I add from the above? Maybe you need to check in more (?)

Melty.......not sure their is a correct amount. My recipe and the amounts (above) that Tas~ posted are for a full PPB. Once pulled I put the entire pot's worth of finishing sauce in it, mix it up and let the folks feast!

Just use it as you see fit.

 

[meltyface]

About how long will "guniess" sauce keep in the fridge? I'm thinking about making it tonight so that I have less to do tomorrow.

 

[rivet]

hey no worries. You can make that up to a week ahead of time as long as you keep it in the fridge. Lots of acid in there. Just make sure you simmer it for about 20 to 30 during cooking.

 

[buckeye024]

Any other good recipes out there?

 

[shooterrick]

Rivets sause is great. But I have found about 50% of folks that eat my Q don't want a Carolina style sauce at all. I guess it is the strong vinigar taste but I love it.

Try this: Just take the left over drippings with all their seasoning and flavor and drizzle over the PP. Ya its more fat but look at what we are already eating! LOL Or maybe use Rivets recipe but substitue juice of some sort, apple or white grape comes to mind for the vinigar.

 

[jirodriguez]

In a pinch one day I found a fast easy "right now!" cheat for a finishing sauce. I had a jar of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (regular) which I like cause it has just a little bit of bite to it. So I put about 4 cups in a pot, added about 1/4-1/3 cup of cider vinegar (start small add to taste), and then thinned it out with apple juice till it was a nice thin consistancy (roughly 1 cup - again up to your preferance). Balance with brown sugar if you got to much vinegar it.

The resulting "sauce" was nice in that it had good flavor, a nice vinegar bite, but being thinned down it didn't overwhelm the pork. Like I said quick and easy.

 

[iqak]

I just tried a modification of SoFlaQuer's recipe that I'm already savoring.

I substituted a heaping teaspoon (probably closer to two teaspoons) of stoneground mustard with horseradish for the teaspoon of "Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning".
I also added just a dash (less than a teaspoon) of Clover Honey.
I noticed quite a bit more solids in suspension rather than the typical sinking black pepper and floating red pepper flakes.

It's definitely a different mouthwatering kind of heat.

Next adjustment will either be a increase of honey or a reduction of coarse ground pepper.

Good thing there's still plenty of pulled pork left!
The pork always seems to take me 14hrs at 225F to finish at 205F with Hickory 80% of the way.

 

[bassman]

You can cut this recipe in half if you like. Don't worry about the cayenne being too hot as you will barely notice it. Just adds a good flavor.

Pulled Pork Finishing Sauce

4 T Flour
4 T Sea Salt
1 T Coarse Black Pepper
1 T Cayenne
4 T Paprika
1 t sugar
2 T Cornstarch
5 C Water
4 C White Vinegar


Mix all dry ingredients. Add small amounts of water at a time until paste forms. Add remaining water and vinegar. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Here also is my recipe for a cooked slaw for topping PP sandwiches.

Cole Slaw for Pulled Pork Sandwiches


½ large head Finely shredded green cabbage
3 T. Olive oil
4-5 T. White vinegar
2 T. minced Garlic
1 tsp coarse ground pepper
1 tsp Sea salt
2 T. Lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Mix all together and cook until cabbage is al dente. These are not exact measurements. Sometimes I use a little more oil, vinegar and lemon juice.