BBQ Sauce Bases

[Karon Adams]

I'm trying to figure out an oil I can use in place of rendered meat drippings. I want to make a sauce I can hold for more than a few days. I need to start with something I can smoke without destabilizing. or something I can smoke besides the oil. I could smoke tomatoes or peppers but I don't know if I can bring enough smoke via those avenues for BBQ sauce. I can smoke salt and I am toying with smoking sugar as well. I could possibly use butter as a base oil, or possibly part of the base oil. but what else can I smoke? I need to spend some time looking at various fats.

what think you, guys, any ideas? whatever it is will need to be stable enough to go through cooking heat. I could(and I might) try smoking some pork bones then using that to make a stock base. That may be my answer. but, would that hold any longer than the drippings from a cook? what do the pros here think? I can use powdered gelatin, I still need a smoke element and an oil.

[Jerod Broussard]

Clarified butter??

[Karon Adams]

Yes. I was thinking about that. Don't know about the smoke source, though. Clarified butter should hold in the fridge. once the solids are removed and the water it will last much longer. but I don't know how I'll carry my smoke. I think butter will solve the oil and maybe smoking bones will solve my bone issue. I'll have to get some and give it a try, see if it holds. I know I can make a stock and pressure can it so it will hold canned but I'm wanting a sauce I can use from the fridge, too. and I will admit, I can't stand liquid smoke. it doesn't really taste like smoke, to me, it just tastes like kitchen cleaner.

but then, that is why I started making soap in the first place. I am allergic to the artificial base used in most inexpensive colognes and soaps and personal care items. So I taught myself to make soap using Essential Oils. there aren't many I really don't like. I LOVE Benzaldehyde, but I can't STAND patchouli. And my mom once packed up a bottle of Anise and put it in the car. the bottle rolled under the seat and she thought she had left it in the shop. in the middle of summer, it exploded! my car smelled of licorice for over two years. sitting in the car pool line at the kidlet's schools we'd hear passing students comment on smelling licorice. it was SO strong that, after driving to work at the real estate office, I had people walk down the hall while I was in the copy room and mention to their companion that they smelled licorice!

Anyway, Natural smoke. gotta figure out how to carry it. sorry, I think better when I am free associating.

[Breadhead]

Karon... I have a guy that I rely on for those kind of questions. His name is Jacob. He owns a real nice resturant near Lake Tahoe called Stella's. He also has a website called StellaCulinary.com. He also teaches people about everything having to do with stocks, gelatin and making sauces. He runs his sight much like AR does. If you ask him a question he will answer you fairly quickly. Someone on The Fresh Loaf suggested I check out his sight a month ago. I've been studying his site daily every since. I'm pretty sure he could answer that question for you along with the details of why.

[Ray]

Karon Adams Karon, I know that grape seed oil is tolerant of high heat, but don't know if it can pick up the smoke flavor that you're looking for. That might make a good experiment if there's no other available info on this.

[livespive]

You could try infusing the grapeseed oil. smoke you bone, and marrow to get you smoke content, then infuse the oil.

[mgaretz]

Given that liquid smoke is water-based, I'm surmising that smoke is not soluble in oil.

[scorched_porch]

Why base it on a smoked oil or a fat at all? I look at it this way. Smoke is a seasoning. The meat is infused by smoke flavor by virtue of the fact that you've already cooked it with a smoke source. Why put another (possibly unrelated) source on top of it? If you set the sauce on your product by putting it back on for a few minutes, it should pick up residual smoke from the same cook - and build layers of the same reinforcing smoke rather than a competing one from a sauce.

Just my ramblings.

[Huskee]

I know what you're saying. I don't use liq smoke in my sauces because I'm of the mind that flavor should come from the meat, sauce should compliment it. Like making cinnamon toast- you use butter and cinnamon, not cinnamon-flavored butter. My ramblings too,