by waaytoomuchintothis » Tue May 28, 2013 8:30 am
We had a little BBQ joint open up in a small town down the road nearby our town, and the BBQ was excellent. He opened in that tiny little hamlet, so he didn't last long, unfortunately. But he offered three sauces for his pork shoulder and sausages. I had never seen this done before. Most folks have a sweet sauce for a finish and for sandwiches, and a much thinner, more vinegary sauce for cooking, which more or less equates to the dry rub that is frequently used by rib cookers. This guy had one called Sweet, which was sweetened version of North Carolina vinegar sauce, and one called Mild, that was pretty close to Memphis BBQ sweet sauce, one called Chicago Hot that was a paste, not liquid at all, and Fire which was like Buffalo hot sauce mixed with rocket fuel or something. It was crazy hot, like biting into a Scotch Bonnet or Habenero. He said it had some of those tiny little Chinese or Korean peppers chopped up in it. I put a dot of it on my finger to taste, and when I went to rinse my finger off, there was a chemical burn red spot. The big punchline is that he sold the hell out of that Fire Sauce. I think it was like a dare or something, because there was very little taste at all, just burn.