Saucing Strategies

Some sauces are great right from the bottle, but most benefit from cooking on food. Juices and heat can alter the molecules and their flavors. At temperatures above 320°F, some sugars will begin to caramelize, creating a more complex flavor than plain sugar. A sweet sauce can get gummy or even burn, so apply it at the end of cooking, just long enough to heat it and cook it without burning it. Don’t oversauce. One or two coats should be all you need.

If you are cooking low and slow, add the sauce about 30 minutes before removing the meat. For the final sizzle, put the meat right over direct radiant heat and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. If you’re cooking on a smoker, you might need to crank up your grill or move the meat indoors under the broiler. Stand there and watch like a cat eyeing a bird so the sauce does not burn. It can go from red to black faster than a clean hog can go from pink to brown. Incineration is not the only hazard with this technique. If you have perfectly cooked ribs, sizzling the sauce can result in overcooking the meat.

All undercooked meat can contain microbes and spores and is therefore potentially hazardous. Pour only as much sauce as you need into a cup or bowl and dip in your brush or spoon. When you are done, throw out the extra sauce in the cup. Boiling it may not properly kill spores. Use only fresh, uncontaminated sauce for serving at the table.