If you wondered where I’ve been for the past few weeks, the paper had public notices to print so it ran out of room for my column. To pick up where we left off, I was writing about my conversations with Rob Couture (his nickname is “Couche”) and his amazing collection of cowboy recipes. Rob spent a lot of time in cowboy cookhouses and knows all about simple down-home cooking.
I thumbed through the recipes in his wooden box and pulled out his barbeque sauce recipe. When I have a homemade sauce in the fridge, I can always make something delicious to eat, even if there is not much in there! And poof! Suddenly a ho-hum dish becomes a treat.
Rob’s barbeque sauce recipe looked interesting because it calls for butter; I have never seen a barbeque sauce recipe that uses butter. The next time I make this sauce, I will probably cook it in the crockpot for a couple of hours on low. Crockpots are handy because they eliminate the need for stirring; you add in the ingredients and just walk away.
Cowboy Couche’s Barbeque Sauce
1 cube butter
½ cup dried onions or 1 cup fresh, diced
8 tsp garlic powder
44 ounces Heinz ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne
1 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onions and garlic and sauté on low and be careful not to scorch it. Mix the remaining ingredients and simmer on low for about an hour and stir every now and then, adding water as necessary.
Rob was very specific about using Heinz’ ketchup and I bought the one made with sugar, not corn syrup, because the sweetness of corn syrup tends to overpower the other flavors. I blended the sauce with my immersion blender at the end.
I was fascinated how the flavors melded together as the sauce sat on the counter for a few hours and the next day, it was even better. I must have tasted it 25 times which is half the fun of making your own food, plus the house fills up with such a lovely fragrance.
When the sauce was finished, I baked a potato, buttered it, added extra sharp cheddar cheese, sprinkled on bacon crumbles, topped it with green onions and covered it all with sauce. A delicious fast food dinner! The next day I added a couple of tablespoons of the sauce to a bowl of freshly cooked pinto beans and that was awesome, like instant baked beans.
Thank you, Couche, for this simple, savory and tangy recipe, the very best sauce!