Let’s Talk Food: Barbecue’s best sauce has a Texan name: sop

The Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of the season of Summer and Smoke. As the languid days of summer lie ahead it’s time for barbecue and throughout the land the grilling’ and basting equipment is dusted off and made ready for a season of cooking outdoors.

Here in South Florida summer means chilling’ out, relaxing and slowing down. It means long, spectacular sunsets, more leisure time, walks on the beach and boating and fishing expeditions into the Ten Thousand Islands. It means bird watching, comfortable clothes, cool, soothing libations and succulent barbecued ribs, chicken, steaks, pork chops and sundry other grillable meats and fish.

There’s plenty of heat when the word “barbecue” is mentioned. Ever since grilling became a male province every outdoor cook claims his methods are the best. Texans are outraged at the thought anyone but a native of the Lone Star State would attempt to prepare a barbecued meal. In Kansas City, one is apt to be tarred, feathered and hung in effigy at the mention of barbecue from any other part of the country.

And there are those yuppies in the environs of the Hamptons (of all places) who claim their barbecued turkeys come straight from culinary heaven. If you want to go international, encounter a native of Provence who’ll proudly proclaim their French grilled fish will satisfy the most fastidious gourmand.

This method of grilling fish originated several centuries ago and is still used in Provence. A whole fish receives several diagonal incisions on each side of a cleaned and scaled fish, inserting a frond of fresh fennel in each incision and then rolling the fish in olive oil before grilling it. During the cooking the fish was brushed with a branch of fresh thyme soaked in oil.

Outdoor grilling emerged as a popular cooking method in the American colonies. In 17th-century Virginia, sturgeon and chops were cooked whole over fiery coals. In the next century, in New York, grilling whole turtles came into vogue, while cowboys out West dug enormous pits in which to cook steers.

One of the greatest joys of summer is cooking out. Here in Naples, the barbecue grill is used nearly all year, but it is especially enjoyed during the leisurely summer months. This week-end is a time to celebrate in the great outdoors and that includes preparing rich and toothsome barbecued ribs, pork chops, chicken, lamb, steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, fish and shrimp.

The most important ingredient to making your barbecue a success is planning a menu that includes succulent side dishes and snacks that compliment the all important barbecued meat or seafood. And, to insure that the main course is properly flavored, you’ll need a really great barbecue sauce. Barbecue mavens, from various parts of the country, lay claim to the best sauces, marinades and rubs. When shopping for your barbecue be sure to pick out the best cuts of meat and fish; the less expensive meats just do not do as well on the grill unless marinated for several hours.

Vegetables are equally delicious and healthful cooked on an outdoor grille. Soak eggplant slices, oversized slices of sweet onion, strips of zucchini and corn on a cob in a bit of olive oil before putting on the grille. Halved tomatoes, acorn squash potatoes and even broccoli do well on an outdoor cooker.

Genuine barbecue mavens insisted that the real secret to great outdoor cooking is the sauce. There are as many recipes for this zesty sauce as there are hairs on a collie but if I had to pick the greatest and most influential barbecue enthusiast ever to rush out of the corral, I’d pick Lyndon Johnson. Here’s his recipe for barbecue “sop” …just another term for basting sauce.

LBJ’S barbecue sop

Ingredients

2-2/3 cups beef stock

2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

½ cup apple-cider vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1½ teaspoons dry mustard

1½ teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Preparation

Combine all ingredients and allow to stand for 24 hours.

Ask Doris

Q: I spent two weeks this winter with my cousin in Naples. One Sunday we had a wonderful brunch at the Naples Beach Club where I tasted blintzes for the first time. Now I am hooked and can find no restaurant where they are served. I hope you can provide me with a recipe.

— Bertha Long

Amarillo, Texas

A: To make sure you are equipped to enjoy this tasty dish I am providing two recipes. Good luck and bon appetite!

Blintzes

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter

Preparation

■ Beat together the eggs, milk and salt. Stir in the flour, then the oil. Chill for 30 minutes or longer.

■ Heat a little of the butter in a 6-inch skillet. Pour about 1 tablespoon of the batter into it, rotating the pan to coat the bottom.

■ Brown the bottom, then turn out onto a napkin, browned side up. Make the rest of the pancakes and spread with any selected filling.

Roll the pancakes around the filling and serve. Makes about 18

Cheese blintzes

Ingredients

¼ pound cream cheese

1 cup cottage cheese, drained

1 egg yolk

¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Blintzes (see recipe, above)

4 tablespoons butter

Preparation

■ Beat together the cheeses, egg yolk, salt and melted butter. Mix in the sugar and lemon rind until smooth.

■ After preparing the blintzes, spread some of the cheese mixture on each pancake, turn opposite sides in and roll up.

■ Brown in butter. Makes about 18.

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Doris Reynolds is the author of “When Peacocks Were Roasted and Mullet Was Fried” and “Let’s Talk Food.” They are available for sale in the lobby of the Naples Daily News. Also available is a 4-part DVD, “A Walk Down Memory Lane with Doris Reynolds.” For information or comments regarding today’s column, contact Doris Reynolds at foodlvr25@aol.com.

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