Here is some leftover pork covered with barbecue sauce made from the assembled array of ingredients — which include garlic, apple cider vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, yellow mustard, onion powder and brown sugar.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
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A close-up of pulled pork covered with homemade barbecue sauce.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
So, gentle readers, for this week’s math homework — I mean, test kitchen project — I wanted to whip up some homemade barbecue sauce.
But I didn’t want quarts and quarts of it. In fact, I didn’t even want cups and cups of it.
Over the weekend I wanted just enough to coat a small pile of pulled pork — about 2 cups worth of meat — that were left over from the pork roast we shared when my sister visited. (Actually, it was my mom who roasted the pork, and she pressed the last little bits of leftovers on me in exchange for a sample of one of Mark’s recent vegetarian entrees.)
I liked a recipe for barbecue sauce that I found at the food blog Natasha’s Kitchen. Every ingredient sounded good, from the ketchup, apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, to the mustard, garlic and paprika.
Then came the math problem I assigned to myself. The recipe said it provided 20 servings of 2 tablespoons per serving. I wanted enough for 4 servings, plus a little extra. OK, 5 servings.
That meant I would use only one-fourth of every ingredient, right? So instead of the 24 tablespoons of ketchup that would equal 1.5 cups, I’d use just 6 tablespoons. Instead of the 8 tablespoons of vinegar that would be in 1/2 cup, I’d just use 2 tablespoons.
One-quarter cup of Worcestershire sauce, or 4 tablespoons, went down to 1 tablespoon.
The way I was calculating, the 3/4 cup of light brown sugar would have gone down to 3 tablespoons, but I decided to cut it down even more so the sauce would be less sweet, and used about 1 tablespoon.
Two tablespoons of yellow mustard went down to 1.5 teaspoons. Four cloves of garlic went down to 1 clove. One half cup of water went down to 2 tablespoons. The tablespoon of paprika went down to 3/4 of a teaspoon.
And the onion powder and black pepper just went down to a dash of each because I decided to just round things off and be done with it.
After I mixed up my tiny amounts and cooked my one-fourth of a batch of barbecue sauce, I added the pieces of pork, and served it on toasted pretzel rolls with veggies on the side. Mark and I both thought it was good, and while I enjoyed being able to adjust the savory/sweet blend as much as I wanted by cutting down on the sugar, I was equally glad not to have to store any leftover barbecue sauce. Because, actually, I was trying to get rid of leftovers that day.
Now here’s the recipe for a full batch, from Natasha’s Kitchen.
Barbecue Sauce
Servings: 20 servings (2 tablespoons per serving)
1 1/2 cups tomato ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon paprika or to taste
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoons ground black pepper, or to taste
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup water
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until sauce is thickened.
Add more sugar or seasonings to taste if desired, then remove from heat. Cool completely to room temperature then cover and store in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
