Over the weekend, I happily and thankfully enjoyed some beers produced by a neighbor and friend. Although I could easily write this entire piece about those beers (and I will very soon), today’s focus is on how beer can be used in a marinade/BBQ sauce.

Interestingly, despite its popularity as a beverage of choice for BBQ, most of the recipes for marinades and BBQ sauces do not use beer and instead use wine, spirits or a fortified wine such as port or madera.

As most beer drinkers know, especially those whom have tasted “skunked” beer, beer frequently has a bitter element to its taste. Although this bitter element is not necessarily a bad thing, results from many potential causes, and is frequently used as a tool to bring out other flavors in a beer, the bitter element becomes increasingly strong as the liquid is reduced while making a marinade, sauce base, or the grilling.

Just as a little salt brings out a recipe’s sweet flavors, a beer’s bitter flavors can bring out many other great flavors. But, if the bitter flavors become too strong they will overpower everything.

The “trick” to using beer is not using it alone. If the beer is “cut” by another flavorful liquid such as chicken stock, orange juice or similar. Cutting the beer with this other liquid allows the beer to be reduced without becoming overwhelmingly better.

So, in order to have BBQ pork with a sauce/marinade complimenting my friend’s home brewed and excellent beer, I used a bottle of Old Dominion’s October Fest and cut it with some chicken stock, juice from two oranges and two diced peaches. The marinade also included toasted cumin, all spice, caraway seed, coriander, and fennel seed in addition to cayenne and chili pepper flakes.

The basic recipe is the same as the one used for my earlier blog “Sometimes Simpler is better” with an addition of two – three small peeled and diced carrots slightly browned before adding the onions.

BBQ - August 30 2009

Although you can buy exotic or seasonal fruits on nearly any giving day of the year, this is does not necessarily mean you should go out and buy or use them every day. Similarly, just because it is possible to use passion fruit in marinades or BBQ sauce, doesn’t mean you should.

The other day, I made a batch of BBQ sauce for grilling some ribs, steak and chicken. Although the ingredients sound simple, like baking soda and vinegar, their combination results in a great surprise.

Here is a rough recipe:

2 – 3 cps chicken stock

2 – 3 cps old vine Zinfandel

I large can – crushed tomato

1 large or equivalent onion chopped very fine

1 head garlic – approximately

4 + tablespoons sugar

3 – 4 tablespoons cider vinegar

cinnamon to taste

cayenne powder to taste

paprika to taste

salt to taste

4 tablespoons buckwheat honey*

A very important point about making this or other similar sauces:

• Reduce the sauce SLOWLY. Using a high boil – when large bubbles constantly and frequently burst at the surface – may result in the sauce’s sugars burning before the sauce reduces to a correct consistency.

*The buckwheat honey, from Virginia Pure Beeswax, is a recent find at the Columbia Pike Farmer’s Market. It has a wonderful dark, nearly chocolate color and a rich smooth dark caramel flavor, making it a superb substitute for molasses.

Like molasses, the buckwheat honey added a touch of dark caramel flavor to the sauce as well as gave it a big boost in the “sticky” factor.  At the same time,  unlike molasses, the buckwheat honey’s subtle flower flavors are just strong enough to bring out some surprising flavors to the sauce.