Carolina Mopping Sauce

This is a mopping/dipping sauce for pork (ribs, butts,…).  Could even use it as an ejection of pork butts.   This is a variation from many other Carolina sauces on the web. 

The sauce is a vinegar base with spices.  You could reduce the vinegars by substituting replace it with apple cider, white wine or water.  Could add in a bit of bourbon or maybe a touch of vanilla. You could use beer but be careful which beer style since the hops in beer can impart bitterness.  

If using wine, it can introduce some off flavors so I pick a white fruitier style, not too dry. A blend usually works best. Most important is to use a wine you like to drink, I do not recommend using “cooking wine” since why would you add something to your dish that you wouldn’t enjoy by itself.

If you want more spice, then try adding different chilies.  This one uses crushed red pepper but you could toss in a couple whole habaneros, arbol, etc.  For a more smokey style, try using gaujillo, pasilla, chimayo and/or chipotle.   If the peppers are fresh, I remove the stems and toss them in whole.  You can cut and remove seeds/vein to help take some heat away.  If using dried, I like to  remove seeds.   For chipotle, I prefer using dried ones but can use chipotle with adobo sauce.

If you prefer a bit sweeter sauce, add more brown sugar.  Could also try maple syrup or honey.   If the sauce gets too sweet it will burn as the meat cooks.

This recipe makes about 16 oz of sauce, scale it up to fit the amount of meat you will be cooking. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup of distilled white vinegar
• ½ cup of hot water
• 1 tbsp. red pepper flakes  or mix of chilies
• 1 tbsp. hot sauce, your choice or can be replace with fresh chilies or left out.
• ½ tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. onion powder
• ¼ tbsp. ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. dry mustard
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar packed
• 1 – 2 tbsp maple syrup  or honey or molasses (optional)
• 1 – 2 tsp annatto (optional) or paprika (sweet or smoke) to give deep coloring and flavor

Prepare

1. Mix sugar and/or syrups with the water.  Make sure all is nicely dissolve.
2. Add remaining ingredients.
3. If using annatto, first add it to a bit of water to make a slurry then add it to mixture otherwise the annatto won’t dissolve
4. Bring mixture to boil (light), turn down and simmer.  If you using fresh peppers, you will want to simmer for about 10 mins.  If not 5 mins is enough.
5. Put mixture in a blender or use a hand blender to mix and especially mix in fresh peppers. Pour in jar and left sit in refrigerator for at least one day.

  To Use

You will need a mop to apply the sauce, one with cotton braids like the standard one use by a janitor.  For big BBQ, you could just pick one up at your local hardware store.   For a good reference, watch the Chef Table BBQ series particularly the one about Rodney Scott – hardware store visit to pickup BBQ supplies.  

For ribs, I apply the sauce after 1 hour of smoking then apply it every 30 to 60 mins.   Its a mopping sauce so mop it on.  For pork butts, the same schedule works great.  

If you plan on serving some of the sauce, you can save some before mopping.