For pork and ham……it works on chicken too..
This is my version of the Monongahela River Valley style sauce. If you like thick,
sweet, sticky, smoky sauce, go away.
If you try this you may rediscover what sauce is all about.
I try to improve it each time I make it. The recipe tends to change.
Compliments the meat, does not smother it.
Neither sweet nor too sour, its very unassuming. Slightly acidic.
6 quarts regular V8 juice (620 mg sodium ea.) or therabouts. You can add salt to the heathly low salt stuff.
3 teas ground cloves
2 teas ground cinnamon
2 cups red wine vinegar
4-8 garlic cloves, Hey I lost count.
10-12 teas Mrs. Dash regular blend, Use twice X2 for extra spicy.
3 teas black pepper, add red pepper to taste or just wait til its served.
1 zest from lemon and the juice from that lemon(Optional)
lightly Boil for three hours to thicken or to about 1/2 liquid. Do not burn.
For this quantity I use two large ceramic lined pots. Stainless or Aluminum not recommended.
Also use a wooden or ceramic spatula. I just add Habanero pepper if needed when served.
The actual recipe is fairly mild, and I expect to liven it up a bit with more Mrs Dash and some red pepper,
and more garlic.
Use Mrs. Dash to RUB down the meat. Use the regular style, NOT fine ground table blend. I like the garlic & herb
I have been thinking of adding a thickner like flour. That might be OK but I don't want to change the flavor.
The sauce is too thin for great pulled pork sandwiches currently, but it good to mix it in anyway.
Of all the grocery sauces I tried, Open Pit is far ahead of he others. I can tolerate its sweetness. The others are TOO sweet.
The basic esscence of the sauce is the V8, the cinamon, and the cloves.
The celery essense in the V8 is VERY important. You might even add some celery seed, not celery salt..
The other stuff is just to buffer it up.
HERE IS A SMALL BATCH VERSION FOR YOU.
1 QT V8 Juice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/3 tsp cinimon
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 + crushed garlic cloves
3-4 tsp Mrs. Dash orginal blend
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 + lemon zest and juice.