Real Barbecue

Today we stopped at a local barbecue place to eat. It was pretty good I guess, but I have often noticed that the barbecue you get at restaurants never tastes as good as the smell of the smoke that comes from the pits where they cook the meat. I mentioned this to hubby and he said that is because they don't smoke the meat long enough.

My Mama used to make better barbecue than these clowns in the restaurants make and she had only a makeshift barbecue pit that consisted of metal barrel - cut in half - for the stand, a huge black cast iron kettle for the barbecue pit sitting on top the half barrel, and an old oven rack resting on top of the kettle for the grate.

From that set up she cooked many an outstanding steak and chicken that were much better than anything I have tasted in the restaurants.

It would be Saturdays like this usually that Mom would barbecue and she would sit out in the back yard in a lawn chair, next to that pit, with barbecue tongs in one hand and book in the other and reading, while she waited for the steak or chicken to finish.

When it was done Mom would make this barbecue sauce. It was the best! I always liked this recipe so much more than store bought sauce!

Palo Pinto Barbecue Sauce

3 TBS margarine
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup catsup
1 cup water
1/3 cup lemon juice
4 TBS molasses
2 tsp salt
2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 TBS Worcestershire

Saute onions in margarine until limp, add remaining ingredients and heat and stir until well blended. Simmer 10 minutes. Add sugar if too tart or lemon juice if too sweet. If she was going to barbecue chicken, she would make this ahead of time so she could brush the chicken with it towards the end of the cooking time.