Instead, find cook-out salvation in a bottle of Maine-made sauce.
Even though Maine isn’t known for traditional BBQ, the state is home to a growing cadre of specialty sauce makers. According to Wayne Tuohey, this lack of authentic BBQ is what prompted him to jump into the sauce business. As a result, he’s been spicing up Mainer’s summer cooking for the past four years with his ‘Cue Culture line of sauces.
The first sauce he created was the Apricot Habanero Rum sauce. Even with the addition of three more sauces to his line, the Apricot Habanero remains the most popular. Much of it’s appeal comes from its versatile nature, complementing everything from salmon to pork to chicken.
But whatever you do, don’t douse your meat in this (or any other) sauce, cook it above a hot flame and call it BBQ. Especially if you’re in the presence of a BBQ aficionado.
“Chicken slathered in BBQ sauce and thrown on the grill isn’t BBQ,” says Tuohey, who’s spent considerable time enjoying North Carolina’s vinegar-based BBQ. “I want people to taste the meat. The sauce is an enhancement, not a cover up.”
Denny Mike Sherman, who makes the DennyMike’s line of BBQ sauces, sees a growth opportunity in educating Mainers about the nuances of this outdoor cooking style.
“BBQ is a young culinary experience for New England,” Sherman says. “It isn’t the first thing people mention when they’re wondering where to eat lunch. Although people aren’t that used to BBQ, there aren’t very many people who don’t like it.”
So what’s his advice to those wanting to cook up authentic BBQ in the backyard?
“Low and slow is the maxim of BBQ fanatics everywhere,” Sherman says.
This means that all that fire grilling we New Englanders cavalierly call BBQ, is really charbroiling. Honest-to-goodness BBQ cooking involves placing food near a heat source — but not directly over it. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways on an outdoor grill. For instance, you can light only a couple of the burners on a gas grill and then place your meat over the unlit portion of the grill. If you’re using charcoal, you can push your coals to one side of the grill and place a metal pan inside the grill next to the coals.
Should you really want to get serious about BBQ, it’s a good idea to place multiple oven thermometers in your grill. This will give you a clear sense of hot spots and cool spots and what your actual cooking temperature is. But even if you’re not ready to commit to a true BBQ experience, you still can spice up your boring burgers with the addition of a little Maine-made sauce.
— Avery Yale Kamilaar
>>Grab a Maine sauce
Captain Mowatt’s
www.wohesperus.com
‘Cue Culture
www.cueculture.com
DennyMike’s
www.dennymikes.com
Mother’s Mountain
www.mothersmountain.com
Pemberton’s Gourmet Foods
www.pembertonsgourmet.com
Stonewall Kitchen
www.stonewallkitchen.com
Tallywaggers Barbeque Sauces
www.tallywaggers.com
World Harbors
www.worldharbors.com