A New Sauce for the Fambly Reunion: Chipotle Blueberry Barbecue Sauce

A week from today the decendants of Robert Prine and Matilda Louise will be gathering in this home for the annual fambly reunion.  I love fambly, love having them here under the roof and in the yard of this 105 year old late Victorian home.  It's a potluck affair, but Cousin Ronny and I supply the meats:  ham, fried chicken, leftover ribs and sausages from Friday night's barbecue, and roasted/smoked pork loin.

Earlier in the week Mama and I picked blueberries from her rabbit's eye bushes.  A gallon of the large delicious fruit was harvested in no time and it was sent home with me.  I wanted to do something amazing with them and Mrs. Mary posted this recipe on Facebook for me.  It's just what was needed to go with the pork loin for the fambly reunion!

It is not my recipe and for the first making, I didn't tweak it in any way, sort, or fashion.  I wanted to share it with y'all 'cause it's so easy.   It's a little on the warm-ish side.  If you don't like heat used the adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers and don't put a a chipotle pepper in it!

Gather all the ingredients.

The brown sugar is peeking in the corner of the photo.

Put all ingredients in a non-reactive pot and cook until it's as thick as you like it.

This is actually a double batch in the pot.  And you really will want to use

a non-reactive pot.  The high acidity of the juice and berries can pull

a metal flavor out of an aluminum pot.

Tadadaaaaa!  I used the immersion blender to make the sauce a little smoother, it's a personal preference.  

And that's all there is to it.  I like it a lot, thinking this will be the go-to sauce, replacing Jezebel sauce, for roasted pork loin.  It definitely has some heat to it, but not so much you'll need a glass of milk to stop the burn.  Most of the fambly is going to love it.  We're hot and sweet that way...

Y'all enjoy!

Dave's Dad's Dry Rub Mix: the ONE recipe I can't give you

Many years ago the Happy Family lived in Grenada, Mississippi.   The service repairman that worked with the Fellow's dad used this dry rub mix on everything he grilled.  His own dad had come up with the spice mix years before.   A Memphis-style dry rub, it's good on just about every kind of meat you can bake, fry, smoke, or put on a grill.  It took much pleading and begging to get the recipe from the repairman all those 21 years ago.  I promised to never give it out because they wanted to market it,  it's just that excellent of a dry rub.

The recipe is so good, though, there's been lots of bantering in the gray matter as to where 21 years is long enough of a time for those good folks to get it on the store shelves or not and I can share a much requested recipe.  Well.  I decided I couldn't give out the ingredients or their proportions but I can certainly show you so if you want to come up with a fascimile in your kitchen, you can - just in time for grilling/smoking season.

Here are all the ingredients.  Pay attention to the order they're in and how many of each.

The bitty one is ground mustard.

Y'all wrote those down, right??  Okay.  Here's how much of each one (in order):

I don't use nearly as much salt as the recipe calls for,

preferring to salt the meat before marinating with the rub.

These are standard pint jars.

And here are the smaller amounts of spices:

The black pepper and garlic powder are reversed (oops).

And these are standard half-pint jars.

Pour them all in a recycled gallon mayo jug and shake vigorously, mixing all very well.  Not really.  Mix however you like!  This way is easy and almost no mess.  Chili powder somehow manages to jump to the counter when I try using a bowl and whisk/spoon/hand.  The jug keeps it contained.

The catsup on the counter is for next week's post:
Mama's Sweet Southern Barbecue Sauce!

Tadadaaaaa!  Put in a tight fitting jar (the large one is ours) and share with your neighbor.  It'll keep almost indefinitely and won't lump, as long as the lid is tight.  

The amounts shown were for a double batch of rub.  It makes approximately six cups of dry rub.  Most of the spices were purchased at the Dollar General Store and weren't expensive.  The only thing here that brand matters on is the seasoning salt.  The inexpensive stuff has too much salt - not enough flavor.

The pork ribs for the family reunion will be taken out of the freezer next Monday, rubbed with this Wednesday, and smoked Friday afternoon.  They're a Southern delight, served with Mama's barbecue sauce on the side.

Try it.  Customize it any way you like.  Want a sweeter rub?  Brown sugar is excellent.  Like a bit of heat?  Add a couple of tablespoons of cayenne.  Don't care for heat at all?  Take out the pepper and mustard - no problem.

So there.  A promise has been kept:  the recipe hasn't been given out.  Y'all enjoy!