This is a sauce that I made up as a tribute to Hound. All it needs is
a name, and I think that "Hound Sauce" is just _not_ going to be its
handle! I too miss all of his posts and certainly learned much from
him. It took me three tries to get the sauce where it is but I’m
pretty happy with it. If you find any changes that work nice (or a
handle for it!) let me know.

Hound loved his coffee, loved his bbq, and gave us a great citrus
brine for setting up Turkey. This is going to cover all of that. It
is loosely based on a Cumberland sauce, which does just fine served
cold with poultry.

I found the coffee part to be tricky. It's just not right to reduce
the sauce with the coffee in it, as that gets pretty bitter. So, you
have to really reduce the sauce at the start, and just bring in the
coffee at the end. The quantity of coffee that you put in there is
going to vary with your personal taste and the octane of the coffee
you use. I used a "garden variety" Columbian brew and that seems fine
as a baseline. When you have the coffee taste balanced, you may have
to play with the consistency. Mine was a bit thin and, being
accustomed to thicker sauces, I added a tad of corn starch to thicken
it. YMMV. Here we go...

2/3 Bottle Port
1 lb. Jar Red Current Jelly, no seeds.
"Clean" juice of two oranges
Zests of 1 orange
1 tsp dried Tarragon
1 tsp dried Oregano
1/2 tsp dried Rosemary, well ground.
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Southern Comfort
1/2 - 1 1/2 cups coffee

Zest one of the two juice oranges. You want to have thin slivers, but
not "white stuff" in the zest. I found this easiest to do with a
really sharp paring knife. I found this hardest to do after I had
juiced the orange. Set aside.
Add everything except the coffee, zests, and Dijon Mustard into a
saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer (uncovered) and
allow the concoction to reduce by one third. Whisk the mustard into
the sauce and add the zests.
Add 1/2 cup of coffee into the sauce. Taste a bit of it. You should
have the port / raspberry taste as the prominent feature. The coffee
should be there, but in the background. Add more coffee to your
taste. I ended up using close to a cup.
If desired, you can thicken the sauce with your favorite method.
Remember that this sauce is served cold, and cold sauces are always
thicker than the hot form. ‘Specially when you use corn starch.
Get the sauce nice and cold before serving. Overnight in the fridge
seems to add to the flavour. I find it too thin for a squeeze bottle,
so have a bowl and spoon for serving.

*Other notes...
Batch one... Tried with Amaretto and used coffee at start. A mean
and bitter sauce was born. Batch two... used Frangelico liqueur
(hazelnut) but still bitter, tinny taste.

I used dried 'erbs as that was all that I had. If anyone knows of a
fresh / dried conversion table post it up and we can give fresh a go
next time.

Best served with bbq turkey while reading over your favorite Hound
post.



Wally

"No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit."
Sir Frederick G. Banting

This may be blasphemy but I find that using instant coffee eliminates the
reduction problem. As for the zest, there's a tool that really makes the job
easy called, strangely enough, a zester (www.surlatable.com) .

JD


"Wally Bedford" wrote in message

This is a sauce that I made up as a tribute to Hound. All it needs is
a name, and I think that "Hound Sauce" is just _not_ going to be its
handle! I too miss all of his posts and certainly learned much from
him. It took me three tries to get the sauce where it is but I'm
pretty happy with it. If you find any changes that work nice (or a
handle for it!) let me know.

Hound loved his coffee, loved his bbq, and gave us a great citrus
brine for setting up Turkey. This is going to cover all of that. It
is loosely based on a Cumberland sauce, which does just fine served
cold with poultry.

I found the coffee part to be tricky. It's just not right to reduce
the sauce with the coffee in it, as that gets pretty bitter. So, you
have to really reduce the sauce at the start, and just bring in the
coffee at the end. The quantity of coffee that you put in there is
going to vary with your personal taste and the octane of the coffee
you use. I used a "garden variety" Columbian brew and that seems fine
as a baseline. When you have the coffee taste balanced, you may have
to play with the consistency. Mine was a bit thin and, being
accustomed to thicker sauces, I added a tad of corn starch to thicken
it. YMMV. Here we go...

2/3 Bottle Port
1 lb. Jar Red Current Jelly, no seeds.
"Clean" juice of two oranges
Zests of 1 orange
1 tsp dried Tarragon
1 tsp dried Oregano
1/2 tsp dried Rosemary, well ground.
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Southern Comfort
1/2 - 1 1/2 cups coffee

Zest one of the two juice oranges. You want to have thin slivers, but
not "white stuff" in the zest. I found this easiest to do with a
really sharp paring knife. I found this hardest to do after I had
juiced the orange. Set aside.
Add everything except the coffee, zests, and Dijon Mustard into a
saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer (uncovered) and
allow the concoction to reduce by one third. Whisk the mustard into
the sauce and add the zests.
Add 1/2 cup of coffee into the sauce. Taste a bit of it. You should
have the port / raspberry taste as the prominent feature. The coffee
should be there, but in the background. Add more coffee to your
taste. I ended up using close to a cup.
If desired, you can thicken the sauce with your favorite method.
Remember that this sauce is served cold, and cold sauces are always
thicker than the hot form. 'Specially when you use corn starch.
Get the sauce nice and cold before serving. Overnight in the fridge
seems to add to the flavour. I find it too thin for a squeeze bottle,
so have a bowl and spoon for serving.

*Other notes...
Batch one... Tried with Amaretto and used coffee at start. A mean
and bitter sauce was born. Batch two... used Frangelico liqueur
(hazelnut) but still bitter, tinny taste.

I used dried 'erbs as that was all that I had. If anyone knows of a
fresh / dried conversion table post it up and we can give fresh a go
next time.

Best served with bbq turkey while reading over your favorite Hound
post.



Wally

"No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit."
Sir Frederick G. Banting

Wally Bedford wrote;

This is a sauce that I made up as a tribute to Hound. All it needs is
a name, and I think that "Hound Sauce" is just _not_ going to be its
handle! I too miss all of his posts and certainly learned much from
him. It took me three tries to get the sauce where it is but I'm
pretty happy with it. If you find any changes that work nice (or a
handle for it!) let me know.

snipped the rest cause you already read it anyway

Wally, the Hound certainly deserves the accolades he receives in
this NG, but you yourself have quite a knack for describing food or
a recipe. I say you did a great job of not just detailing, but describing
your 'Tribute to the Hound BBQ Sauce'. The line about not reducing
the sauce with the coffee in it really stands out.

I for one will give you full credit everytime I serve it, as well as to
tell the story of its' origin.

M&M