NEW: Mother Sauce, Ribs & Chicken…
I will be going over some of the photo archives and doing some bulk posts soon, but I did this at the weekend and thought I’d do a post about it now, whilst it’s so hot outside, you coul probably get a good sear a steak on the car bonnet.
So. Mother Sauce. What is it?
This takes me back to when I first discovered Pitt Cue Co probably (at a guess) around 2013/2014. Maybe later, unsure. Anyway, I’d gone there with two of my brothers, a small little restaurant in London Soho you’d think nothing of just walking by… but hidden deep below the surface of the street was one of the best smokehouse BBQ restuarants around. Sadly, they’re not there any more (I’ll talk about that in another post) but they did produce a book in 2013.
And it’s in this book, I have the recipe for what they call, Mother Sauce. You can use it as a base for other sauces or just add some of it to another sauce to give it extra kick – but it is one of my favourite sauces around and I could drink pints of it all day long.
So you need about 500g of beef trim, which you can get from any decent butcher. I, sadly, forgot to ask my butcher for some, and so I used some beef skirt I had instead.
I seared that on a really high heat, then ‘deglazed the pan’ (basically where you add liquid to a hot pan which you’ve probably just had meat in) with beef and chicken stock. The recipe called for pork stock but I didn’t have any, nor could I get any from the shop. Next time, I’ll make some in advance for it.
These are some of the bits I used:
That stock had me going for a minute; I had to double take when I was at the shop and make sure I wasn’t buying a beefy drink. Anyway, all the stock went in (1L of Beef, 1L of Chicken), the treacle/madeira were used in a bit.
So, stock now starting to bubble away, I got another pan on the go, and chopped up some shallots and started sweating them in butter:
The above was after 5 minutes or so, I gave them just a few more minutes, then added around 200-300ml of Madeira. I let that simmer down whilst I mixed together the other ingredients. Ketchup, Mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco and Cloudy Apple Juice. I mixed that in with the stock, and added in the Madeira/Shallot mix. I then added two really big spoonfuls of treacle:
I gave it a good whisk, and then let it reduce for ages. The recipe in the book calls this practically done as is, but I like it really reduced, into a thick, really super rich and flavoursome sauce.
Talking of the book – you should go get it – here. (That’s not an affiliate link and I don’t earn anything from it, but I just really recommend it, and if you want the original/full recipe – that’s the place to get it).
You probably could have called it really well done here:
You can see from the sides of the pan how much it’s reduced, but I kept it going:
And finally, it was done. It was time to pass the mixture through a sieve:
Just. Look. At. That. Firstly, the sauce that’s coming off…. mmm I can taste it now (I’d like to say literally, but I made this a few days ago and the leftovers are in the freezer).
But also, that beef…. Oh… that beef.
This is one of the nicest things I like about making this sauce. Tom Kerridge refers to “Chef’s Treats” as you’re cooking, although, half a kilo of beef is probably a little more than a ‘treat’.
As I started cooking this sauce, which I’d say probably took me around 4-5 hours in total (obviously most of that it was just simmering away) I put these in the oven, tightly wrapped in foil:
The rub is a very simple chilli and salt mix, which is then slow roasted throughout the cooking of the sauce. At the end, I basted it in the Mother Sauce:
Nom nom nom.
Finally, I laid out the whole feast on the table:
And of course, brought the Mother Sauce for those that wanted extra (and there wasn’t much left at the end!):
It’s fair to say, I had a good plate full of meat:
I couldn’t actually eat all that, but nothing went to waste…! It all just went back in the fridge, and we used it for lunch and dinner the next day!
The Mother Sauce, I then put into small containers which are frozen. I’ll then get one every now and then, which can add to another sauce, or, I’ll baste it over some ribs, chicken, or even steak!
About The Author
