Food & Drink

Basic Barbecue Mop Sauce

Mop sauces are intensely flavorful liquids used to baste foods during grilling. Most mops are vinegar based, with salt, pepper, and hot pepper flakes or cayenne added for seasoning. Additional flavor often comes in the form of sliced onion, garlic, and chiles. Unlike barbecue sauces, mops contain no sugar, so you don’t have to worry about them burning when exposed to heat for prolonged periods of time.

Mops are part of the barbecue tradition in the United States—especially in Tennessee and the Carolinas. They are usually destined for pork (especially whole hogs and pork shoulders) and chicken.

The traditional tool for applying a mop sauce is a barbecue mop.

MOPPING UP

• Mops are one of the great outlets for individualism in American barbecue. Feel free to customize the Basic Barbecue Mop Sauce recipe below to your taste. Possible additions could include: beer, wine, whiskey, herbs, garlic, lemon juice, and/or olive oil. Use beer, wine, or lemon juice in place of some of the vinegar. Whiskey and olive oil can be added along with the vinegar.

• For safety’s sake, don’t start mopping the meat until the outside is cooked. This in effect sterilizes the surface, eliminating the risk of any bacterial contamination.

Here’s a simple all-purpose vinegar mop that’s great on pork or chicken—or just about anything else you care to put on the grill. The recipe makes enough for two chickens or 4 to 5 pounds of ribs or pork.

Basic Barbecue Mop Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

INGREDIENTS

2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced

INSTRUCTIONS

Place the vinegar, salt, black pepper, and hot pepper flakes in a nonreactive bowl and whisk until the salt dissolves. Stir in the onion and jalapeño. Taste for seasoning, adding black pepper or hot pepper flakes as necessary. Brush on grilled chicken or pork once the outside is cooked. The mop sauce can be made several hours in advance but use it the same day.

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