Cranberry BBQ Sauce (no tomato BBQ sauce)

Mark

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Small batch, it's close to a tomato-based sauce, good enough for BBQ :)

Cranberry BBQ Sauce

5oz Cranberries
1 cup water
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp worstershire ( if you can't find it then leave it out )
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp lemon
3 Tbsp xylitol ( or use whichever sweetener you prefer )
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black pepper

Toss the cranberries into the water and boil until the berries split, then puree.

Add the other ingredients and simmer to whatever consistency you prefer.

Adjust the ingredients to suite your taste keeping in mind that the cranberries are very sour, so more sweetener might be necessary depending on what you use and what you prefer. Last time I made this I bumped the molasses to 3 or 4 Tbsp because it gets it closer to a tomato-type BBQ sauce taste. And while adding lemon and vinegar might seem counter intuitive for an already sour berry sauce somehow or other it changes the flavor profile more towards a tomato-based BBQ sauce.

If you're cooking some sort of meat ( ribs, brisket, etc ) where you can collect the juices then adding some or all of that helps the flavor too!
 
Re: Cranberry BBQ Sauce ( no tomato BBQ sauce )

:thup: :wow:

Looks delish! Thanks for sharing m! I'll have to try this.
 
I like this recipe it makes a good substitute for a tomato based BBQ sauce, the main thing I had to work out was the sour cranberries flavor so I added more molasses and sweetener, also if you like it a little bit spicier add more black pepper. It works nicely on ribs, I slow cook the ribs on the grill with low heat basting them as I flip. The sour cranberry flavor cooks off. Next I'm going to try the blueberry sauce. :D
 
Thanks for the recipe. I just tried a version using beets and carrots as the base (it's what I had in the house), but can't wait to try the cranberry and blueberry versions. I'm thinking that maybe a blueberry/cranberry mixture may work as well with the blueberries offsetting the sourness of the cranberries.
 
One of the best batches of ribs we ever had around here was done with canned cherries. We didn't have anything else on hand to make the base of the sauce, so just whizzed 'em with the blender and added barbecue stuff. So good I think I'll never go back to tomato sauce again!
 
Laura said:
One of the best batches of ribs we ever had around here was done with canned cherries. We didn't have anything else on hand to make the base of the sauce, so just whizzed 'em with the blender and added barbecue stuff. So good I think I'll never go back to tomato sauce again!

Cherries are next on the list of BBQ sauce bases that I'm gonna try :)
 
Laura said:
One of the best batches of ribs we ever had around here was done with canned cherries. We didn't have anything else on hand to make the base of the sauce, so just whizzed 'em with the blender and added barbecue stuff. So good I think I'll never go back to tomato sauce again!

Cherries sounds like a winner! One of the kinks I've been trying to work out is a base that will stick to the meat without having to use to much sweetener. I'm going to give cherries a go.
 
Thanks for the idea, I'll wait for nicer and warmer weather for a barbecue and try this recipe :)
 
kawika said:
One of the kinks I've been trying to work out is a base that will stick to the meat without having to use to much sweetener.

Maybe try cooking it down more to make it thicker?
 
Thanks for the recipe, m. Made some bbq short ribs last week that came out amazing and doing bbq chicken wings this weekend with the leftover sauce.

m said:
Adjust the ingredients to suite your taste keeping in mind that the cranberries are very sour, so more sweetener might be necessary depending on what you use and what you prefer.

One thing I noticed is that when making the sauce, I put additional xylitol than the recipe called for, close to 4 TBS, which I thought was just right, but my roommate thought too sweet. But when basted on the bbq, the sweet taste reduced quite a bit and gave it a more bbq-flavour taste. I couldn't taste any sourness at all.
 
Very delicious recipe--thanks for sharing m! I made it with Laura's suggestion of cherries instead of cranberries and used a double batch for a ~6lb pulled pork boston butt roast and it was quite a hit.
 
I just made this and it's delicious! I added a pinch of cinnamon, 1/8 tsp of cocoa powder, and a half teaspoon of liquid smoke. It tastes great so far. I'm going to try it on some slow cooked ribs tonight. :)
 
Here's a tip on ribs if you don't want to slow cook for hours and hours: Put the ribs in a pressure cooker with some spices that are the same as you might use for a rub (salt, pepper, cumin, sweetener, etc ) plus some apple juice or white grape juice -- you don't need much, maybe a cup or thereabouts since you're not cooking them long. Pressure cook them for about 10 minutes. The take 'em out, put some rub on 'em (if you use a rub) and then do the grill or oven cooking. Waaaaaay faster, and pretty good :)

Also, try the blueberry and cherry varieties of sauce, you basically do the same recipe as cranberry, except adjust the sweetener stuff since those berries are already sweet. Both are incredibly tasty :)
 
kawika said:
Cherries sounds like a winner! One of the kinks I've been trying to work out is a base that will stick to the meat without having to use to much sweetener. I'm going to give cherries a go.

What I did was to put a tiny amount of gelatin into the sauce. Like for two cups of sauce I used about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin in very small amount of cold water, after the gelatin dissolves pour the water into the sauce and cook it down to whatever consistency you prefer. That helps it stick to the meat. The key is to use the least amount of gelatin possible otherwise it affects the flavor of the sauce if you have too much. What I did was put in my best guess, cooked it, and then took out about a teaspoon of sauce to let it cool down a bit and checked the consistency to make sure it was thick enough to stick. That was with cherry sauce. Came out great. The dinner became a magic act - all the ribs vanished in the blink of any eye :lol:

Also note that erythritol caramelizes whereas xylitol does not, so it's better for BBQ sauce when you want the carmelization to happen.
 
m said:
kawika said:
Cherries sounds like a winner! One of the kinks I've been trying to work out is a base that will stick to the meat without having to use to much sweetener. I'm going to give cherries a go.

What I did was to put a tiny amount of gelatin into the sauce. Like for two cups of sauce I used about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin in very small amount of cold water, after the gelatin dissolves pour the water into the sauce and cook it down to whatever consistency you prefer. That helps it stick to the meat. The key is to use the least amount of gelatin possible otherwise it affects the flavor of the sauce if you have too much. What I did was put in my best guess, cooked it, and then took out about a teaspoon of sauce to let it cool down a bit and checked the consistency to make sure it was thick enough to stick. That was with cherry sauce. Came out great. The dinner became a magic act - all the ribs vanished in the blink of any eye :lol:

Also note that erythritol caramelizes whereas xylitol does not, so it's better for BBQ sauce when you want the carmelization to happen.

I've been wondering about using gelatin in sauces, thank you for posting this. I tried making a mango-base, although it didn't come out right, and needs more work. I was basically just winging it. I'm going to buy some molasses and try these recipes as written rather than winging it (as I do sometimes haha).

Also, thank you for the pressure cooker rib tip. I haven't tried that yet.

The sauce I have had success with is the following:
After slow-cooking pork ribs in the oven, I drain the liquids and put in a pan with some honey and some lemon juice, then boil down until thick. I suppose this was more of a glaze than a sauce though, but it did come out tasty. :D
 
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