Like most people, I collect things. As a foodie, I tend to collect food things. Like tins of tea. Jars of marmalade. And bottles of barbecue sauce. I LOVE barbecue sauce, as do most of the rest of my immediate family. There are certain brands of sauce that have become staples, used in our house for specific recipes. Making my famous wings? Gotta have Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty Sauce. Grilling the first chicken of the season outside? Gotta have Bone Suckin' Sauce. At any one time, there are at least six open bottles and jars of different sauces in my refrigerator.
Which is why I was excited when,as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a bottle of the new KC Masterpiece Southern Style Barbecue Sauce. I had Labor Day off, and the bottle arrived just in time to become part of that day's menu.
KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce was originally created in 1978 by Dr. Rich Davis in Kansas City. The KC line has increased in number over the years, and with the addition of the Southern-Style, there are now eight flavors. The Southern Style Sauce is a thin, vinegar-based sauce, with a slight pepper kick to it's sweet tang. First, I wanted to try it in burgers. On the Labor Day menu: Mushroom and Cheese Stuffed BLT Burgers.
With a thinner sauce like this one, I find that they don't stick well to burger patties on the grill. So I decided to mix the KC Masterpiece directly into the meat before I shaped the patties. Each burger was constructed of two thin patties with sauce in the meat, sandwiched together around a heaping spoonful of diced, cooked mushrooms and cheese--shredded mozzarella for my husband, blue cheese crumbles for me. I left about half an inch of meat clear around the filling to seal the patties together. The sauce in the meat made them easier to seal. Then I carefully placed the patties on the grill, directly over the hot coals. To keep stuffed burgers made form two patties like this from separating, you need to sear both sides quickly so the meat seals and keeps the filling inside. As the burgers cooked, I painted each side with little more ot the Southern Style Sauce.
Once the burgers were cooked, I constructed the finished sandwich. The bottom of the fluffy onion bun was coated with a layer of mayonnaise to try and seal the bread from the burger juice (It didn't work, but was a nice effort!). Next was a layer of lettuce and sliced tomato. Then the burgers were topped with some crispy bacon I had saved from breakfast the day before, and some diced, cooked onions and peppers. I drizzled a little more sauce on top, and finished with the top of the bun. The burgers were thick, juicy, and a total mess to eat. I like the fact that because the sauce was in the meat before the burgers were grilled--the flavor went through and through. My husband said that they were the best burgers I have made in a long time.
The bottle of the KC Masterpiece Southern Style Barbecue Sauce said that the sauce is good on chicken or pork, on the grill or in the slow-cooker. So for my second recipe, I made my slow-cooker pulled pork. I had made four enormous crock pots full of this meat for Bacon Boy's high school graduation two years ago. We had so much left over, and ate it from the freezer for so long, I think I have only made it twice since then. Definitely time to give the pork another go.
I bought two pork loins, and layered them in my medium-sized crock pot on top of sliced onions. Then I poured the barbecue sauce on top, added a little broth, and went out the door to work. When I came back nine hours later, the house smelled wonderfully of roasted pork and saucy goodness. The pork fell into tender shreds as I went to heap it up on the buns. The KC sauce made the meat slightly pink, and it tasted fabulous. The onions had almost completely disintegrated into the meat, and on the fluffy onion buns, the sandwiches were fabulous--especially with a tart dill pickle on the side.
If you need a new barbecue sauce for the last cookouts of the season, the KC Masterpiece webpage has a store locator--type in your zipcode and go get some sauce!
