Americans love their barbecues. In fact, not a few have concocted their own BBQ sauce recipe, which they’d likely be parading on Fathers’ Day barbecue weekend. Fascinatingly, many people who live off the grid haven’t lost appetite for barbecuing and preparing different scrumptious dishes even if they have to start from scratch. As a matter of fact, many in the community have adjusted to this way of life and have come up with their own homesteading recipes.
Instead of buying pre-made BBQ sauce from the supermarket, homesteaders make their own from scratch. Of course, home-made BBQ sauce is not the only homesteading recipe in their arsenal but with Fathers’ Day fast approaching; many are likely planning for a barbecue weekend.
As mentioned, many have their own homesteading recipes especially when it to comes to BBQ sauce but everything boils down to the basics.
How to make home-made BBQ sauce
The first step in making your home-made BBQ sauce is to grow and harvest tomatoes. This may be too much work for people new to homesteading but you should know by now that, to be self-sufficient, you must be capable of growing or raising your own food.
After getting your hands to 10 to 12 beautiful ripe tomatoes, you have to peel and de-seed them. The next step is to crank up that crock-pot of yours and slow cook your tomatoes along with 2 cloves of garlic and one medium-sized onion, both finely diced. This will take around 4 hours but, as a certain wine maker claims, “quality takes time, excellence takes a little longer.”
Once the tomato-onion-garlic combo is done, put the mixture in a processor and blender. Some homesteaders filter the mixture to separate the solid remnants to get that grocery store texture for their BBQ sauce. Others love a little chunk in their sauce so they just puree the mixture.
Clean the crock-pot by simply rinsing it. Pour the liquid back into the crock-pot then add half a cup of apple cider vinegar though white vinegar will also work. Next, add 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a little soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard. You can add 2 tablespoons of molasses if you want. Stir to combine the ingredients and let it cook for another 4 hours.
As mentioned, these are the basic steps in making home-made BBQ sauce. Most homesteading recipes call for other ingredients. A soda pop BBQ sauce, for example, replaces a cup of water with a cup of soda. Other recipes use pineapple or honey for a little sweetness while others add chillies, hot sauce or cayenne pepper to make things hotter.
Once the sauce becomes thick, it is ready for the next step. Let the sauce cool down before starting the canning process.
Canning your BBQ sauce
Most homesteading recipes use home-made canned goods so it’s just right that you can your BBQ sauce as well. Preppers usually learn how to preserve and can different food products so then may keep them in their pantry. This skill will also do them good in the event of an emergency or when society breaks down and food becomes scarce. That said, preppers and homesteaders can enjoy the fruits of their labor anytime they want as long as they continue to replenish their stocks.
The first step of the canning process is to heat jars in simmering water. Mason jars are great for canning sauces. You should also wash the lids with warm soapy water. Rinse and set aside.
Use a ladle to transfer the BBQ sauce into the jars. Make sure there’s half an inch of headspace left. Also, get rid of any air bubble in the BBQ sauce and then wipe the sides of the rim clean. Cover the jar tight then put the jar in boiling water canner. You’ll be making more than one jar so you just have to repeat the process for each one.
The jars will need to spend around 20 minutes in the boiling water canner. Once they’re ready, carefully remove the jars and let cool. After 24 hours, check the lids if they are flexing up and down. If they aren’t, then your canning was successful.
Come Fathers’ Day, they can whip out a few cans of their home-made BBQ sauce to serve family and friends. Of course, you can serve other dishes on your barbecue weekend, especially if you have more homesteading recipes in your vault.
True blue homesteaders will likely slaughter some of the animals they’ve raised or simply grill their home-made sausages. Others might just purchase prime cut meat from the store or from other homesteaders.
Just a disclaimer – We have partnered with these companies because we use their products and/or proudly trust and endorse them – so we do receive a commission if you make a purchase or sign up for services. Often, we are able to negotiate special discounts and/or bonuses, which we will pass on to you via our links. We often get short notice on sale items available for 24-48 hours as we will pass these savings onto you.
