Here is a partial list of some of the ingredients I use in my recipes. I chose them because of flavor, availability, and price. To duplicate my recipes, you must use them too. But that doesn't mean that other brands won’t work as well or better.

Brown sugar. Brown sugar is not, as many people think, a raw form or unrefined sugar. It is, in fact, just plain old white granulated sucrose sugar grains with molasses (see below) added. Dark brown sugar has about 6.5% molasses added, and light brown sugar has about 3.5% molasses. The molasses gives it a deeper, richer, nuttier flavor than plain sugar. Rule of thumb: Dark brown sugar = 1 cup white granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons molasses = 1 cup of light brown sugar + 1 tablespoon molasses.

Five Spice Powder. One of the specialty spices in many Asian dishes is Chinese five spice powder, and I buy mine from Penzeys. is available in the spice or Asian section of better super markets. It is a blend of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel, and Szechwan peppercorns. Some recipes also contain ginger, nutmeg, and licorice.

Hoisin sauce. Called Chinese barbecue sauce or Chinese ketchup, hoisin sauce bears no resemblance to either, other than Chinese cooks use it a lot. If you don't think you've tasted it, chances are you have. It is the sweet glossy brown glop that you swab on the thin pancakes when you eat Peking Duck or Mu Shu pork. I use it in my recipes Hoisinful Nine Dragon Ribs and Chinatown Char Siu Ribs. This most excellent condiment is made from soybeans, vinegar, rice, salt, flour, garlic, and chili peppers. Lee Kum Kee brand is probably the most popular and the brand I use.

Ketchup or Catsup. The cornerstone of most American BBQ sauces is ketchup. Ketchup is made by reducing ripe tomatoes, sans skins and seeds, to a thick paste, and adding vinegar, sweetener, and spices. Although there are slight differences in flavor, Heinz and Hunt's are interchangeable in my recipes.

Molasses and other cane syrups. Made from cane sugar, molasses production was introduced to the West Indies by Columbus in 1493, and shortly thereafter, rum was created by fermenting the stuff. Molasses and rum later became vital trade commodities of the American Colonies and historians tell us that the British Molasses Act of 1733 was every bit as inflammatory as the tax on tea. Molasses was the most popular sweetener through World War I when the cost of granulated sugar fell. In Boston, on January 15, 1919, a tank holding millions of gallons of hot molasses cracked and flooded part of the city. The wave of sticky stuff killed 21 people, injured more than 100, and did millions of dollars in damage. It is known as The Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

There are three types of molasses, light, dark, and blackstrap. Here's the difference and how they are made. Molasses is made by crushing sugar cane (and to a lesser extent, sugar beets), and extracting the sweet juice. It is then boiled and reduced until thick. After clarifying, this straight cane syrup, called light molasses, is the purest. It is rich, and sweet, with a hint of bitterness. I use Grandma's Original Molasses, the one with the yellow label. It is amber in color, complex, and has just a hint of buttery flavor and a kiss of bitterness.

After crystallized table sugar is extracted from the juice, usually by high speed spinning in a centrifuge, it can be boiled again, creating dark molasses, occasionally called first molasses. When I want a more robust flavor, I use Grandma's Robust Molasses, with the green label. It is a dark molasses with a rich, musky, with a distinct bitterness and a slightly burnt taste.

Further rounds of boiling and extraction yields second molasses, and then blackstrap molasses. Each reduction is less sweet, less pure, and more flavorful. Blackstrap is said to be the most nutritionally valuable and is often sold as a health supplement. It is also often used as cattle feed, and I rarely use it in cooking. Some molasses is treated with sulfur to aid in the sugar extraction and are so labeled. I prefer the unsulfured.

Mustard. Mustard is to pork as jelly is to peanut butter. The two just go together naturally. Although most BBQ sauces are tomato based, classic South Carolina BBQ sauces are yellow and are based on yellow mustard. Many Kansas City-style red BBQ sauces have mustard added for complexity, spiciness, and depth of flavor.

There are many different types of mustard. You can buy mustard powders, pastes, or sauces. They are made from Brassica plants, members of the cabbage family. They produce white, brown, and black seeds, which are ground to make mustard "flour." White mustard seeds produce yellow powders, and black seeds produce a brown powder. Mustard pastes are made by mixing powders with water, wine, vinegar, and even beer. Then they are mixed with herbs, spices, and flavorings as diverse as horseradish, rosemary, peppercorns, grape juice, and honey.

Mustard's heat comes from oils released when the ground seed is mixed with liquid. TRhe active ingredient is allyl isothiocyanate. It travels up the nose, and the really hot ones can make your eyes tear. Unlike pepper heat, which tends to stay in the mouth and builds cumulatively with each mouthful, mustard heat dissipates fairly quickly.

According to Barry Levenson, Curator of the Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, mustard is the oldest condiment. The Chinese have grown mustard for more than 3,000 years and mustard seeds were found in the tombs of Egyptian Pharohs. He says "The earliest references to mustard in the Dijon region of France dates back to 1336, but we can assume that the early monks had developed the art of mustard making many years earlier." The Mustard Museum and its website are a treasure trove of info and trivia, and they sell a number of mustards and other sauces online.

Mustard heat and flavor dissipate with age, so buy small quantities, and use them up. For more about mustard, click here to see the Wikipedia entry on mustard.

Mustard, English dry. Colman’s Mustard powder is a blend of brown and white mustard powders that has been made in England since 1814 and is widely available. You can prepare your own condiment by mixing it with wine, vinegar, water, and seasonings. Go ahead. Make your own honey mustard. Go easy. It's hot. Real hot.

Mustard, Dijon-style or brown mustard. I use the more widely available Grey Poupon. Technically GP is "Dijon-style," since it is now made in the US and other locations by Nabisco. Dijon and Dijon-style mustards are made from brown or black mustard seeds. The seeds are ground, and white wine, verjus (the juice of unripe grapes), or vinegar is added along with other spices and herbs. For most of my recipes I use the original Grey Poupon, not the "Country" or "Spicy" flavors. GP is owned by Kraft.

Mustard, Yellow "ballpark". Made from yellow mustard seeds, American "ballpark" style mustard is essential to South Carolina BBQ sauces and many other sauce recipes. They are not as hot and flavorful as English or Dijon mustards. French's is the most popular. It is owned by the multinational, Reckitt Benckiser. They also own the popular Cattleman's Barbecue sauce. I have also used Plochman's and there is little diff in taste. Plochman's is still family owned. Usually I buy whichever is on sale.

Paprika. The nomenclature for paprika can be confusing. I occasionally refer to regular paprika so you will know that I mean the simple reddish orange powder on most spice racks. It is made from dried sweet red bell peppers and for this reason it is occasionally called sweet paprika by other writers. Much of it comes from Spain and Hungary, it has a mild flavor, and is used primarily for color. The McCormick spice people say that pound for pound, it has a higher content of Vitamin C than citrus fruit. Then there's hot paprika, which has some hot peppers in the blend. There's also smoked sweet paprika and smoked hot paprika. They are made from peppers that are slowly dried in the presence of hardwood smoke.

Salt. There are many kinds of salt. Table salt has anti-caking agents so it works well in salt shakers, and iodine as a health additive. Kosher salt has no iodine but can occasionally contain small amounts of anti-caking additive. Sea salt usually has minute amounts of minerals whch can give it colors from pink to black. Pickling salt dissolves well in cold water. Many chefs prefer Kosher salt because it is ususally additive free and easy to pinch.

Salt grains are different size and as a result a cup of one brand of salt can have more air in it than a cup of another. Here's a helpful conversion table:

1 part Morton's table salt =
1.5 parts Morton's Kosher salt =
1.8 parts Morton's Pickling salt =
2 parts Diamond Crystal Kosher salt

Sesame oil. Sesame seeds are loaded with oil, and there are two types of sesame oil on the market. I use only one of them, the dark brown oil made from toasted sesame seeds by Kadoya of Japan. There is a clear, cold pressed sesame oil on the market, but it is almost flavorless. Toasted sesame oil, the brown stuff, is the most common, thankfully, and possesses an exotic nutty perfume that we immediately associate with Asian food. Use it sparingly because it is very strong.

Spices. Let me make this simple: Penzeys. This quality-first spice merchant began as a single store in Wisconsin and, as people compared Penzeys spices with the grocery store brands, they grew to about 30 locations nationwide. Do an experiment. Order one of their cinnamons (they have eight different cinnamons) and compare it with what you have on your shelf. It's like you've never tasted cinnamon before! You'll never go back. Order their catalog. It's beautiful and the recipes are also great.

Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce. Everyone knows hot spicey Tabasco sauce, but if you haven't tried the Chipotle version, you're missing something. Chipotles are smoke roasted jalapeno peppers, and they make this piquant sauce thicker, richer, and more flavorful, with a subtle smokiness. It is my go-to hot sauce and you will see it in many of my recipes.

Worcestershire sauce. As with steak sauce, Worcestershire Sauce (pronounced WOO-sti-sheer) is a blend that has many variations in the ingredients list, and the taste. Lea & Perrins is the most popular for good reason. It tastes good. Lea & Perrins is a blend of vinegar, molasses, corn syrup, anchovies, onions, salt, garlic, tamarind, cloves, chili pepper, and more. It can really add depth and meatiness to a sauce. According to the Lea & Perrins website, in 1835, a Lord Sandys was returning home from Bengal, where he had tasted an intriguing sauce. He went to John Lea and William Perrins, owners of a chemist shop, and they tried to replicate the sauce. It was awful. They left it gathering dustin their cellars. A few years later, they stumbled across those jars. They tasted the sauce once again, and to their surprise, the mixture had matured into a most palatable sauce. Soon they were bottling and selling it. The rest, as they say, is history.

This page revised 8/1/2008

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