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THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
This is the blog section of THE NIBBLE. Read all of our content on TheNibble.com,
the online magazine about gourmet and specialty food.
Archive for Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
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July 27, 2009 at 6:59 am
· Filed under Sauces/Rubs/Marinades, Tip Of The Day
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If you’re invited to a barbecue, bring the hosts a gift sampler of different-flavored rubs. Even if they blend their own herbs and spices, they’re certain to discover something new…and invite you back soon!
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July 26, 2009 at 6:59 am
· Filed under Cheese/Yogurt/Dairy, Sauces/Rubs/Marinades, Tip Of The Day
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Yogurt is not just a healthy food, a tasty food, a diet food and a multitasking dip and partner for fruit and granola. It’s also a great marinade for meat. In addition to imparting flavor, it has excellent tenderizing properties. Add garlic, herbs, macerated onion and any other favorite seasonings to your yogurt marinade. Your “secret blend” may become as sought-after as your special barbecue sauce!
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July 11, 2009 at 7:00 am
· Filed under Gluten-Free, Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
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| We probably receive more barbecue sauce than any other food product. Is there that much barbecue/barbeque/BBQ sauce in America, or is it just a favorite product for people who want to be in the specialty food business? (It’s the latter.) Many people think their sauce (jam, fudge, cookie, whatever) is “the best,” and are encouraged by friends to go into the business.
While the world may need a better mousetrap, it isn’t looking for another sauce (…whatever). It’s tough even for spectacular products to survive. Some of our Top Picks Of The Week—the best of their kind we’ve ever had—have been shuttered (and by the same token, some truly mediocre products continue to sell well, year after year—a phenomenon previously noted by H.L. Mencken). In better economic times, we saw someone develop a unique and needed product to make tofu taste great, and the world did not beat a path to her door. Unless a close family member is CEO of a major food chain, getting distribution for a new product is like swimming upstream, without the genetics of a salmon. That doesn’t make us happy, because people who make specialty foods tend to be nice people, and we always want the best for them. |
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BBQ sauce with a focus on fruit. Photo by Emily Chang | THE NIBBLE. |
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Oregon Dan’s BBQ Sauce arrived recently: four attractive bottles in Original (pineapple), Medium Spice (Original/pineapple with a kick), Apricot and Habanero Hot. “Pure Ingredients!” exclaimed the bottle, and it is true that they are all natural, although the first ingredient is sugar. (Pure doesn’t mean healthy.) The recipes are complex. Original also has pineapple juice, tomato paste, onion, pineapple, distilled white vinegar, butter, cider vinegar, blackstrap molasses, sherry cooking wine, cornstarch, red pepper flakes, vanilla, spices and salt. That’s as classy a set of ingredients as we’ve seen on many a barbeque sauce bottle. Habanero Hot adds habanero purée (a quality ingredient—many sauces use the cheaper habanero extract), Apricot adds apricot purée. Oregon Dan calls the whole line “Hawaiian style,” although apricot and habanero are not part of traditional Hawaiian cuisine, as far as we’ve seen.
The puzzler is, why is Oregon Dan selling Hawaiian recipes. Given that the snowy mountain peaks on the bottle labels are not Mauna Loa and the website survey suggests the next flavor will be coming from Oregon (bing cherry, boysenberry, marionberry, peach, pear and raspberry are the options—cast your vote), Dan might want to forget the “taste of Hawaii inside each bottle” and sell “BBQ Sauce With Fightin’ Fruit.” A 12-Ounce jar $5.50 at OregonDans.com. The line is gluten free. |
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June 12, 2009 at 6:31 am
· Filed under Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
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| America’s major food manufacturers pour sweetener into everything from soup to salad dressing, so that products like barbecue sauce, which normally have their share of sweetener, are tantamount to “meat sugar.” But when Lawry’s 30 Minute Marinades, along with McCormick’s Grill Mates packet seasonings, arrived at our door, we gave them a try. And thank goodness, because this worldwide leader in spices turns out much finer BBQ sauces and marinades than many smaller specialty brands. We marinated tofu squares in Lawry’s Signature Steakhouse and Buffalo BBQ sauces and baked them at 400°F for 25 minutes for a delicious lunch.
McCormick Grill Mates marinades arrived in exotic, evocative flavors, Hawaiian Luau and Mojito Lime. In other hands, these types of flavors could be overwhelming or sticky sweet; McCormick’s marinades perfectly captured the flavor themes with finesse. |
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Create a meal in just 30 minutes with Lawry’s Signature Steakhouse and Buffalo BBQ Marinades. |
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With Lawry’s Buffalo BBQ flavor, initial vinegar sweetness gives way to a nice burn of cayenne pepper and chili. A bite of the Signature Steakhouse reveals a popular taste with an acidic tang of Worcestershire and nice sting of pepper. These are sauces made for all America: they are flavorful but not potent.
On to the marindades. We liked the contrasting, smoky and bright flavors of the Mojito Lime. Peppery heat was backed by a refreshing sugary citrus punch. Hawaiian Luau did not evoke visions of volcanoes or guests in Hawaiian shirts (thank goodness!), but had a nice, even balance of tart pineapple and red pepper.
While all of the products contain high fructose corn syrup and other chemicals that would never get onto an “all natural product” list, as you have probably read, the jury is out as to whether it is the HFCS or all the bad eating habits and the level of over-sweetened food in general that have been responsible for obesity epidemic. We’re not supporting HFCS, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying these products.
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May 23, 2009 at 7:01 am
· Filed under Cinco de Mayo, Holidays & Occasions, Jam/Peanut Butter, Sauces/Rubs/Marinades, The Nibble, Top Pick Of The Week
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Diane’s Sweet Heat in Blackberry, Mango and Strawberry. |
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We woke up on Cinco de Mayo looking forward to a breakfast with Diane’s Sweet Heat habanero jam—and we haven’t stopped eating it since. Any day of the year is the right day to celebrate with these sweet, hot and fruity treasures. (Thanks to Diane for pointing out that unlike jalapeño, there is no “ñ” in habanero. It’s a very common mistake made by English speakers. The correct pronunciation is a-va-NEH-ro. The word means “from Havana.”)
We’ve tried lots of clear pepper jelly (Aloha From Oregon’s pepper jellies were a Top Pick Of The Week), but these are our first chunky pepper jams, ready to be slathered on toast, biscuits, bagels (great with cream cheese), muffins, pancakes, cookies, pound cake, ice cream, poultry, beef, lamb, pork, seafood, even on breakfast eggs—eliminating the need to sprinkle on hot sauce and redefining the jelly omelet.
The ingredients are pure and simple: sugar, fruit, red bell peppers, habanero chiles, vinegar and pectin. The four-ounce jars are available in six flavors: Blackberry, Blueberry, Mango, Peach, Raspberry and Strawberry. The experience is fruity, hot and exciting. |
| Read the full review and add some sweet heat to your favorite foods.
- Learn the difference between jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade and more in our Jam & Jelly Glossary.
- Have fun with our Jam Trivia Quiz.
- See more of our favorite sweet spreads in our Jam & Jelly Section. |
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April 25, 2009 at 9:50 am
· Filed under Entertaining, July 4th, Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Sauces/Rubs/Marinades, Vegetables
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| Turns out there is no such thing as Grill Season. Serious grillers and so-called barbecue-tionists use their grills all year round, according to a recent survey by The Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association. Still, when the rains pass and the weather gets warm, we find ourselves drawn out of doors…into the streets…and, inevitably, toward the wafting smell of charcoal. Click here for a round-up of 15 grill recipes that recently won a place in Crisco’s Cooking Spray Hall of Fame. Recipes include Pineapple Ribs, a Grilled Sweet Potato Salad, and Cardamom-Scented Tropical Fruit Skewers. Grill away– but don’t be too surprised to find a NIBBLE editor wandering up your driveway.
-Recipes: The Grilling Hall of Fame.
-Master the basics of barbecue with our comprehensive BBQ Guide.
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Grilled Avocado Shrimp Boats. |
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March 11, 2009 at 3:03 pm
· Filed under Condiments, Meat & Poultry, Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
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Carolina Gold Classic Sauce. |
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When you eat a lot of chicken, you look for different preparations. Sometimes, we get tired of our own recipes, so we taste a lot of prepared marinades each year. Here, two interesting all-natural entries that include mustard, but are 180 degree polar opposites:
Sunnybay Mediterranean Marinade
This marinade is made from extra virgin olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a proprietary blend of herbs and spices. You don’t have to look hard to see the mustard seed: the jar is 3/4 chunky bits of seasoning topped off with the oil (shake jar to blend). If you like garlic and mustard seed, this elegant marinade has lots of both—neither overpowering. http://www.sunnybayinc.com.
Carolina Gold Classic Sauce |
If you like French’s Mustard, here’s a sauce/marinade that looks like it and tastes like it. While you could probably fiddle around at home with French’s, apple cider vinegar, molasses, sugar and Worcestershire sauce, the Carolina Gold folk have a good thing going already. We only tasted the Classic Sauce, but there are Spicy Hot Sauce and Honey Sauce varieties, too. http://www.gourmetcarolinagold.com.
While we used them on chicken, they are versatile for just about anything.
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April 21, 2008 at 12:50 pm
· Filed under Sauces/Rubs/Marinades
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| Good Clean Food is dedicated to the proposition that we’d all prefer a good, home-cooked meal on the table—if only it were easy to put it there. Now you can turn out delicious, healthy meals quickly, with Good Clean Food simmer sauces. Just pour the contents of the jar of one of the six varieties into a frying pan, add fish, shrimp, chicken breasts or pork and simmer for 10 or so minutes. Take a bite: You’ve got truly delicious and complex-flavored food. The flavor is in the details: The all-natural product line is made from top ingredients, and truly tastes like “good, clean food.”
Great attention is given to each ingredient: |
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Shrimp in Good Clean Food’s Creole Sauce simmered to perfection in six or seven minutes.
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| The cider comes from an orchard in western Maine, the state where Good Clean Food is produced. The chicken bones that make the stock come from Bell & Evans chickens. The mustard in the Tarragon Simmer Sauce is made at Raye’s Mustard Mill, North America’s last remaining traditional, stone-ground mustard mill founded in 1889. The Kalamata olives are from Divina, one of our favorite importers of quality Greek foods. There are currently six sauces: three for chicken or pork (Cacciatore, French Tarragon, Maine Cider) and three for fish or seafood (Creole, Mediterranean, Scandinavian Dill). Read the full review of Good Clean Foods simmer sauces. Find more of our favorite sauces in THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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