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Old School Barbecue Seasoning

Boshizzle

Boshizzle

somebody shut me the fark up.
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Back in the 1800s, Virginia barbecue cooks called this recipe "the seasoning." It was used as a baste for barbecue as it cooked and also served as a sauce by being poured over the barbecue before serving. Here is the recipe for Old Virginia Barbecue Seasoning. This is an authentic recipe that is at least 175 years old. The only change I made is the oil. Old timers would have used butter or lard. I think the salad oil option (which was used in the late 1800s) is a better choice nowadays because we don't usually heat our sauces before serving them.

By the way, do any of you know someone or a restaurant that serves burgoo? I am looking for people willing to share authentic burgoo recipes from anywhere not just Kentucky. Any help is appreciated. PM me if you can help.

BBQSeasoning_zpsuaqrzuzj.png


Old Virginia Barbecue Seasoning

1 cup vinegar
½ cup prepared mustard
¼ cup water
3 TBS peanut oil or soybean oil
2 TBS currant jelly
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Pinch red pepper flakes

Bring all ingredients to a slow simmer, stir well, cool. Use as a basting sauce for barbecuing meats. Also use as a sauce by lightly drizzling it on barbecue before serving.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Bo for a fascinating look to the roots. The thing strikes me most is it's a yellar Piedmont sauce and how close it is to a traditional SC & GA sauce, probably brought to those areas through migration. The use of Currant jelly also could explain the use of grape jelly found in some old sauce recipes as a sweetener where currants weren't available.
 
Thanks for the post. What is "prepared mustard" in this context? Typically this means the condiment and not the powder, but there are LOTS of different mustards, most of which in the US are highly vinegar-based. Our mustards are completely different from European mustards, which can vary greatly and are not so vinegrated. What was a typical Virginia mustard like 2 centuries ago? Were they similar to our fluorescent yellow mustard or were they like one of the European mustards, or something quite different?

Another factor is the vinegar. How sour was this? I make cider vinegar which is quite different from the vinegars we typically purchase. These ingredients can completely change a recipe. You can also trace how the flavor changes in time as the ingredients themselves change as more products become available.
 
I'll be cooking a piggy in a little over a week. I usually like to have a couple/few sauces available - one of which is always Shack Attack btw. Anyway, this could be great for that - thanks for putting this up - love these posts, Bo!
 
Thanks for sharing the recipe Joe.

Geez, you're the guy I would call to find a Burgoo restaurant
 
Would this be used on meat cooked with no spice rub, like whole critter BBQ? Or is it something that is meant to add to meat where a spice rub has already been used?
 
Yep, ingredients today are a bit different than those of 200 years ago. But,
I don't get into the nuances of the differences between ingredients today and centuries ago. As times changed, ingredients changed but recipes stayed the same.

I have no plans of making my own vinegar or other types of ingredients. Virginians used what they had on hand to season barbecue. That's what's in this recipe. The mustard I use is plain old yellow mustard. The old recipes didn't specify whether the mustard was hot English mustard or some kind of French mustard or German mustard. Sometimes recipes do specify dry mustard but most just call for mustard. So, whatever mustard you like is fair game. I use Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar, a store bought currant jelly and Morton's salt. I did grow the cayenne pepper flakes I use but nothing else.

As far as the vinegar goes, I would imagine that home made vinegar would be much less acidic than what we buy nowadays. I account for that in the recipe by adding a 1/4 cup of water.

One old version of this recipe calls for currant or "any acidic jelly." So, there was wiggle room based upon what was on hand.

Gore said:
Thanks for the post. What is "prepared mustard" in this context? Typically this means the condiment and not the powder, but there are LOTS of different mustards, most of which in the US are highly vinegar-based. Our mustards are completely different from European mustards, which can vary greatly and are not so vinegrated. What was a typical Virginia mustard like 2 centuries ago? Were they similar to our fluorescent yellow mustard or were they like one of the European mustards, or something quite different?

Another factor is the vinegar. How sour was this? I make cider vinegar which is quite different from the vinegars we typically purchase. These ingredients can completely change a recipe. You can also trace how the flavor changes in time as the ingredients themselves change as more products become available.
Click to expand...
 
landarc said:
Would this be used on meat cooked with no spice rub, like whole critter BBQ? Or is it something that is meant to add to meat where a spice rub has already been used?
Click to expand...

This recipe was used on meats without any dry rub at all. It was also used on smaller critters like rabbits and chickens after a soak in salt water (brine) and sometimes some black pepper added during the cook. But, no other seasoning was used on the meat.

Also, some would start barbecuing the meat and early in the cook they would mop it with salt water. As the cook progressed, they would gash the meat with a knife without going all the way through and then start applying the seasoning sauce. I suppose that is an early way of achieving similar results to what we get nowadays with injections.
 
JoeSmoker said:
Fascinating. I will be giving it a go too. Really enjoy the historical aspects of your posts man!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I have just finished the first draft of a book manuscript on this subject. I am in negotiations with several publishers right now.

Besides Virginia barbecue, I also write about Georgia barbecue. Here is a short excerpt about Georgia -

"I have always admired the zeal and passion that Georgians have for southern barbecue and Brunswick stew. The Georgia barbecue passion has also existed for a long time. As far back as 1895, a newspaper writer observed, “The inner Georgia man longs for barbecue.”

This Georgian love of barbecue is reflected in the fact that some of the best accounts of nineteenth-century barbecues I have read are about barbecues in Georgia. Georgia’s barbecue tradition is a long and deeply held one, to be sure."
 
Is this good to use right away? Or does it get better when it sits a while, like the Shack Attack sauce? Gonna make some this weekend. Thanks!
 
Boshizzle, I always look forward to reading your posts. I am a history nerd and a BBQ Junkie so you always pique my interest with these historic BBQ facts and recipes. I agree with not trying to replicate every aspect of a recipe, otherwise we would be grinding mustard seed and peppercorns on stones in our yard. Just having the knowledge of the genesis helps to appreciate it a little more. :clap2:
 
I wait impatiently for Joe's book to be released. In part because of the solid historical work. But, I've seen the list of old recipes, taken from original source records. I believe these will be an amazing set of recipes to see the light of day again
 
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