Juliet Dean reminded me of this recipe – a favourite at all barbecues, especially during the days of renovating Longwood in the late 1970’s, when a hoard of volunteer workers and visitors would be fed on the patio – also later, as Dolly recalls, at the large parties that Pat and I hosted during our teenage years. Mum would make a big pot of the sauce because everyone added it liberally to their charred sausages and chops. If anyone has a photo of those days – please load it or send to me to add to this post.

It was/is also really good cold (in fact it improves with a little age!) – nothing like dipping a cold sausage in some cold bbq sauce! It’s really quick and easy to make (you could make a healthier version with fresh organic tomatoes and honey).

Pam’s Barbecue Sauce (origin – possibly Anne Renton?)

50g butter or marg; 1 tablespoon brown sugar; 1 finely chopped onion; 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup or chutney; 2 teaspoons curry powder, 1 tablespoon flour; 1 pint good stock (550ml -ish); a good splash of Worcester Sauce; salt & pepper; (chilli flakes optional).

Melt the butter and fry the onion lightly. Add curry powder and flour, brown sugar and tomato ketchup and stir to a paste. Add the stock, seasoning and Worcestershire sauce; and stir til smooth. Simmer for probably about 15 mins.

(This probably makes a small saucepan-full. Mum didn’t usually make anything in a small quantity – she was always expanding the scale and I can tell by the pencilled in quantities at the side of the recipe that she made it in 4x, 8x and 16x quantities!)

The Patio, 2011 

 

Yum!