Smoked Blackberry Camp BBQ Sauce
Berries picked on the walk in, cooked down over the fire with pantry sweet and sour into a sauce for grilled game.
- calories
- 140
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 40
- protein
- 1 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 45 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 240 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Wild blackberries | 4 cups | rinsed and picked over; frozen from the cooler works |
|---|---|---|
| Bourbon | 1/2 cup | |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Shallot | 1, diced fine | keeps in a pack for days, no cooler needed |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | |
| Water | 1 cup | |
| Ketchup | 1/2 cup | squeeze packets if you are counting weight |
| Dark brown sugar | 1/2 cup | |
| Honey | 1/2 cup | |
| Cider vinegar | 3 tbsp | |
| Brown mustard | 1 tbsp | |
| Hot sauce | 1 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Put the berries and the bourbon in a foil pan. Set the pan on the grill grate off to the side of the coals, where the heat is low and the smoke from a chunk of hardwood can reach it. Leave it 45 minutes, covered loosely with foil so smoke still gets in.
- While that sits, melt the butter in a pot over moderate coals. Cook the shallot and garlic 3 to 5 minutes, until soft and clear. Do not brown the garlic.
- Scrape in the smoked berries with all their liquid, then add the water, ketchup, brown sugar, honey, vinegar, mustard, hot sauce, chili powder, paprika, pepper, and salt.
- Bring it to a boil, then pull the pot to the edge of the fire and hold a low simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often. It burns on the bottom fast once the sugar concentrates.
- Mash the berries against the side of the pot with a spoon. Strain through a mesh sieve if you brought one and want it smooth; otherwise leave the seeds in.
- Brush on grilled venison, elk, pork, or turkey in the last few minutes of cooking, not before, or the sugar will scorch.
This is a car camp sauce, not a pack sauce. It needs a real fire, a pot, and twenty-five minutes of attention, and the reward is that the smoke goes into the fruit rather than being poured out of a bottle. Blackberries at the low end of the grill pick up wood smoke the way meat does, and the bourbon in the pan carries it deeper because alcohol pulls the smoke compounds in and then boils off later in the pot.
The rest is a standard sweet and sour build. Ketchup and brown sugar give it body and the sweetness that reads as barbecue, vinegar and mustard keep it from going cloying, and the honey holds it together once it reduces. Everything except the butter and the berries is shelf stable and travels in squeeze bottles. Watch the pot at the end — sugar this concentrated scorches on a hot spot in under a minute, and burnt sauce cannot be fixed.
Packing
Measure the spices, sugar, and salt into one bag at home. Ketchup, honey, mustard, vinegar, and hot sauce ride in small squeeze bottles. Butter and any leftover sauce go in the cooler.
Variations
- No fire pit: skip the smoking step and add another 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. It is not the same, but it is close.
- Swap the bourbon for 1/2 cup apple juice and a splash more vinegar for a dry camp.
- Cut the brown sugar to 1/4 cup if you are serving it with something already sweet, like glazed pork.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/smoked-wild-blackberry-bbq-sauce