Elvis' Famous Recipe for Perfectly Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce Has Us All Shook Up
When you think of Elvis, you might immediately think of a few things: his songs like "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock," Graceland or your mind could go to the recent depictions of his life portrayed in films such as Elvis and Priscilla. But when we think of Elvis Presley, we also think about his love of food. The King could really eat, and some of his favorites included pound cake and banana bread. He's even known for his passion for the Fool's Gold Loaf, a mega sandwich made with a pound each of bacon, peanut butter and grape jelly.
Related: Eat Like The King With These 13 Elvis Presley-Inspired Recipes
Although Elvis was keen on carbs, he apparently was also a barbecue fan. We came across his Special Barbecue Sauce recipe, which is an interesting one indeed. After a little digging around we saw some online comments saying that the recipe was printed in a magazine years ago and was attributed to Elvis's longtime cook, Mary Jenkins, which seems like the most likely source because it seems that Elvis was more of an eater than a cook.
The tomato sauce, vinegar, honey, brown sugar, mustard powder, chile powder and even the soy sauce for a hit of umami were pretty standard. But then we saw two slices of lemon and another ingredient that we've never seen in a barbecue sauce recipe—pickling spice.
Reading through the recipe, it was difficult to tell what the finished product would taste like, but we were definitely intrigued. To find out if Jenkins and the King were onto something we whipped up a batch.
Get the recipe: Elvis Presley's Special Barbecue Sauce
Nina Elder
What is Pickling Spice?
You might not be surprised to learn that pickling spice is a spice blend that's often used to make pickles. The ingredients vary by brand (and you can also make your own at home), but it often includes allspice, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger, mustard seed, dill seed and peppercorns. Some blends also add a little heat with some crushed red pepper flakes.
You can find pickling spice in the spice section of many supermarkets, though we weren't able to find it at our local Stop & Shop but did track it down at Walmart. The Walmart Great Value blend is a mix of whole coriander seed, whole mustard seed, whole dill seed, cracked bay leaves, cinnamon, red chili and whole allspice. When you open the jar it smells kind of like Christmas plus a dill pickle.
Nina Elder
What Pickling Spice Adds to Barbecue Sauce
Although Elvis was associated with Memphis because of Graceland, his barbecue sauce leans more in a Kansas City-style direction. Generally speaking, Kansas City barbecue sauce is tangy, sweet and tomato-based. With the tomato sauce and a good dose of white vinegar, plus both honey and brown sugar, Elvis's sauce fits that description.
As the sauce simmered, you could definitely smell the pickling spice. The blend added a complex spice to the sauce that tasted somewhere between dill pickles and ranch dressing, which sounds totally weird, but it was good. In addition to the bright herby, tangy dill flavor, which played well with the white vinegar in the recipe, you could also taste a bit of the warm spices (the cinnamon and allspice) in the background, which gave the sauce a nice depth.
We're not sure that adding pickling spice to every barbecue sauce is the move, but it did really make this particular sauce sing. It would be great on ribs, chicken or even tofu. It's also versatile enough to use as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or French fries, if you're feeling like mixing things up. Many of the spices in pickling spice are used in ketchup, so your fries should feel right at home.
One thing to note: Because pickling spice is made with whole spices, you may want to strain the sauce or at least remove any large spices, like any whole allspice or cloves or large pieces of bay leaf.
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