Ed Boyle's Muster Sauce
For a few years now, I have been supplying either pork ribs or chicken to feed the hordes of Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps at musters. At Westbrook in 2003, about 20 pounds of chicken disappeared in as many minutes. Lancraft doesn't do it alone. Visitors from neighboring tents often help out. Then I am constantly asked how I make the sauce. Since writing materials are usually scarce and drummers don't like felt tip marker scratching on their drum heads, I have decided to post it all right here.
If you have a food processor or a blender, it is very easy to make. A true "bachelor" recipe, it requires the washing of very few kitchen utensils.
In a food processor or blender, dump a jar (any size) of Apricot Preserves. Even if you don't care for apricots or apricot preserves, use only this product. Trust me. If you don't have a food processor or a blender, mash the lumps as best you can. It is worth the effort.
Using the same container that the preserves came in, add 1 jar of ketchup or catsup or any other spelling. Run the blender or processor to get all of the lumps out of the preserves, Dump the contents into a sauce pan.
Add 1 jar of light or dark brown sugar, followed by 1 jar of soy sauce to the sauce pan. You can now discard the dirty jar. The only things left to wash are the food processor and the saucepan.
Add 1 heaping tablespoon of garlic powder and TWO heaping tablespoons of powdered ginger.
Mix well and cook, constantly stirring over a low heat until the entire concoction comes to a boil and the sugar is dissolved. Pour it in as many jars as you can find and put them in the refrigerator. In the past, I have used normal canning methods, but this stuff disappears so quickly, it isn't worth the effort.
Don't taste the sauce! At this point, it will taste vile due to all of that ginger. It is only after using it on meat that the ginger flavor mellows out.
Chicken: I use drumsticks or thighs. Brown them in a pan or on an electric grill, place them in a baking dish, spoon a gob of sauce on each one, and bake uncovered for about an hour at around 325 degrees. They are done when the kitchen smells good.
Pork Ribs: Separate the ribs into individual pieces, place them in a baking dish, pour a gob of sauce on each one and bake uncovered at around 325 degrees until the kitchen smells good. Use your own judgment as to baking time. It is pretty hard to overcook them.
Fish: Brown lightly and the rest is the same as the ribs.
Hamburgers and steaks: when you have flipped them the final time, put a gob of sauce on them.
With all due respect to the grillers out there, if you use this sauce on an outdoor grill, at least half of what you produce will be devoured by the members of the local fire company who responded to the column of smoke arising from your back yard. The grates will also be murder to clean, and so far we only had to wash a food processor jar and a saucepan. You can leave the baking dish in the sink for some grateful person to wash. You can do steaks and hamburgers outdoors, because they won't smoke so badly.
Enjoy!
(c) EW Boyle, 2003