Snow's BBQ Mop Sauce | Pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz’s BBQ Mop Sauce

Snow's BBQ Mop Sauce | Pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz’s BBQ Mop Sauce

QUESTION: could a mop sauce make better BBQ brisket because of unwrapped cooking method compared to Franklin's wrapped cook?

Tootie's BBQ mop sauce from Snow's BBQ in Lexington, Texas is a publicly available recipe but something I've not had a chance to try yet with a BBQ brisket cook. The traditional method of 'spritzing' the edges of the brisket to keep it moist & stop it getting too crispy has been my method of choice in the past but after my recent 'hybrid' cook that combines offset smoker & ceramic egg BBQ with an open boat, I've been wondering, would a mop work as a flavour enhancer for the bark.

It seems logical since you are just adding further layers of flavour but with spritzing, as 'BBQ Jesus' Aaron Franklin indicates, the build of flavour profile from the spritz is minimal with the rub doing most of the heavy lifting. Hence, a simple water spritz can do the job of clearing the brisket of ash build and helping keep surface moist. BUT, is this a result of the cooking method because the briskets at Franklin BBQ get a wrapped rather than left open to the fire / smoke through the course of the BBQ?

So, we are going off-road again with this experiment using a mop sauce with a BBQ beef brisket in a foil boat, but I am running a few tests to see how a mopped brisket turns out using Tootie's BBQ universal mop sauce recipe (since this BBQ mop sauce has the fantastic pedigree):

Tootie's BBQ Mop Ingredients:

• 1 onion (chopped very fine)
• 1.5 cups of water
• 100g / 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tbs mustard flour (dry mustard)

Cooking directions:

1. Boil the onions in the water for around 15 to 30 mins, until soft
2. Add remaining ingredients and boil on low till sauce thickens (around 30 minutes)

A mop sauce is different to the traditional BBQ sauce. Used during the BBQ rather than solely at the end of the BBQ process, a mop sauce is thin and watery. When smoking BBQ meats for a long time period, the map sauce not only will add flavour but with a high vinegar content, it helps tenderness of the meat through the process.

Other flavours can be added to create your own unique mop sauce, sauce such as beer, cider, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, fruit juices & spices but a mop sauce generally doesn't have ketchup added, which would build up on the BBQ bark and reduce smoke penetration.

Sometimes, if I am feeling rebellious and have time, I make my own BBQ smoked ketchup sauce for BBQ sauces from scratch on the grill. If you can be bothered to spend hours cooking your brisket then maybe the sauces deserve the same elevated dedication!

After seeing Thyron Matthew's 100 year old BBQ mop sauce on The American BBQ Showdown, I will be trying the addition of green peppers into the a mop sauce at some point, working on a fusion mop sauce to go with the fusion brisket BBQ method. But that's going to have to wait till next week probably.