Alabama white sauce
Mayonnaise, vinegar and black pepper, and the chicken goes into it after it comes off the smoke rather than the other way round. The only mayonnaise-based barbecue sauce in this catalogue, and it works because it never meets the fire.
What it is
- Base
- mayonnaise
- When it goes on
- table sauce
- Burn risk over the fire
- low
What it goes with
Grouped by how the pairing is known rather than by how good it is. The first group is somebody else’s statement; the last is ours, and says so.
A source pairs them
A named source says this sauce or seasoning is used with this food. Follow the citation and you will find somebody stating it.
- Whole chicken — The Encyclopedia of Alabama records split chickens smoked over hickory for three hours and then dunked in the sauce — the pairing, the application and the order are all stated.
Structurally compatible
A structural fact rather than a cultural one: what the sauce is made of against what the cook does to it. Sugar burns over a long direct cook whoever is doing the cooking.
- Chicken thigh, bone-in — An emulsion breaks over direct heat, so this is an after-the-cook sauce on any poultry rather than a basting sauce. The documented case is a whole bird; the constraint is the same on a portion of one.
What this rests on
- A white barbecue sauce of mayonnaise, vinegar and black pepper is documented as originating at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama, applied to chickens by dunking them after they had been smoked over hickory rather than during the cook.