I left for Pennsylvania with the notion of having a kitchen-free “vacation.” But when I arrived at the McHenry residence, I could hardly help myself; bordering the back of the house was a patch of elderberry bushes loaded with ripe fruit—and it was all going to rot if I didn’t do something! Sacrilege! I’d never cooked with or tasted elderberries, so preparing this fresh hand-picked fruit was also a rare opportunity and adventure.

Harvesting the berries was simple enough with a little maneuvering and the right equipment. I wore long jeans, my trusty ol’ jogging shoes, a hat, and a fitted long-sleeve jacket to protect me from the surrounding brush and its creepy-crawly inhabitants. Sharp clippers did the snipping, and a rake brought the taller bunches down to eye-level. No comments from the peanut gallery about short Asian people, please.

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I’ve seen a wide swath of “BBQ sauces"—everything from thin vinegar basting mops to thick soy-based Asian mixtures. But when I think of BBQ sauce, and what most people think of when you say BBQ sauce, is a combination of the holy trinity: vinegar, tomato, and molasses. BBQ sauce of this category isn’t intended to penetrate the meat, and it should never be used to baste meat exposed directly to heat for long periods of time (unless you like eating carbon). The sugar content, however, makes the sauce a prime candidate for caramelization. Caramelization is the process whereby finger-licking good BBQ sauce gets stuck to your meat. Sticky sauce may be messy, but it’s preferable to having the sauce slide off entirely while you’re trying to eat a hunky rack of ribs.

So what’s the recipe for BBQ sauce? Well, the answer is there is no single recipe, even if we narrow down our options to those that include The Three Main Ingredients. Some people like it tangy (more vinegar). Some people like it sweet. Some people like it hot. Some people like it smoky and with a tasty bite of booze. Depending on what you like, you’ll have to adjust the amount of sweet, tangy, hot, smoky, and bitter components in your recipe.

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