Soda sauce?

[Garband]

I wasn't sure of where to put this.. In the sauces area, or in the beverage area, so I went with general cooking.. I hope this is the right place. Sorry if it isn't. =( lol

I saw something on Food Network a while ago (I don't remember how long, but it's been a while) where some guy used root beer in a recipe, and I've thought that was cool since then. And now that I'm cooking a lot, I want to try it out.

I did some looking around on the forums and read that you can make really good barbecue sauces using sodas. And that seems like a good place to start with using soda in recipes.

But, how do I make it a sauce? Soda's sweet enough by itself, so I don't think I'll be adding anymore sugar.. And it doesn't seem that just adding stuff to make it spicy will be enough to thicken it into a sauce... Am I wrong there? Or will I need to add flour or something to thicken it? Or am I wrong there too?

How do I make it into a sauce? lol

[Andy M.]

I think Alton Brown used it in a ham glaze.

[GB]

Generally, you would reduce the soda. As it reduces it gets thicker. The more you reduce it the thicker it gets.

[Jeff G.]

I use Coke along with some extra brown sugar and cloves to bake hams. Its really good!!

Depending on what you are cooking you might want to sweeten things a bit.
I know you need to club soda for a good tempura...

I can see doing chicken with a lemon-lime soda... Perhaps fish too.

It's going to be some trial and error but I think its cool thing to try.

[Maverick2272]

Originally Posted by Andy M.

I think Alton Brown used it in a ham glaze.

That sounds really good! And something other than the usually brown sugar, honey, and pineapple glaze would be cool for a change.

[bowlingshirt]

Originally Posted by Andy M.

I think Alton Brown used it in a ham glaze.

Alton Brown also has a cranberry sauce recipe that uses ginger ale. I've made it a couple of times at thanksgiving and had good results.

[josh_swinehart]

Alton has a recipe called "country ham" that uses Dr. Pepper.

Enjoy.

-Josh

P.S. -If you search on the same site for "Dr. Pepper" or your favorites there are more recipes to choose from - Emeril has a Chicken Recipe with Dr.Pepper.

[GotGarlic]

I did a search for root beer on Food Network: root beer Recipe Search Food Network

There are quite a few root beer floats, but it seems popular to use it as a marinade or glaze for pork. There were a few chicken recipes, too. HTH.

[Garband]

Okay, so, I tested this out.

I assume reducing means to just boil it? Well, that's what I did...

I put some cream soda and Pepsi together in a sauce pan, and boiled it while I fixed the food.

It didn't really thicken up, so I added some flower and whisked until it was as smooth as I could get it. I added a pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper.

In a separate bowl, I spooned out some mayonnaise (around 5 tablespoons? I was using a regular spoon and scooped it out five times. lol). I put some horseradish (around one tablespoon) in, some tobasco sauce (I'd say 2 to 4 teaspoons) About 1 1/2 tablespoons of mustard, and for some extra flavor, I put 2 or so tablespoons of this cheese thing we have in our refrigerator (It was some Mexican 4cheese chip dip or something lol) and mixed that up real well.

I poured the cream soda/Pepsi on top of that, mixed it up, and it was runny again, so I added some more flower and whisked it pretty hard until it was smooth and more or less clumpless. I added another teaspoon or two of tobasco, and whisked it up. It's a little sweet, but has some good flavor. =)

[GotGarlic]

Wow, that sounds interesting What did you do with this concoction?