Food & Drink

Alabama’s White Gold

Pat Martin’s three-state take on a barbecue classic

December/January 2014

Photo: Caroline Allison

Raised in Corinth, Mississippi, and educated at Freed-Hardeman University in the barbecue capital of Henderson, Tennessee, Martin’s Bar-B-Que pit master Pat Martin developed this sauce as a tribute to the basting and dunking sauces applied to smoked chickens in northern Alabama. It also makes a fine dip for potato chips and french fries.

Ingredients

- 4 cups mayonnaise
- 2½ cups cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 2 tbsp. kosher salt (heaping)
- 2 tbsp. black pepper (heaping)
- 1½ tsp. cayenne pepper

Preparation

In a large bowl, add the cider vinegar to the mayonnaise, followed by the Worcestershire and the spices. Stir to incorporate. Pour into a squirt bottle.

Recipe from Martin’s Bar-B-Que pit master Pat Martin.

John T. Edge, writer and host of the television show TrueSouth, began contributing to Garden & Gun in its first year of publication. He is the author of The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South. His memoir, House of Smoke, will publish in the fall of 2025.