The Neck Bones' Condiment Hall of Fame: Pickapeppa Sauce

When Major League Baseball announced the Hall of Fame inductees this winter, the list was abbreviated. In fact, there was no list. No player received over 75 percent of the vote necessary to gain entry. To compensate for the lack of 2013 baseball Hall of Famers, I'm creating my own Hall of Fame, but not for baseball players. Mine will be for the most deserving condiments on the planet. And they don't need over 75 percent of anyone else's vote. For now, I'm the only judge for this award, and I swear I won't hold it against a condiment if they might be, or once were, pumped with steroids or anything else chemical or artificial. I know in the world of condiments, there is no such thing as a level playing field.

The inaugural inductee to the Neck Bones Condiment Hall of Fame is that Jamaican treasure: Pickapeppa Sauce

Pickapeppa originated in 1921 and still is produced in Jamaica, in a place called Shooter's Hill. I once drove past the Pickapeppa factory many years ago, but foolishly didn't stop to wander the facilities to learn how such a unique sauce is concocted. So I can only go on what it says on the label of the bottle, which tells me that the ingredients include mangoes, tamarind, tomatoes, onions, sugar cane vinegar, raisins and "spices." And then, like good Jamaican rum, the sauce is aged in oak barrels for a year before it is sold to the public.

In Jamaica, Pickapeppa became famous as an accompaniment to cream cheese. I can honestly declare that I have never contemplated topping a bagel and cream cheese with Pickapeppa sauce, but maybe I'm missing something. Pickapeppa is also commonly used an added ingredient to marinades for barbecues, a baste for fish or meat, and stirred into gravies for a tangy kick. I've used it as a dip for samosas, tempuras and fried fish, to lively up a dull or dry piece of meat, or sprinkled on scrambled eggs.

On the website there are a number of recipes including one for a Creole bloody mary that looked intriguing. In fact, I've heard that the sauce has become a favorite new source for creative Caribbean mixologists.

As a tribute to Pickapeppa, I cooked up one of the recipes on the website: Pickapeppa Pulled Chicken. I've tweaked it somewhat, but otherwise, I present it here, pretty much intact.

Ingredients:

2-3lbs of skinless chicken breasts, rib intact

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped.

3 ounces, or three quarters of a 5 ounce bottle of Pickapeppa Sauce*

1 tbs of Jerk sauce (I used Walkerswood, another candidate for a future edition of the Neck Bones Hall of Fame)

3 dashes of hot sauce.

2/3s of a 12 ounce bottle of ginger beer.

*The website's recipe calls for a 15 ounce bottle of Pickapeppa sauce to be used. I've never seen a bottle larger than the traditional five ounce bottle, so I'm not sure if it was a typo or not. Either way, Three ounces of the rich sauce seemed more than enough for me.

Below are some of the ingredients including two potential Hall of Fame inductees.

Combine the Pickapeppa Sauce, jerk sauce, hot sauce and olive oil in a small bowl and mix.

Coat the chicken breasts with the sauce and let sit at room temperature for a half hour.

Add the chopped onions and garlic to a crock pot or slow cooker and then pour in 2/3 of a bottle of the ginger beer. You could toss in the whole bottle, but I saved a third to use in a well-deserved Dark & Stormy that I figured would be the perfect pairing with the pulled chicken.
Add the chicken breasts, cover and cook on low for four to six hours.

When done, shred the chicken breasts, be careful to remove any bones, and add in a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid to moisten. Serve on rolls or not, and top with any remaining Pickapeppa sauce you might have.

If you have any personal tributes to Condiment Hall of Famer, Pickapeppa Sauce, please don't hesitate to include them in the comments section below.