Bitters Barbecue Sauce How-to

Grilled tilapia with bitters barbecue sauce on the table. Yum!

The taste of bitter herbs like gentian, dandelion, and yellow dock may make you shudder, but the effects of adding bitters to your diet are all positive-- better digestion and metabolism, hormonal balancing, blood sugar regulation, and liver and gallbadder support. Cacao and coffee are also bitters, albeit bitters that contain caffeine. Bitter herbs send a message to our digestive system that we are eating complex food. Putting our bodies through this "challenge" on a regular basis is healthy because it leads to strong digestion. Taking bitters before meals as a daily practice improves overall digestive and liver health, but bitters are effective even the first time you take them.

Our bodies have taste receptors designed to sense bitter when we eat it! Tasting bitter stimulates digestive secretion. The body immediately starts producing saliva as well as acids, enzymes, hormones, and bile, getting itself ready to process what we eat. Many very fine herbalists such as James Green, Guido Mase, Susun Weed and Jim McDonald have all written about what happens to bodies that never taste bitter, something Green termed "bitter deficiency syndrome"-- a chronic state of sluggish and weak digestion which robs the body of nutrition while it also disrupts important body processes beyond digestion.

Personally, I have a bitters craving, feeling not-alright unless I eat bitter greens on a daily basis. But I know others are less enthusiastic. How do we make bitters something to look forward to every day? Well, I have found bitter herb extracts to be really tasty additions to tangy sauces like barbecue, teriyaki or a Jamaican style jerk. I even drop a half teaspoon or so into stir fries while de-glazing with maple and lemon juice. A bit of sweet maple makes bitter taste palatable to even picky eaters (but not too much sweetness because you have to taste the bitter for the plant medicine to work).

Back in April, we Wild Rose herbwives were in Christina's kitchen concocting a bitter molasses syrup, using fresh whole dandelion and yellow dock roots along with some wild-crafted nettles. Some of that yummy stuff was still hanging around in my fridge one night in May, and my husband Eric put some into a barbecue sauce he was making for his grilled veggies. Sooooo delish! My bitters receptors immediately called out, "Make the sauce bitter-er!" I concocted the sauce further, using both the Wild Rose Bitter Molasses AND some of our fresh-pressed Bitters Tincture. We served this version of the bitters sauce to our Patio Party guests last month, slathered on some grilled tempeh bites. And good for the peeps who gobbled it all up!

Here is my recipe for the barbecue sauce. Get you some Bitters Tincture and Bitters Molasses pronto and whip it up, folks!

Bitters Barbecue Sauce

7 oz. tomato paste
5 oz. water
3-4 tablespoons Bitter Molasses Syrup (decoction of whole dandelion herb, nettles, and yellow dock roots in blackstrap molasses, with lemon juice)*
2 tablespoons maple
2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
2-3 droppers full of Bitters Tincture
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well and warm on low heat, stirring often, just until the sauce starts to bubble. Remove from heat, cool, and spread on grilled fish, meats, tempeh, veggies, etc. Should make 2-3 cups. Leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge in a glass jar.

*Note: Substitute regular blackstrap molasses or leave out the tincture if you want a less bitter sauce.

Wild Rose Apothecary's Bitters extracts

Inquire with us via email (wildroseapothecary@gmail.com) about our bitters products-- Bitters Tincture, Bitters Molasses Syrup, and Iron Root Bitter Vinegar. Bitters Tincture will also be available soon through our etsy store.

Our Bitters Tincture contains dandelion root, gentian root, ginger root, and lemon balm, along with a mix of fennel seed, peppermint, and/or licorice root. Each of us has our own signature blend, but all three anchor on dandelion and gentian roots. There are few herbs as bitter as gentian; really gets the job done! We include wild-crafted dandelion in this tincture and our home-grown lemon balm. We aimed for energetically balanced formulae, using warming and cooling herbs, moistening ones and others with drying qualities. Christy's formula includes a small portion of maple-- an already sweetened bitters.

Bitters Molasses Syrup is full of iron, high in vitamins A and C, and minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium. Anyone who is prone to anemia would be wise to take blackstrap molasses infused with one or more of the herbs in this formula daily (nettle, dandelion, yellow dock).

Iron Root Bitter Vinegar is another bitters extract I love. I take a dropper full daily in the morning (my spicy and nourishing bitters alarm clock), but I also use it in salad dressings, sauces, even in hummus. It is an apple cider vinegar extract of yellow dock, burdock, and ginger roots. Like most bitters, these roots restore and improve liver function while being high in iron.

Disclaimer:  All information here within is for education purposes and is not intended for the diagnosis, treatment, or cure of any disease.  Consult your healthcare provider before self-treating.