Smokin’ Joe Jones produces his unique meat and barbeque sauce from a secret family recipe over sixty years old. Born and raised in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Smokin’ Joe learned many down home folk recipes from his grandmother, a full-blooded Choctaw Native American. Smokin’ Joe uses lots of garlic, wild honey, lemon and other healthy and flavorful ingredients.

As annouced previoulsy on Hot Sauce Blog (press release can be seen here), Ron Levi and the crew at Innuendo Enterprises have begun delivering Smokin’ Joe Jones BBQ Sauces to gourmet foodies everywhere. Ron sent me a sample last week to review here on Hot Sauce Blog.

I spent some time thinking about what I was going to try this out on and finally settled on Ron’s suggestion of a slow cooked pork roast. The wife and I ventured to WholeFoods on Saturday afternoon, planning to gather groceries for the week, before the crowds hit the store. If your in Midtown Manhattan, you know not to go to WholeFoods Saturday or Sunday evening, the store is packed! I’m talking lines longer then the Star Wars first showing lines. But if I was single I’d probably go there to pick up women (WholeFoods, not Star Wars).

Anyways, the butcher did not have the cut of pork that I was looking for, so I had to quickly re-group and come up with another equally tasty dish to taste test Smokin Joe Jone’s Blazin BBQ Sauce with. Remebering what I had read on the back of the sauce label, I ventured to to the seafood section and picked out two large salmon steaks. Now, the wife hates anything fishy, so when she saw the salmon steaks, her nose scrunched up and the complaints started flowing. Before we had even left the store mind you. But I told her to relax, I would take care of everything and make sure nothing was “fishy” in the house.

So Sunday. Day of rest for most. Day of cooking experiments for me. I love Sundays. Saturdays are usually spent recovering from the week, so Sundays are spent puttering around, taking the dogs to the park and playing in the kitchen to prepare Sunday’s dinner. I began preparing our salmon feast around 4 o’clock, giving myself ample time to work. On the menu:

Salmon Steaks brushed with Smokin’ Joe Jones BBQ Sauce
Asparagus - Tossed in fresh cracked pepper, sel gris and a little olive oil.
Garlic French Bread

With a little creativity and garlic, tasty steaks prevail. I left the skin on the steak while they were cooking (to maintain moisture) and removed the skins about 2 minutes before taking the steaks out of the oven. I coated the steaks with the Blazin’ BBQ Sauce and placed a good amount of garlic in the center of each steak.

While the steaks were cooking (400 degrees), I warmed up our cast iron grill pan, washed and trimmed the asparagus, then coated them with a little olive oil, cracked pepper and the sel gris (from Dave’s Gourmet). Every 15 mintues or so, I would brush the salmon with a fresh coating of the BBQ Sauce.

I then grilled the asparagus and after about an hour, both the salmon and the asparagus were finished.

I have to say, when I first chose the salmon steaks, I had little faith in my ability to make something good out of them, but I rocked those steaks. Or I should say, Smokin’ Joe Jones BBQ Sauce helped me rock the steaks. The flavor of the BBQ Sauce was strong, but did not overpower the meal. I would definatly recommend Smokin’ Joe Jone’s BBQ Sauce to any BBQ fan. You can get yourself a jar from the Rojo Website.

As a general rule, I consider any BBQ sauce that comes in a jar to be a notch above the rest. To me it just says “We don’t waste time on fancy packaging, we’re good enough without it” - which I find to be true 9 times out of 10.

One note: We tried the Blazin’ Heat BBQ Sauce - which is supposed to be the hotter version. It was a little spicy, but most BBQ sauces are. I would like to see Smokin’ Joes come out with a sauce with just a bit more bite. Maybe Ron can throw in some Gone Rabid Hot Sauce into the mix to kick things up a notch.