One Great . . . alternative barbecue sauce

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Despite crazy notions about barbecue being a summer activity, I stick to the tradition that barbecue is for fall. So far, this week of late October has been barbecue-focused for me. I started out Sunday at the Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Miss., where the topic was pitmasters and barbecue. And on Thursday, I made the trek to the Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church Barbecue.

Seems fitting to end the week with a barbecue sauce recipe. Instead of the usual vinegar vs. tomato, let's look elsewhere in the South to a delicious sauce that was featured at SFA on a Saturday night.

During the day at SFA, there were scholarly papers on pig history and panel discussions on the state of barbecue in America. But on Saturday night, at Woodson Ridge Farm outside Oxford, they gathered a bunch of barbecue experts to cook up several styles for tasting. Sam Jones of Ayden, N.C., and Rodney Scott of Hemingway, S.C., cooked whole pig. Ed Mitchell of Wilson and Durham cooked Brunswick stew. Tim Byres of Dallas served up beef ribs.

But the one I kept revisiting was Pat Martin's Alabama-style smoked chicken, chopped into quarters and tossed with this stuff. Argue all you want about different styles. This stuff is made for chicken.

MissAlaTenn White Barbecue Sauce

From Pat Martin of Martin's Bar-B-Q Joint in Nolensville, Tenn.

4 cups mayonnaise
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 (heaping) tablespoons salt
2 (heaping) tablespoons black pepper
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper

COMBINE all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir well. Put into a squirt bottle and squirt it or brush it on chicken. Or do it how Martin was doing it: Use it as a basting sauce, then chop the cooked chicken into quarters and toss it in a bowl with more sauce. Messy, but seriously good.