Fire and Smoke: Dijon-Tarragon Mop Sauce

By Pat Crocker
Published on August 18, 2011

Dijon-Tarragon Mop Sauce

Makes 1 cup

Tart, sweet, savory, or consisting simply of oil, vinegar, or butter, bastes are brushed, spooned, mopped, or squirted on thickly and often to keep food moist while cooking over an open fire.

Make basting mops or brushes out of woody herbs by cutting oregano, mint, lavender, thyme, sage, lemongrass, or rosemary to equal lengths of 4 to 6 inches. Strip the leaves from one end, leaving 2 to 3 inches of leaves at the other end. Using string or a long twist tie, bind several of these sticks together to form a fragrant, natural basting broom.

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup beer
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh savory

1. In a small bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together.
2. Use herb mop sauce to brush on meats and vegetables during cooking. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Click here for the main article, Fire and Smoke.


 Pat Crocker, home economist and culinary herbalist, photographs, lectures, and writes about food and herbs. Author of three cookbooks, including The Healing Herbs Cookbook (Robert Rose, 1999) and The Juicing Bible (Robert Rose, 2000), Pat enjoys grilling with her family every summer.

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