Tweedle, Sorry you got trounced. Hang in there!
For me the sauce started with my rub. Meaning, the sauce needs to compliment the
taste of the meat (not overpower it), which means compliment and work well with the
cooked/spiced meat (ala. rub). My rub contains absolutely no sugars, so for me a
slightly sweet sauce is desired. I tried a few (didnt try Head Country or Blues Hog
mentioned above; Blues Hog looks interesting...), but most would either clash with
the rub or just didnt work IMHO. I ended up with my own. At a competition I ran
across a guy who had a mild sweet and spicy sauce, that wasnt so complex that it
eat-up the meat. He told me the ingredients: Tomato Sauce, Pure Cane Syrup,
Lee & Perins, Grape Jelly, and a dash of cayenne pepper. I've stuck with basicly that
plus I add in a little chili powder and hungarian paprika, as those are the main
ingredients in my rub. Makes for a sweet & somewhat hot sauce that's very easily
adjusted to your taste. Dont like it so sweet, back off of the Cane Syrup. Less
hot, back off on the cayenne. More, well, you get the idea. Mind you, it's probably
not going to win a sauce contest, but honestly most sauces that compliment meat
without overpowering it probably wont win a sauce contest.... I like it best with plain
old WallyWorld tomato sauce. He used Hunts, and it had that certain *Hunts* flavor
that I dont care for...
Well, that's what we're doing. If you've seen the news, we're going to pray that
our cookoff this weekend isn't on the Ark (flooding everywhere down here, for
REAL).
Oh, I dont sauce the pork or the brisket. Also, I only apply a tiny coat of this sauce
to chicken and ribs. Again, dont want to end up tasting only the sauce, and I put
the sauce on it and put it back on the cooker for perhaps 5 minutes, 8 tops....