Need some help with a BBQ sauce recipe

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armyguygrillin

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Hey guys! Been a while since I posted on here but I'm back for some help. I have a BBQ sauce that I REALLY like but the price keeps going up and the bottles have shrank considerably. For this reason, I've been trying to recreate it for my personal stash. I won't name the brand but I will tell you the ingredients. For some reason I just can't get it to taste the same and I'm not sure if it's in the base that I'm off of the spices.

Here are the ingredients on the label:
Cane Sugar, tomato puree, distilled vinegar, worscheshire sauce, salt. Less than 2% of the following: Spices, Pepper, Garlic powder, Celery seed.

My base is a 28oz can of Cento tomato puree. Then I'm adding sugar until the sweetness is there, then balancing with vinegar.

Since the first ingredient is cane sugar, I know that means there is more sugar than anything else. So for the first batch, I added 3 cups of dark brown sugar. Then 1 cup of worscheshire sauce, and 1 cup ACV. Added salt pepper and spices and after simmering 15 minutes, I let it sit overnight. Way too sweet.


So today I try batch#2. Another can of the Cento, this time 1 cup of white sugar, 1 cup distilled white vinegar, and 1/4 cup of worscheshire sauce. Gonna let it sit and cool but I already know this is not on recipe anymore because I'm way less sugar than the tomato puree, but after one cup of sugar, I thought it was sweet enough.

Where would you guys go with this? Thanks for any help in advance
 
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I guess I should also mention that this is a savory BBQ sauce, not a really sweet sauce which is why I think I enjoy it so much. It doesn't have that molasses taste to it, and their isn't any added molasses other than what is in the worscheshire sauce and in the brown sugar if that's what they are using instead of the white sugar. Maybe I'm way off on the vinegar in both batches?
 
Kinda tough to give any help, with so little information. Why don't you want to name the sauce you are trying to copy?? Maybe someone has a good copy, as long as youu are not trying to resale it as yours??

Right now you are kinda saying, dont want to tell you where I am going, but I need the fastest route??? lol

Good luck, as playing recipes to get your flavor is part of the fun.
 
Definitely not trying to resale it. That's why I said it's just for my own personal stash. As far as the name, I guess I just dont want to make the business mad, but I feel like it's a compliment that I like their sauce so much that I'm trying to make it. I just can't afford $9 for a tiny bottle. I guess I'll go ahead and say it, and if they come on here and ask me to delete their name, I will out if respect. But the sauce in question is by Rob's Smokin Rub and it is their original Frog sauce.
 
Another suggestion: make smaller test batches that way you can try several (2-3) different recipes without wasting a bunch of ingredients. Once you nail it, then scale up and adjust accordingly.

Good luck
 
We for starters, your subsituting raw cane sugar for dark brown sugar which is basicly white sugar mixed with molasses. Thats like substituing honey with sugar and expecting honey bbq to taste like honey bbq.
 
Why are you adding brown sugar when you listed the ingredients dont list brown sugar?
 
tx_hellraiser said:
Why are you adding brown sugar when you listed the ingredients dont list brown sugar?
Click to expand...

Well the ingredients just said Cane Sugar. So since both boxes of sugar say Cane Sugar on the front, I wasn't sure which one to get so I tried the dark brown sugar first. It was too sweet so when I started reading about it, it says that it's white sugar sprayed with molasses. So this batch I went with regular white cane sugar. Is there another cane sugar I should be using?
 
I have not had the opportunity to try that sauce, so I am no use. And that is what my wife says, so go figure, lol

But I can say that spices don't always scale mathematically. I am kinda numbers based, so when I came up with our sauce for the restaurant, it was first made in a quart. So, I thought to make 5 gallons just increase everything equally by 20. nope, it gets you close, but then further refinement is necessary. Good luck on the quest
 
EyeBurnEverything said:
We for starters, your subsituting raw cane sugar for dark brown sugar which is basicly white sugar mixed with molasses. Thats like substituing honey with sugar and expecting honey bbq to taste like honey bbq.
Click to expand...

Sorry, raw cane sugar being the white stuff?

It just says "Cane Sugar" in the ingredients so I wasn't sure which they used because brown and white both say Cane sugar on the front of the box.

The raw cane sugar I saw at the store says it has even more molasses flavor because of it being less processed than white sugar.
 
armyguygrillin said:
Well the ingredients just said Cane Sugar. So since both boxes of sugar say Cane Sugar on the front, I wasn't sure which one to get so I tried the dark brown sugar first. It was too sweet so when I started reading about it, it says that it's white sugar sprayed with molasses. So this batch I went with regular white cane sugar. Is there another cane sugar I should be using?
Click to expand...

Your probably better off testing with plain white sugar till you get close to the flavor profile you are after. Dark brown sugar has way more molasses flavor then even sugar in the raw which is unrefined cane sugar. Also, instead of using Centos Brand puree, trying using tomato paste. It has less citric acid and other preservitives that will give the final product a more canned, acidic taste.

By the way, tomato puree is basicly tomato paste with water added. Most companies try to do play on words to make you think your getting something less commercialized.
 
armyguygrillin said:
Sorry, raw cane sugar being the white stuff?

It just says "Cane Sugar" in the ingredients so I wasn't sure which they used because brown and white both say Cane sugar on the front of the box.

The raw cane sugar I saw at the store says it has even more molasses flavor because of it being less processed than white sugar.
Click to expand...

Raw cane sugar taste nothing like dark brown or even light brown sugar. Raw cane sugar has a darker appearance then obviously while sugar, but doesn't taste like brown sugar at all.
 
I guess the biggest thing for me is, how is the sauce not super sweet when cane sugar is the largest part of the ingredients list? Is it being cancelled out by the distilled vinegar?

I guess I'll do like someone stated above and just do small batches trying different things until I get it where I want.
 
armyguygrillin said:
I guess the biggest thing for me is, how is the sauce not super sweet when cane sugar is the largest part of the ingredients list? Is it being cancelled out by the distilled vinegar?

I guess I'll do like someone stated above and just do small batches trying different things until I get it where I want.
Click to expand...

Your most likely adding too much tomato puree and or vinegar if you think its not sweet enough. Also, dark brown sugar is more bitter then just plain white sugar. So that can take away from being sweet.
 
Maybe an option; if you can't seem to copy it, ask a brethren if they know of something similar and cheaper, and as long as you can get one close to it, you can tweak it with your favorite flavor enhancers until you get a keeper.
 
tx_hellraiser said:
Why are you adding brown sugar when you listed the ingredients dont list brown sugar?
Click to expand...

EyeBurnEverything said:
Your probably better off testing with plain white sugar till you get close to the flavor profile you are after.
Click to expand...

ColoradoSmoke said:
Another suggestion: make smaller test batches that way you can try several (2-3) different recipes without wasting a bunch of ingredients. Once you nail it, then scale up and adjust accordingly.
Click to expand...



^ +1, I agree with the above suggestions.


armyguygrillin said:
I guess the biggest thing for me is, how is the sauce not super sweet when cane sugar is the largest part of the ingredients list? Is it being cancelled out by the distilled vinegar?

I guess I'll do like someone stated above and just do small batches trying different things until I get it where I want.
Click to expand...


It appears that you are measuring the ingredients. I worked for a company that built food processing equipment, creating the PLC's for the manufacturers. Keep in mind that every piece of equipment I made the software for, have always been based on weight for accuracy and product consistency.

Maybe consider weighing the ingredients. Also keep in mind that commercial food producers also have liquid cane sugar available as an ingredient.



Ingredient Statement - Order of Ingredients. ... “Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of a food, including foods that comply with standards of identity, except those ingredients exempted by §101.100, shall be listed by common or usual name in descending order of predominance by weight."



Lastly, many teams and restaurants have their sauce available in gallons and sometimes five gallon buckets even if they don't advertise it. You can always ask to see if larger quanities are available. If not, sometimes they offer a case price for a whole case, either way you can save some money if you use a lot of it.


.
 
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mchar69 said:
OR: Stop being a cheapskate and just buy the sauce you like :)
But that's no where near the fun!
Click to expand...

While i agree with this for the most part. I have a personal situation where one of my favorite sauces was from a steakhouse they never sold their sauce, and went out of business. To this day i have tried to make a sauce similar. I came close, but its been so long that if i nailed it, i probably wouldn't remember anymore.
 
armyguygrillin said:
I guess the biggest thing for me is, how is the sauce not super sweet when cane sugar is the largest part of the ingredients list? Is it being cancelled out by the distilled vinegar?

I guess I'll do like someone stated above and just do small batches trying different things until I get it where I want.
Click to expand...

I am not 100% sure about this but it may be that it's the largest ingredient by weight and not volume, not sure how that would change things for you but I have to agree with the poster above that said make small batches, break your recipient down into parts (2 parts tomato, 1 part sugar ECT) and measure everything by weight.
 
While I admire your initiative I think you might be chasing a unicorn. The processes involved in the manufacture can affect the final product.

I think I’d just buy new sauces until I found one similar. Like say...Stubbs. Or Jak’s. Or a million others.
 
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