Homemade Barbecue Sauce

GrantAshton

GrantAshton

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While I'll happily use a good bottled sauce, I prefer to make barbecue sauce from scratch.

How about you? Do you have favorite homemade sauces?


Here's one I made today for barbecue beef sandwiches that are on tap for later this week.

Paul Kirk's Southern Barbecue Sauce
(taken from Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue)

"This sauce is very close to being a Memphis-style sauce, but with my own Kansas City twist - celery seeds and a little more tomato and sugar. I love this on brisket, burgers, you name it."

2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs minced garlic
2 cups tomato ketchup, homemade or store-bought
1 cup chili sauce, homemade or store-bought
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, homemade or store-bought
2 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp Louisiana hot sauce
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, add the garlic, and cook, stirring, until soft but not browned. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.
 
I did a bit, back when we were trying Keto. I followed a recipe I found for our local favorite, Gates BBQ. I replaced the sugar with Swerve, and the ketchup for the No Sugar Added variety. We loved it, but I don't mess with it any more.

Now, I mostly mix 2 sauces. It's a trick a chef taught me. When she makes spaghetti at home, she just mixes 2 different sauces, and it tastes better than each one individually. So, I do the same with my BBQ sauce. 2 of them combined, gives you something new and unique.
 
I finally made my first sauce yesterday, the Lexington finishing sauce recipe from SirPorkAlot. I literally drank some of it.

But, I think about making sauce all the time.

Thanks for the recipe!
 
Yes sir! Cooking Hog in the Eastern Carolinas everyone has their (or family's) own homemade vinegar sauce. Normally I take that and modify for chicken and ribs and brisket. I love tinkering with homemade sauces and different rubs.
 
frankenfab said:
I finally made my first sauce yesterday, the Lexington finishing sauce recipe from SirPorkAlot. I literally drank some of it.

But, I think about making sauce all the time.

Thanks for the recipe!
Click to expand...

SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
Yes sir! Cooking Hog in the Eastern Carolinas everyone has their (or family's) own homemade vinegar sauce. Normally I take that and modify for chicken and ribs and brisket. I love tinkering with homemade sauces and different rubs.
Click to expand...

I love Eastern Carolina pig pickin’ sauce. I always add a little as soon as I finish pulling pork shoulders.

I also like Virginia barbecue sauce which I find to be like a pig pickin’ sauce with a hint of Memphis. (Don’t get me wrong though given my reference to Memphis. I think there’s an argument to be made for Virginia as the motherland of barbecue.)
 
I used to work in a mom/pop BBQ restaurant while in college two decades ago. I made 10-15 gallons of BBQ sauce per day. Every day.

Even though the restaurant is long gone, I still have the recipe in a cupboard somewhere. I don't make it too often. I had to scale it way down (to 2.5 gallons) to keep the ingredient amounts easy and make it manageable (and even then I had to give it out to friends and neighbors). Swamp Boys is the closest commercial sauce to it I have found. I usually just buy a bottle of Swamp Boys now and again when I'm in the mood for sauce on my ribs/chicken.
 
I make all my own sauces as I grew up with a Dad who always made his own. I make a traditional ketchup based sauce along with a mustard based sauce since I grew up in South Carolina. I played around with a lot of documentation for 5 or so years with them and my rubs prior to finalizing my recipes.
 
I use Blues Hog Original for most things. If i am looking for a spicier, more vinegary flavor, I will go 50/50 Blues Hog Original/Tennessee Red.
I buy them both by the gallon.


I am never happy with any of my own, or any recipes i find online.
 
I’m partial to The Mutha Sauce from Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, NY. Loved being able to buy it prebottled at Wegman’s... but alas, we moved to Cub country. The recipe in their cookbook is close enough for government work. I make it with the habanero and it’s oh so tasty!
 
I love a basic Eastern Carolina sauce for pork. For a regular sauce, google Walter Jetton’s bbq sauce. He was the pitmaster for Lyndon B Johnson back in the day. Good sauce.
 
SMetroHawkeye said:
I’m partial to The Mutha Sauce from Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, NY. Loved being able to buy it prebottled at Wegman’s... but alas, we moved to Cub country. The recipe in their cookbook is close enough for government work. I make it with the habanero and it’s oh so tasty!
Click to expand...

chingador said:
I love a basic Eastern Carolina sauce for pork. For a regular sauce, google Walter Jetton’s bbq sauce. He was the pitmaster for Lyndon B Johnson back in the day. Good sauce.
Click to expand...

Thanks to each of you. I found the recipes and I will be trying them.

Mutha Sauce

Walter Jetton's Barbecue Sauce
 
This sauce is just five ingredients so it’s call No. 5 sauce. It uses the rub that’s on the meat so the flavors jive. It’s easily modified by adding whatever you like.
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup Apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs worchestershire sauce
1Tbs rub
Optional meat drippings
Simmer in sauce pan to thicken as desired.
 
Wish I could provide measurements but truthfully I don't even really know. It's always ballparked. I start by sauteeing half a finely diced white onion in a couple tablespoons of butter on medium heat. Then I'll add a can of Dr. Pepper (or Coke, or Cherry Coke), a cup of ketchup, and maybe half a cup of white vinegar. Bring it all to a simmer, then add to taste: garlic powder, salt, fresh black pepper, red pepper flakes, onion powder, and a couple tablespoons of brown sugar. Simmer really low until it thickens.
 
I used to make my own sauce(s) many years ago because I did not like the sticky-sweet sauce at the grocery store.

It wasn't until I accompanied a friend of mine to several competitions that I realized that there are some real good / great BBQ sauces out there.

Sadly, some of the great ones have gone away, and have left only hopes that they might return some day. IE: Maull's, Texas - Texas Good to the Bone, and Purple Pork Masters Competition Sauce. The later, Purple Pork Master, was one of my all time favorites. Yes Dear Competition is the closest I have ever found to the Purple Pork Masters.


I no longer make my own, simply because I can buy great sauce and have consistency each and every time.

My most favorites are
(Red)
Yes Dear Competition Sauce
Phil's BBQ Sauce (San Diego)
Swamp Boys
Blues Hog Competition

I've also used the Blues Hog 50/50 and 60/40 mixtures prior to the Competition Sauce release. Also I use (in a pinch when traveling) Head Country, and Stubb's.

(Mustard based)
Yes Dear Yellow Sauce
Sal's Sassy Sauce
Both of the above are great on grilled pork, grilled chicken, and even a light glaze on grilled vegetables.

I find myself reading the ingredient labels of new sauces before I decide to try them. Sometimes I am disappointed by them, but I do find some great ones as listed above.

Sticky-Sweet sauces are very popular to the commercial market because it has a very long shelf life. Commercial producers have pushed these cheap sauces on consumers for decades. Consumers who have never had anything else often associate these dismal sauces as "BBQ" because this is only what the purveyors have produced. This may not be what people like, but rather what they have been taught to think they like, because it is the only thing that has been made available to them by the retailers.

The same holds true with maple syrup; I have friends who don't like the mild taste of real maple syrup, and prefer the artificially flavored corn syrup. Of course real maple syrup only has a mild maple flavor, it was designed to replace sugar when the trade embargo to the colonies cut off the supply of sugar and molasses. The subtle flavor is what makes it desirable, simply because it doesn't overpower the other flavors.

Bottom line is that we are all individuals, and we have our own likes and taste profiles. So the best sauce is the one that you like best.
 
IamMadMan said:
I used to make my own sauce(s) many years ago because I did not like the sticky-sweet sauce at the grocery store.

It wasn't until I accompanied a friend of mine to several competitions that I realized that there are some real good / great BBQ sauces out there.

Sadly, some of the great ones have gone away, and have left only hopes that they might return some day. IE: Maull's, Texas - Texas Good to the Bone, and Purple Pork Masters Competition Sauce. The later, Purple Pork Master, was one of my all time favorites. Yes Dear Competition is the closest I have ever found to the Purple Pork Masters.


I no longer make my own, simply because I can buy great sauce and have consistency each and every time.

My most favorites are
(Red)
Yes Dear Competition Sauce
Phil's BBQ Sauce (San Diego)
Swamp Boys
Blues Hog Competition

I've also used the Blues Hog 50/50 and 60/40 mixtures prior to the Competition Sauce release. Also I use (in a pinch when traveling) Head Country, and Stubb's.

(Mustard based)
Yes Dear Yellow Sauce
Sal's Sassy Sauce
Both of the above are great on grilled pork, grilled chicken, and even a light glaze on grilled vegetables.

I find myself reading the ingredient labels of new sauces before I decide to try them. Sometimes I am disappointed by them, but I do find some great ones as listed above.

Sticky-Sweet sauces are very popular to the commercial market because it has a very long shelf life. Commercial producers have pushed these cheap sauces on consumers for decades. Consumers who have never had anything else often associate these dismal sauces as "BBQ" because this is only what the purveyors have produced. This may not be what people like, but rather what they have been taught to think they like, because it is the only thing that has been made available to them by the retailers.

The same holds true with maple syrup; I have friends who don't like the mild taste of real maple syrup, and prefer the artificially flavored corn syrup. Of course real maple syrup only has a mild maple flavor, it was designed to replace sugar when the trade embargo to the colonies cut off the supply of sugar and molasses. The subtle flavor is what makes it desirable, simply because it doesn't overpower the other flavors.

Bottom line is that we are all individuals, and we have our own likes and taste profiles. So the best sauce is the one that you like best.
Click to expand...
Maull's is still around. I saw some at the store last week.
 
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