Head Country Sauce......Really???

[boogiesnap]

that would make sense. :wink:

but it wasn't the head country.

 

[kwas68]

It makes sense - just not the way you're reading it.:wink:

I got the same impression that it was popular and did well in competitions. So I was curious and ordered some.

If I had read these reviews beforehand, I probably wouldn't have ordered it.

 

[ZILLA]

I find that it's a great canvas to paint on.

 

[jmoney7269]

My $.02

Quit messing with store bought sauces and make your own. I have tried every sauce you can imagine and the only bottled sauces I like are plowboys 180 or Meier Texas wild pecan. You want a good base to start with? Here ya go, this is mine.
2 cups Heinz ketchup
1 cup Bragg raw unfiltered ACV
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup grandmas or brer rabbit molases
1/4 cup orange clover honey
1 tbs worchester
1 tbs of finely hopped chipotle chiles in adobo
10x better as a base than any store bough crap. It's got pop, zing, sweet, savory, a little spice and takes well to any specialty spice you wanna add from cardamom to all spice or even tamarinds and mace like blues hog has.

 

[ZILLA]

Why go through the trouble when I can buy a good base sauce for less than $3.00?

 

[JD McGee]

Head Country is used by many top Pitmasters...it's just like any other flavor profile ingredient that is not shared publicly...

 

[Q-Dat]

Quit messing with store bought sauces and make your own.

I almost never use store bought sauce(or rubs for that matter) for my personal use. I have constructed more sauces of my own than I can even begin to remember. There is NO commercial sauce that can compare to my own when its MY tastebuds doing the judging because I have tailored it that way.

All that being said I fully believe that the day will come that I will stop using store bought sauce and rubs for competitions as well. However since its not MY tastebuds that I am aiming to please, I will continue to research the popular competition flavors until I have learned enough to make my own competition sauce and tweak it as needed on an as needed basis.

 

[BBQchef33]

Straight up, no.. IMO, it cant stand on its own. Too common.

its an ingredient, or base in some of my sauces. some sauces start with kethup, some start with a ketchup like substance... like head country.. bulls eye.. KCM, etc...

 

[JS-TX]

I would like it better if it didn't have so much liquid smoke in it, however I find after it's been in the pit a little while the liquid smoke taste isn't that noticeable. I agree with the others though, it's a decent sauce to tinker with.

 

[frognot]

Me, i'm a fan of mixing Blues Hog Original & BH TN Red together. Now, that's a mighty tasty sauce.

However, i'm just a backyard BBQer who has no idea what competition judges might like (and my dumb arse didn't realize that i was posting in the competion section until after i hit enter).

Please feel free to ignore this post (or if a mod, feel free to delete).

i feel for all y'all trying to guess what the current batch of judges is gonna like or dislike.

 

[QTEX]

I too dont get what all the fuss on that sauce is? So many other better ones on the shelf imo, at least in Texas. I keep at least 20+ varieties at all times and try every new one out all the time, toss some and give some away as presents, lol. Tend to blend mix n match to the event but dont stray too much from what has consistently won me money. Still love to blend tweak and taste

 

[Q-Dat]

Ok just bought a bottle of the hot version and tasted it. Much much better sauce! The same basic flavor just amped up. Still not something I would use for myself but I can definitely see how others would like it.

 

[Lake Dogs]

It's an *ok* sauce, and I do really like it on hotdogs and in brunswick stew. FYI: I really was asking a question earlier. Going back and re-reading it, it could easily have been read as me being a jack-wagon. I certainly didn't mean it that way. I just dont recall tasting it coming across a table at any competition in the last few years. I think I would've recognized it. However, it might've been an ingredient in some...

 

[Q-Dat]

It's an *ok* sauce, and I do really like it on hotdogs and in brunswick stew. FYI: I really was asking a question earlier. Going back and re-reading it, it could easily have been read as me being a jack-wagon.

Well I can't speak for the rest of the crowdn but I peesonally don't think you're a Jackwagon!

As far as the sauce I agree its just ok. I am starting to think that it may be THE sauce to put on Q that doesn't really need any, but its unofficially required.

 

[boogiesnap]

It's an *ok* sauce, and I do really like it on hotdogs and in brunswick stew. FYI: I really was asking a question earlier. Going back and re-reading it, it could easily have been read as me being a jack-wagon. I certainly didn't mean it that way. I just dont recall tasting it coming across a table at any competition in the last few years. I think I would've recognized it. However, it might've been an ingredient in some...

"i just don't recall tasting it"...pretty unoffensive it must be then, yes?

i think you hit the nail on the head about this sauce in competition.

 

[zoogme]

Fact: HC is the largest purchaser of what ingredient?

Answer: Horseradish

Best way to describe HC is Shrimp Cocktail Sauce w/ Natural Smoke Flavoring.

We use it as a "base" then you add others to it (plug) Sweet Beaver BBQ Sauce for example

Hope that helps you.

Carl

 

[Podge]

It amazes me how much emphasis is put on sauce. If you cannot win using plain ol’ Head Country, then something else is off.

 

[Fat Woody]

When I joined this forum in 2009, seems like HC was mentioned frequently as a "go-to" sauce for competition cooks; some were blending, many didn't say how they used it. Subsequently, BH took over the spotlight and a few blended them together. I kinda liked "HeadgeHog" as a base to mess with, but don't use it currently for comps. Maybe it's time to revisit this...

 

[Lake Dogs]

If you cannot win using plain ol’ Head Country, then something else is off.

Podge, I'm not certain I understand this, or perhaps I do and I'm just plain perplexed...

Last time we did a sauce tasting party one of the 16 base sauces that we tried our BBQ with was Head Country. One of the 12 people at our party bet that it would win. As it ends up, none of the 16 won, and as best I recall, Head County was in the category of "tastes like **** on the BBQ because the smoke flavorings conflict with the hickory on the Q, and to some degree conflicts with rub and injection used." It was down in our bottom 10.

We couldn't win on any given day using H.C. with perfect tenderness and perfect presentation, because it conflicted so badly... We USE other sauces that compliment our meat and doesn't conflict.

 

[5am]

I brought a bottle of Head Country over to a super bowl party. Everyone LOVED it. Not sure why...but they did. As mentioned already it doesn't really offend anyone, which is probably why a competitor would use it.