Need Help Determining ingrediant of bbq sauce...

[Philly-QueMaster]

This may be a silly question but I was hoping to get some help from the sauce experts on this site. There's a local guy who sells bbq chicken and ribs on the weekends and his sauce it awesome. Its a sweet, tangy, spicy sauce that has a nice consistency. I think its a mustard based sauce, or at least has mustard in it. I also think he uses hot cherry peppers for some of the heat. I took a couple pictures of what I think is cherry hot pepper seeds in the sauce. This sounds crazy (at least my wife thinks I am ) but I was doing a side by side comparison of an actually cherry pepper and its seeds with what I found in this sauce. In the pics below the left is a piece of cherry pepper and seeds I bought....and on the right is the seeds from the sauce. To me they look almost exactly the same and during a taste test they taste similiar. So what do the experts think (besides the fact that I'm a little nuts)? Could it be cherry peppers in the sauce? I also posted some pics of the sauce itself? Could this be a mustard base sauce??

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

One other question...If I bought a gallon of this guys sauce would there be any brethren willing to do a taste test and let me know what they think is in it? I'd like to replicate it or some close if possible. I forgot 1 important fact....this guy is from South Carolina. So this may be a south carolina style sauce.

 

[Porchpup]

I suppose you already tried asking him what's in it....

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

I suppose you already tried asking him what's in it....

Lol...yeah he's not giving up any info. His son's aren't giving up any info either. I'm pretty sure his sauce was in a 1 gallon Frank's hot-sauce tub. Not that it means he uses that in his sauce. I'll have to keep working on him to give up some info.

 

[Haltech]

Just take a fill up a sample jar and send it into a lab. About $75 and they will give you a break down on every ingredient. That of course is the easy part, you will have to figure out ratio vs quantity.

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

Can you really send it away to a lab for $75? I'm thinking I may ask the guy to teach me how to cook bbq for the day for a fee of course.

 

[Haltech]

Yes, how do you think companies do "research and development"? I send my oil to blackstone labs for analysis all the time and they are relatively inexpensive. It took me about 6 oil changes to find the right oil for my direct injection turbo car. Since the fuel diliution is higher in this type of technology, i ended up with pennzoil plat oil over mobil 1, royal purple, castrol and redline. Only Rotella came in second place to it.

I think if you show great interest and put him on a pedestal as being the best pitmaster ever, you could sneak away with his recipe and share it with us all! lol

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

Yes, how do you think companies do "research and development"? I send my oil to blackstone labs for analysis all the time and they are relatively inexpensive. It took me about 6 oil changes to find the right oil for my direct injection turbo car. Since the fuel diliution is higher in this type of technology, i ended up with pennzoil plat oil over mobil 1, royal purple, castrol and redline. Only Rotella came in second place to it.

I think if you show great interest and put him on a pedestal as being the best pitmaster ever, you could sneak away with his recipe and share it with us all! lol

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to call him today and ask to order 1 gallon of sauce. Then I'll ask him to teach me how to Q.

 

[BluesDaddy]

One other question...If I bought a gallon of this guys sauce would there be any brethren willing to do a taste test and let me know what they think is in it? I'd like to replicate it or some close if possible. I forgot 1 important fact....this guy is from South Carolina. So this may be a south carolina style sauce.

Just to note, there are THREE distinctive styles of BBQ sauce in South Carolina; a red, tomato or ketchup based sauce; a mustard sauce; and a vinegar and pepper sauce (pretty much the same as an eastern NC sauce). See here for some simple recipes.

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

Just to note, there are THREE distinctive styles of BBQ sauce in South Carolina; a red, tomato or ketchup based sauce; a mustard sauce; and a vinegar and pepper sauce (pretty much the same as an eastern NC sauce). See here for some simple recipes.

This seems to be a mustard based sauce. I met the owner yesterday afternoon to buy some of his sauce and got to pick his brain for a few minutes. He grew up in South Carolina and moved north to PA for work. I found out he plans to move back down south sometime this summer. He said he makes the sauce just like he learned when he lived down south. I offered to help him out on the weekends and he said he would be more then happy to show me around if I wanted to stop by. He also mentioned he may be interested in selling his business or doing something with it since he'll be moving back home. How would one determine what a recipe is worth or the business itself? Anyways here are some more pics of the sauce.

 

[Southern Home Boy]

Time for Due Diligence. If you're interested in buying the business, the first thing you'll want is at least the last three years' books, vendor lists and what - if any - liens there are against the business, the property, the name, etc. You need to know exactly what he spent, where he spent it and how he got the money to spend in the first place. Examine what marketing he's done, what insurance has run him, what - if any - claims or suits there are outstanding and check with the Health Department to get his Health Inspection record.

If you are serious about it, I'd get an attorney that specializes in business sales. There are a LOT of things that should be considered before buying a business.

 

[Philly-QueMaster]

Time for Due Diligence. If you're interested in buying the business, the first thing you'll want is at least the last three years' books, vendor lists and what - if any - liens there are against the business, the property, the name, etc. You need to know exactly what he spent, where he spent it and how he got the money to spend in the first place. Examine what marketing he's done, what insurance has run him, what - if any - claims or suits there are outstanding and check with the Health Department to get his Health Inspection record.

If you are serious about it, I'd get an attorney that specializes in business sales. There are a LOT of things that should be considered before buying a business.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm more interested in his recipes then his actual business now that you mention it.