This is definitely a personal preference thing. As a young kid, all we ate was/ Maull's (St. Louis) sauce. It's a fairly thin, tomatoey, sweet/tangy sauce. It's definitely unique. I still really like it, but can understand how some would hate it. When we moved out of the mid-west when I was still fairly young, Maull's wasn't available, so we used KC Masterpiece (uber sweet). I enjoy all types (except mustard based). I do think that a thicker, sweeter sauce does better when grilling something. You just have to be careful to not burn it.

I make my own Carolina vinegar sauce for pulled pork. Cider vinegar, a little sugar, red pepper flakes, sometimes a squirt of ketchup for some color.

seebee wrote:But anyway, I'm happier with a good rub and only a tiny bit of sauce, so unlike the sweet baby ray's slogan, the sauce is NOT the boss in my house.

SeeBee,

Exactly, I like BBQ sauce but view them as a condiment, a little goes a long way. I'm a fan of BBQ Rubs, but even the best of rubs should not be used as a crutch for improper technique.

Enjoy,
Gary

but even the best of rubs should not be used as a crutch for improper technique.

Well said Gary!

I only use sauces as *table* sauces, hence the Lexington-style, which is perfect for pulled.

Geo

Another midwestern girl who grew up on Open Pit Original here. Now I only use it on one dish my mother used to cook, which is a kind of chicken fricassee. My brother, who never met a meat dish he didn't think improved by bbq sauce, still uses it in large quantities.

A few years ago while visiting Petosky, Michigan, we discovered the various bbq or grilling sauces made by American Spoon. American Spoon makes terrific jams and preserves from that gorgeous Michigan fruit belt fruit but also some excellent bbq sauces. I like their "Original' sauce because it has no sugar in it. So if you put it on grilling meat shortly before it is done, you get good flavor without burning. It's medium thick and not particularly spicy, but tangy. Alas, as with so many commercial products one likes, it is no longer made; however, American Spoon still makes a number of fruit-flavored sauces. If you are visiting the area, be sure to stop into one of their stores. They always have lots out to sample.

G With wrote:Same here, I like Open Pit as that is what I grew up with, my dad would coat the hell out of some type of animal flesh with Open Pit, burn the living daylights out of it on a grill and, Bob's yer Uncle, BBQ for dinner. Funny thing is I liked it then and still like it, once in a very (very) great while now.

My only variation on this shared experience was that by about the age of 10, for some reason, I became the guy responsible for coating and burning the flesh. It was a tough job balancing the coats of Open Pit against saving enough of the bottle for extra dipping. Also, our grill was a rectangle piece of hardware and you ignited the charcoal with rubbing alcohol placed in a bottom reservoir. My dad, while puffing away on his pipe, would constantly extol on the virtues of not having to use lighter fluid.

Too bad he didn't know about lump hardwood, but I'm not sure it was around in the sixties (or seventies and eighties for that matter).

T Comp wrote:Too bad he didn't know about lump hardwood, but I'm not sure it was around in the sixties (or seventies and eighties for that matter).

It's been around since cavemen discovered fire.

I got married in '66, lived in the Bay Area and Sacto for grad skule. My then-father-in-law, EVERY Sunday, I mean EVERY Sunday, would marinade a cut up Safeway chicken from before Mass until 4PM in Kraft bbq sauce. Promptly at 4 he'd put the chicken on the grill over a properly-crafted, well-started indirect briquette fire. He'd light up an old-fashioned, and spend the next hour
v e r r r y carefully grilling that chicken. Never burned it, got the excess fat pretty much out of it. Very credible job.

But of course, being as how I was so young and impressionable, it permanently fixed my ideas about how to wet-use bbq sauce, and how to grill chicken. Kraft, of all things.

Geo

SHACK Barbeque Sauce
Mix: 3 - 24 ounce plastic bottles of ketchup
same amt of water or Grapette®
around a qt of vinegar
1 - 4 ounce can of chili powder
1 - 4 ounce can of black pepper
1 - 4 ounce can of garlic salt (not powder)
1/2 - cup sugar (more or less - to taste)
1 - small Tabasco (1oz to 4oz - to taste)
1 - small yellow mustard (apple size jar)
Stir well and simmer.

From http://www.ibdjohn.com/shack/, an interesting page.
I tried the recipe using Grapette - a "grape" flavored drink from WalMart. Going into WalMart was unpleasant but not nearly as bad as the taste of Grapette. It was the dominant flavor in the sauce.

Come on G Wiv...give us your BBQ receipe!

Sorry...I meant BBQ RUB receipe.

Hi,

You can buy Gary's rub at Spice House. Really!

Regards,

REALLY? What is it called? I'm impressed.

razbry wrote:REALLY? What is it called? I'm impressed.

Gary Wiviott's Barbecue Rub

This is my favorite sauce..but then again im a bit biased...

www.headsredbbq.com

How could I forget?!? MUMBO! Haven't had it in years, just found it at the Butera on Gunnison. I lurve me some MUMBO bbq sauce....I think its the cloves.

I also love Open Pit Original. I think it's partly b/c I grew up with it but I think it has good tanginess and it's not overly sweet. The excessive sweetness is where a lot of sauces that I don't like fail with me.

I was recently given a bottle of Johnny Harris' Hickory Smoked Barbecue sauce as a gift and I liked it a lot. Tangy; vinegary; nice level of sweetness; and good hickory flavor.

Can't say I grew up on any particular brand of barbecue sauce, since, growing up in a very big family (cue the string section), slathering on of condiments was not well tolerated.

I've made barbecue sauce at home a few different ways, but it's never seemed to go over with the locals. So the one I buy now is Sweet Baby Ray's, and that seems to keep them happy.

LTHer BuddyRoadhouse has his own line of BBQ sauces. I'm not sure where they're distributed, other than at Burt's Place (Buddy?) but I can say the four flavors are all good.

Thank you for the kind words nr706. I've been biting my lip here since this thread started. I try not to toot my own horn too loudly or too often (Burt's horn on the other hand...), which is probably why I'm not rich yet.

Our sauces are most readily available at Sunset, Treasure Island, Joe Caputo & Sons, and many other independent grocers throughout Chicago. We used to have extensive distrbution at both Dominck's and Jewel prior to Safeway and Albertson's coming into the market and causing trouble.

We also have wide distribution throughout the Midwest, including Milwaukee (all Sendik's stores, Grasch's, V. Richard's, Sentry, Woodman's and Piggly Wiggly), Minneapolis/St. Paul (Byerly's, Lund's, Kowalski's), Cleveland (Heinen's), and many, many more independents throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio (I'm sitting at the lobby computer in a Hampton Inn in Columbus, Ohio at this very minute. I did demos at two Fisher's stores in Canton on Thursday and Friday, and am getting ready to visit The Anderson's, here in town, on Saturday and Sunday. For those interested in my travels and a whole mess of on-the-road restaurant reviews, you can follow along at http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26848).

We also have distribution (without so much detail) on both coasts, Great Britain, and Germany.

Once again, thanks to nr706 for bringing us into the conversation.

Buddy

Buddy:
You can send the free cases of product to ...
(mods - just kidding!)

But, seriously, every one of the Roadhouse sauces I've tried have been much better and far more distinctive than the major commercial brands.
Just a fan who likes to support smaller local food producers.

I have no association with BuddyRoadhouse other than when he pretends to be Sharon and serves me pizza at Burt's Place.

lots and lots of sauces that for sure

my favorites besides sweet baby rays
russells in elmwood park
gates in kansas city

i have tried leon and uncle johns on the south side recently and found them both to be very good

i know folks like our sauce because it has a strong flavor profile
sweet and some spice complementing flavors
most of all folks like it because it has a thick rich consistancy to it that gives it a clingability


funny a few years ago someone asked me what we used before sbr
i could not remember so i called my brother larry the chef who created sbr
he said...... open pit and we loved it

we did like others do take open pit and doctor it up

as a sauce sales person i had no problem tasting against kc bulleye open pit and the rest but when i was competing against moms home recepie i lost every time

sauces are easy to make if you have time there are many many recepies
as bbq is very very regional

sauce should compliment the flavor of the meat and not dominate it

other than that it is all speculation

as inportant to me is putting a good rub or spice blend on you food products
again to compliment and not dominate from my point of view

thanks and good luck

baby ray wrote:sauce should compliment the flavor of the meat and not dominate it

Ray,

I'm surprised to hear you say this as it has been the opposite of my experience with your Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce. Sugar sweet, tenacious in it's powers of adhesion it masks the flavor of anything and everything it comes in contact with. It is to mediocre BBQ as auto paint is to Earl Scheib.

Yes, I realize at the Taste of Chicago you, meaning Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, have sold "8-10k servings on the 3rd of july alone", but if popularity were the only indicator of culinary merit Domino's would be the best pizza in Chicago.

baby ray wrote:again my positon is bbq is a dialog
you have to see it feel it taste it touch it talk about it smell it

Couldn't agree more and, even though you and I are not on the same page, we are reading from the same book. To paraphrase LAZ 'Perhaps, when it comes to BBQ, you and I belong to the same Orthodox tradition, but follow different rabbis.'

Enjoy,
Gary

My favorite BBQ sauce is made by a University of Missouri professor who produces the sauce in his basement - Show-me BarBQ Sauce. Each year, several of my friends send me a couple of pints. It has a sweet and smoky flavor.

When I want a little spicier sauce, I add one part Cajun Power Sauce (Abbeville, LA) to four parts of the BBQ sauce.


Harry H. Berrier, DVM
Show-Me Bar-B-Q-Sauce, Inc.
1250 Cedar Grove Boulevard South
Columbia MO 65201

eatchicago wrote:

razbry wrote:REALLY? What is it called? I'm impressed.

Gary Wiviott's Barbecue Rub

So I smoked up a wedding shower yesterday for 30 odd ppl. I did ribs, chicken, and hot links. A few weeks ago, wife 1.0 was entertaining some guests from Denver at some trade show at McCormick, took them to Topo Gigio on Wells, stopped at the Spice House for an ooh / aah session before the meal. She called and asked if I wanted anything, and I remembered the GW bbq rub. So, fast forward to yesterday's smoke. I planned on doing three types of chicken: Jerk, Tandoori, and a tamish straight bbq for those less inclined towards heat. For the straight bq, I couldn't use my personal stash of rub, since it packs serious heat. I found the GW rub, and assumed it would be tame. I am so glad I stuck my finger in and tasted it first. NICE punch! Although I had to tame it down a tad for the palates I was going for, I'm glad I've found a rub worth my $ that I can use (for myself) straight out of the package.

Good Stuff!

seebee wrote:I remembered the GW bbq rub. So, fast forward to yesterday's smoke. I planned on doing three types of chicken: Jerk, Tandoori, and a tamish straight bbq for those less inclined towards heat. For the straight bq, I couldn't use my personal stash of rub, since it packs serious heat. I found the GW rub, and assumed it would be tame. I am so glad I stuck my finger in and tasted it first. NICE punch! Although I had to tame it down a tad for the palates I was going for, I'm glad I've found a rub worth my $ that I can use (for myself) straight out of the package.

Thanks Seebee, glad you liked the rub, it does pack a bit of a kick, though it mellows after a few hours on the smoker.

G Wiv wrote:Thanks Seebee, glad you liked the rub, it does pack a bit of a kick, though it mellows after a few hours on the smoker.

Very true. It's too hot for most of my family on baby backs but with the longer smoking for pork shoulder it mellows out enough that they then fight over the bark . Of course I'm baffled they could be blood related and find it too hot.

I used Head's Red BBQ sauce for my son's graduation party last week. It was awesome. It starts out sweet and then a low heat builds up slowly. I started with a gallon of the stuff, and ended up with just two little squirt bottles (now saved for me) after the event. You should try it!

thanks for the kudo's Razbry - glad you and your guests enjoyed the sauce !

So I am looking for a BBQ sauce recipe to go with Texas-style beef ribs that I plan to smoke this weekend. I am looking for a recipe I can kind of hold on to for a bit, too. The recipe in Cook's Illustrated, my usual go to, says their recipe can be refrigerated up to 4 days. I can' t figure out what in the recipe would go "bad" after 4 days. It's pretty acidic and fairly low sugar. The butter?


2tablespoons Unsalted Butter
¼cup minced onion
1medium clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
1 ½teaspoons Chili Powder
2cups Tomato Juice
¾cup distilled white vinegar
2tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
½teaspoon powdered mustard mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1teaspoon minced chipotle chile in adobo
2tablespoons Molasses or dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1 ½teaspoons table salt
¼teaspoon ground black pepper

Perhaps it doesn't spoil after four days, but the flavors start to fade or change.