What kind of barbecue sauce do you like?
I prefer sweet. My husband prefers spicy, although he makes a wonderful homemade barbecue sauce that isn’t spicy at all. I think he should market it.
At the barbecue contest last Saturday I asked one of the vendors if he had any barbecue sauce, and he presented some in a small, unmarked vacuum jar. I asked if it was home made and he said ‘Yes.’
I hesitated, then I asked if it was spicy and he said, “Only a touch and it wears off really quick.”
I put a dab on some of my pulled pork…and it caught my mouth on fire! I have no idea what the meat itself tasted like, all I could taste was flames! I eschewed any sauce after that.
My husband thought it was very good.
So, do you prefer sweet, or spicy, or really spicy and hot, or a little sweet and a little spicy? Or none a’tall?
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66 Answers
My favorite is the Hickory smoked types/brands. Yummy!
I go more for the tangy, with just a touch of sweet. I like the hickory flavored sauces too, like @Coloma.
hot hot hot
hot sauce and horseradish make everything better
the best bbq sauce I ever had was a superhot mustardy one we bought in a small shop in South Carolina – my eyes water at the memory – good tears good tears !
Homemade. Ketchup and brown sugar. Store bought I buy Kraft BBQ sauce. Sometimes I mix them together.
Depends on where I am:
Texas a tomato based sauce with red peppers but sweet.
Kansas City a sweet sauce like “Sweet Baby Ray’s”
Alabama on chicken “White” BBQ sauce mayo with vinegar and hot sauce
Western North Carolina a vinegar sauce with catsup and crushed red peppers
Georgia or western South Carolina a mustard vinegar sauce
Eastern North Carolina a vinegar based spicy sauce.
I love all kinds of regional BBQ
Dayum, @Tropical_Willie! We have an aficionado here! When you comin’ by our house? I’m putting some ribs in the crock pot tomorrow. Need your take on what kind of barbecue sauce to use.
For butts I usually make my own medium spicy mustard based sauce that goes in the slaw. The meat does not get sauced until you put the slaw on it.
For chicken and turkey I make a brine-ish apple-honey sauce with some kick.
Ribs get a standard dry rub.
Brisket I do straight up Texas style
I prefer naked meat…sans sauce. If you need to hide the flavor of what you cooked with a sauce…you don’t know how to cook!! BAAM!
YOU DON’T COOK RIBS IN A CROCK POT :(
I KNOW THAT @ARE_you_kidding_me! But my daughter did so, sent me a pic, and OMG….it looks incredible. I shall let y’all know.
@Cruiser BAM! I agree. I often argue that barbecue sauce was invented for the poorer cuts of meat. My dad didn’t throw fits over much, but if anyone suggested some sort of steak sauce, on a steak…he put his foot down! BAM!
@Dutchess_III
Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam
She’s from Birmingham, bam-ba-lam
Way down in Alabam’, bam-ba-lam
Well, she’s shakin’ that thing, bam-ba-lam
Boy, she makes me sing, bam-ba-lam
Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam
BAM
I like the one they put on roast beef sandwiches. I’m not sure of the brand, but it’s distinct.
I only use BBQ sauce on pork and I prefer the sweet and mild because I generally douse the pork ribs in Cajun seasoning and bake them, covered, before grilling.
The Cajun seasoning adds nice flavor and the sweet BBQ sauce caramelizes a bit for a great flavor combination.
I’ve been visiting BBQ joints for 50 years in all areas of the USA. I’ve been lucky and enjoy the variety. @Dutchess_III My last visit for BBQ was at High Cotton in Kill Devil Hills, NC last weekend.
East Carolina! Nothing better.
I’m pretty meh when it comes to barbeque.
I’d rather not sweeten meats if at all possible, and my post-chole digestive system has hilarious (not) reactions to spicy food.
So, no real preference, but the more savory/vinegary, the better.
@Seek What’s post-chole mean? Am I in the duh zone here, missing something simple? haha
Cholecystectomy. I had my gallbladder removed.
^ Aaah, I see. I had one GB attack a few years ago. I think it was brought on by thousand island dressing. I never eat it but was on a weekend get away and over indulged in a bunch of stuff and man, it was bad. I had an ultra sound and no stones, blocked ducts, grit/sediment so must have just been a one time thing, I hope. It’s been almost 2 years, no reoccurence. It was so bad, it hurt for days.
I don’t like barbeque sauce. Perhaps it’s just the types I’ve had, but it’s too sweet.
East Carolina doesn’t have any ketchup in it, so it’s not very sweet like red sauces. It does have a mini small amount of brown sugar, and often some cider vinegar is used, not just white vinegar. Still, the main thrust is the vinegar. Much like Cuban lechon asado is delicious roasted pork and you squeeze a bunch of lemon on it.
The best ribs I’ve ever had our friends just put a ton of salt before barbecuing.
IMO BBQ sauce should be a finishing sauce, not a cooking sauce.
Something seared onto the outside of the food, rather than something the food is floating in, or worse yet, something the food lays in too cook.
@JLeslie‘s East Carolina is a finishing sauce. The food is already impeccably seasoned and cooked and the sauce just sets it off.
A thin, sweet, citric, tomato sauce will caramelize if added on the grill in the final stage.
I know this isn’t a bbq sauce as such, but I really like Scotch Bonnets, Lazy Chillies and HP Sauce. I sometimes have it so hot, I go dizzy. I know that’s silly, but I love it. My mouth tingles at the thought.
@LBM May I ask what you find attractive about such spicy hot foods?
@Dutchess_III Very good question. I don’t really know to be honest. If I go to an Indian restaurant, the insides of mouth tingles at the thought. I always hope they make one so hot I can’t eat it . I always order a phall, and ask for it as hot as they can and without coriander ( can’t stand that herb ). My SO can’t understand this, but the more I struggle to eat it, the more I Enjoy it.
I do like HP Sauce, but I don’t find that so sweet. Thank you for the reminder @LBM.
You can buuut…. without hickory smoke it most certainly is not what it could be. Part of me dies whenever anyone does “BBQ” in an oven or crock pot.
I shall recommence my BBQ crock pot tomorrow, @ARE_you_kidding_me. Would you share with us exactly which part of you starts dying tomorrow? Could be innerestin’ :)~
Well, now I really feel bad about what I’m going to to do anyway, tomorrow.
Bull’s Eye Bold Original is my favourite store bought type. I made some of my own sauce last summer, from a cookbook I have, it was really awesome (need to whip up some more). There’s also an Apple Butter BBQ sauce at a local restaurant that I really like. However, I’m not especially experienced with many BBQ sauces, so I haven’t tried a huge variety.
In my opinion, there’s no one, single BBQ sauce for all occasions.
If I’m going to cook ribs on the grill, I want sweet and mild.
On the other hand, something like a McRib is great with a sauce that’s thick and dark.
The sauce for BBQ shrimp is almost more of a marinade, except it’s not.
Beef is virtually tasteless, so it can stand as bold of a sauce as you care to use. Contrary to popular trend, I still think BBQ fish is a perversion, but it’s out there.
It depends on whether the sauce is to compliment the food, or if the food is a vehicle for the sauce.
All that meat ever needs is salt and pepper.
@ibstubro
Did you not claim to not eat meat?
Beef is virtually tasteless
Whaaa?
maybe all he eats are macdonalds burgers. those patties really ARE tasteless.
What beef are you eating @unstinting? I don’t find beef tasteless at all, and I agree with @ragingloli, all quality beef needs is some salt (and pepper if that’s your preference).
The majority of beef available at major retail outlets in the US is, and has been, bred to be virtually free of taste, IMO. Ground beef contains parts that were considered offal by right minded (or should I say, hands on) people just a few years ago.
When I was a kid we ate locally raise, grass fed, locally processed beef and it was possible to line up bites of similarly cooked rib eye, strip, sirloin, etc. steaks and identify them by taste and texture. I doubt that is true any more, and I certainly don’t believe most people are enough in tune with the meat they are eating to do so.
When I ate meat, I preferred pork over beef, lamb over pork, and game over lamb in an ascending order of flavorfulness. And I agree that a sprinkling of salt is all that’s usually needed.
Face it. The Average American is buying beef at Walmart, and, after processing, there’s little difference between round and rib eye. Beef will probably forever be the premier meat for Americans, having the distinct advantage of coming from a large enough animal that it can be purchased without any overt signs of it’s origin – i.e. an animal/bones. Even here in the heartland, I increasing run into people that turn green at the thought of eating chicken with bones.
People are increasingly becoming illusitarians where they insist that meat be removed of all obvious, outward signs of its animal origin. Ground beef and boneless-skinless chicken breast reign supreme.
Boneless, skinless, chicken breast has more to do with Americans perceiving it as healthier.
Although, I do agree Americans also like to not think about where the meat actually comes from.
In TN I could not find skinless in bone thighs. The stores just didn’t carry it. The skinless was always boned. Not a big deal, since the skin is easy to remove, but I did twice buy skinless boneless by accident, because I had never seen boneless thighs before.
Why? The skin is one of the best parts of the chicken.
Honestly, I personally know a number of people that have told me that the absolutely will not eat chicken parts with bones because it reminds them of the origins of the food.
I’ve spent far more than the average American’s amount of time butchering wild-caught game, and I guaran-damn-tee you anyone who cannot taste the difference between a skirt steak and a sirloin, both bought from the supermarket shelf, is cooking them wrong.
I intentionally stuck with the steaks that are slices of major muscles rather than muscle meat that is small enough to be stand-alone, @Seek.
Brisket, skirt, flank, etc.
And you sort of disqualified yourself by A.) being able to name a part of the cow not on the menu at Golden Corral and B.) having personally cut critters into serving sized pieces.
@ibstubro: I repeat @ragingloli‘s question that you said you don’t eat meat, yet your posts indicate otherwise.
Where did I say I eat meat? @jca
As a Christian, are you unable to discuss evolution?
As an adult are you unable to relate to children?
Before I became a vegetarian I was everything from the kitchen manager in a boutique restaurant to buffet cook for a Holiday Inn franchise. Believe me, if you grill pork shortribs outdoors for 500 people using sauce you made from scratch, you retain a certain affinity for both ribs and BBQ sauce.
If I can roast a pork loin to perfection on the grill or cut up and fry a chicken, does that mean I’m not a pescatarian?
I have no delusion I’m going to save the world.
I have no illusion I have a soul to save.
I detest duplicity, and I try my best to avoid it. I will call it out. If I’m wrong, I will apologize.
Forgive me for not responding to the “I hang my tentacles on the wall” one.
Where did I say I eat meat? @jca
No.
I do not, @jca.
“Forgive me for not responding to the “I hang my tentacles on the wall” one.”
I don’t feel bound to respond to persona.
Well, You did say, “I only use BBQ sauce on pork and I prefer the sweet and mild because I generally douse the pork ribs in Cajun seasoning and bake them, covered, before grilling.” @ibstubro. FWIW.
FWIW=For what it’s worth.
I, for one, could care less if you eat meat. Someone above posted that they thought you said you don’t eat meat, but some of the comments you’ve made here suggest otherwise. But I don’t care. But I am curious now. Do you or don’t you eat meat?
KC Masterpiece Honey Teriyaki. Want spicy? Simply dump cayenne pepper in it.
@ibstubro right. You don’t eat meat, except for fish. That’s why your comment about using BBQ sauce on pork confused some people.
So…what? @Dutchess_III
Because you’re living the life of Dorothy, I should be confused if you have an opinion on the quality of the sand on the beaches of Hawaii??
:-)
No, I don’t care.
@jca had the question, not me.
Then, further down, you replied to @jca saying Where did I say I eat meat?.
Here is where you implied that you eat meat.
Or was your preference for pork from before you became a presbyterian? Err..whatever…
OIC.
Because you live in Kansas, @jca thinks you can’t swim!
Did I mention that I live with a flesh eating chimney?
What? What do you mean @jca thinks I can’t swim?!
No, you did not mention that you live with a flesh eating chimney. I can’t imagine such a thing. Please explain.
I asked the question and so did @ragingloli. My impression was that despite what @ibstubro says, he’s eating meat. Whateverrrrrrrrr.
I have that impression to.
I have not eaten the flesh of a land-based animal in over 20 years.
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