I beg to differ. True, a lot of the sauces, especially the “Kansas City-style” sauces are pretty interchangeable. But when you get to the ones that aren’t that style, they can be pretty distinctive. I would never mistake Stubb’s for Chris’ & Pitt’s, for example. For that matter, buy the range of Heinz BBQ sauces and do a side-by-side tasting. Even excluding the ringers like the 2 Carolina-style and the Hawaiian-style, the rest are pretty differently spiced. But they are all HFCS-free, which the store brands aren’t.
I’ll never really understand how that style got to be known as “KC-style” (other than via KC Masterpiece). Being from KC, and restocking on sauce every time I go back, there are scant few BBQ joints that have a sauce similar to KCM. Everyone that tastes Arthur Bryant’s sauce for the first time is surprised by how different it is than what they’ve always had. Same mostly for Gates.
Blame KC Masterpiece. If any sauce means Kansas City to me, it’s Gates’.
Bryant’s sauce is different from everybody’s.
I like Stubb’s original. I do not care much for the sweeter sauces.
I do not sauce my BBQ as it cooks. I like the meat to be the major note supported by the rub and the wood smoke. Sauce is always on the side here.
That’s fair. I was mostly thinking of the “conventional” styles. I’d never heard “Kansas City-style” before, but that’s (probably?) what I was thinking of.
(Also, a “super taster” I am not!)
(Does it help any to mention I use BBQ sauce to pour over pasta, as a substitute for spaghetti sauce? Remarkably yummy! Also cocktail sauce, worcestershire, and soy.)
Over pasta, you say? The wife will have a coronary, but maybe when I’m getting my own dinner some night. I love BBQ sauce as a pizza topping, with chicken, onions and pineapple (bite me!). Maybe with some meatballs…
It used to be even better - now you can only get the “original” in the restaurant, “fresh” from those giant glass bottles they store on the roof. The sauce you get in stores isn’t as funky.
Eh. Just do four parts molasses to two parts each cider vinegar and Dijon mustard, one part Worcestershire, salt & hot sauce to taste. Whisk until mustard dissolves and simmer for 15 minutes. You’ll never need another bottle.
Xavier Woods (WWE Wrestler, aka Austin Watson PhD, also of UpUpDownDown) recently recommended Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey BBQ on pepperoni pizza. I bought some, but have yet to get a pizza to try it on.
Our local(ly founded) BBQ chain is called Sonny’s. The food is fine, but the sweet sauce is just wonderful. Magical stuff.
Bone Suckin Sauce is pretty much the only one I like straight out of the bottle. While it does have the natural smoke flavor in it, it’s not overpowering as it is in most sauces. I also like Open Pit original, but I usually use that as a base for my own sauce, as well as Argia B’s Mumbo Sauce. I really dislike the smoke flavoring in most commercial BBQ sauces.
I was going to say that I always make my own sauce but then I remembered there is a bottle of Armadillo Willy’s in the fridge for emergencies. :o
My family here in St. Louis has always used Maull’s, which I find to be quite nostalgic and down-homey. I don’t know if it’s my favorite, and I don’t often keep a bottle around (or honestly a bottle of any barbecue sauce), but when I want pork steaks, that’s the only way to do it. Grill them, brush with Maull’s until the sauce gets glazed on and slightly burnt, then simmer in a pan of Maull’s mixed with some Busch or Budweiser beer. Eat it with corn from a local roadside stand. That’s the definition of summer.
True. And that reminds me, I totally forgot to mention it as one of the bottled sauces I like, but I don’t think it’s regularly available here in Chicago. Or perhaps I just never looked too hard. I’ve only had it from Arthur Bryant’s itself in KC. I quite enjoy it for its tanginess, its unique flavor (which was quite heavy on celery seed, as I remember), and its lack of liquid smoke. But I can see it being an acquired taste, especially if one is used to the sweet and smoky styles of “generic” barbecue sauce. I like my sauces on the acidic side, and not too sweet (if at all.)
My go to sauce is Wango Tango from Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, NY. Wegman’s carries all their sauces, otherwise I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to find it in SE PA.
Bone Suckin’ Sauce (despite the idiotic name) is great. The original stuff only though: The spicy kind completely throws the formula off balance though, so I just get the regular stuff and if I’m in the mood for a little heat, will add some crushed red pepper to it. The two “thick” sauces just taste weird.
I only use Famous Dave’s Devil’s Spit.