close

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Sweet, tangy, sticky goodness: that is what BBQ sauce is to me. BBQ sauce is synonymous with summertime, backyard barbecues, and easy cooking.  Seriously, who does not love this American favorite slathered-on ribs, chicken, or brisket?  My older son has never really been a BBQ sauce fan, but then I made him taste my sauce. It is amazing how if you tweak recipes just enough, you can satisfy almost any palate.  For my son, who is very much like I was as a kid, traditional BBQ sauce was simply too sweet.  I find myself saying “too sweet” a lot when I’m blogging. The reality is there is a lot of sugar in just about everything these days. But I’ll save my thoughts on that for another day.
BBQ sauce

Historically, BBQ sauce can be traced back to the late 1600s. In France, meats were barbecued with a sauce that consisted mostly of butter and spicy peppers. In the States, post-Civil War, vinegar was added, and eventually homemade ketchup. Commercially made BBQ sauce hit the market in 1909 made by Georgia Barbecue Company (no longer available). The oldest commercial BBQ sauce still on the market is biscotti, Scott’s Family Barbecue Sauce, an East Carolina classic that was first launched in 1917. Modern BBQ sauces are typically high in sugar and so-called liquid smoke, which is smoke from burning hardwood that has been captured and dissolved in alcohol and gives the sauce a smoky depth.

To me, BBQ sauce is about balance: sweet and salty, tangy and zesty.  Getting there requires balancing. Store-bought BBQ sauces have an abundance of sugar.  But sauce does not have to be overly sweet to be tasty.  Another issue with store-bought BBQ sauces is that many are primarily ketchup. While there is nothing wrong with ketchup, these are other easy ways to achieve the same goal. This is my simple BBQ sauce, one that is easy to make and will work with just about anything you want to barbecue.

BBQ sauce

About the Author

Andrea Potischman

I am a professionally trained NYC chef turned CA mom and food blogger. I post about real food, with doable ingredient lists that are family friendly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Policy

Simmer + Sauce reserves the right to remove or restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the topic conversation, contain profanity or offensive language, personal attacks, or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business. Any post found to be in violation of any of these guidelines will be modified or removed without warning. When making a comment on my blog, you grant Simmer + Sauce permission to reproduce your content to our discretion, an example being for a possible endorsement or media kit purposes. If you don’t want your comment to be used for such purposes, please explicitly state this within the body of your comment. If you find evidence of copyright infringement in the comments of simmerandsauce.com, contact me and I will remove that in question promptly.