[roguejim]

Maybe I should have put this in the BBQ thread...oh well.

Has anyone here made their own tomato based BBQ sauce that they felt rivaled the best commercial sauces?  By "best commercial sauces", I'm talkin' from the little guys, not Kraft, Bullseye, or KC Masterpiece...

I'm not asking for anyone's secret recipe, but whether it's even possible to match the best commercial sauces. 

[nicneufeld]

Probably depends on what is your benchmark for best commercial sauce!

Locally my favorites are Jack Stack and Gates sauces.  I'm sure they could be duplicated with a good recipe, but I still buy them for KC style BBQ (KC style bbq sauce is not KC Masterpiece!).

I have made various sauces on my own but usually they are oddball ones, either using ethnic influences (ie., asian ingredients, or caribbean) or fruit, or something like that, not just a straight bbq sauce.  So its hard for me to compare!

[deepsouth]

every bbq sauce i have tried to make has been an epic fail.  i recently bought some blues hog bbq sauce that is probaby my favorite right now, but i also bought some uncle sunny's and some burn fingers private stock to try.

[corkybstewart]

I've been making my own sauce for 30 years now.  I have a recipe for pork and a very different one for chicken.  My sauces are world famous(my French inlaws and German friends love them) and are easily as good as anything commercial I've tasted.  Buit then again it's all a matter of personal taste.

[bluesman]

I make my own as well as buy commercial sauces. As of recently, I have been making a sauce and variations of Steven Raichlens basic bbq sauce. I like using bourbon and honey in my basic bbq sauce.

[tschmidlin]

I make my own sauce all of the time, typically based on something in one of Steve Raichlen's books.  I think they rival the better bbq sauces.

I've made some with beer that were really excellent, try swapping out some brown sugar for DME and replacing vinegar with a really sour beer like Rodenbach Grand Cru.  I served some pulled pork to a club meeting at my house with a sauce like that, it went over very well.

[phillamb168]

I'm a big, big fan of Salt Lick's sauce. That's good stuff. Otherwise, I make my own:
http://amazingribs.com/recipes/BBQ_sauces/index.html

[boulderbrewer]

Verr interesting, I like the DME for brown sugar idea, but a touch of smoke can make a good one great. It al depends on the meat you are working with.

[bearcat]

A simple good sauce is 2/3 KC Masterpiece original and 1/3 clover honey and mix in your dry rub as the 'makes it your own' sauce.   If you are looking for cheap n easy...well mostly easy.

[weazletoe]

Best sauce I ever made was Sweet Baby Rays, and a splash of whiskey. That was some good pulled pork!

[Beer Monger]

I always make my own BBQ sauce - but I only recently started writing down my method each time and taking notes on the results. 

I'm pretty happy with my sauce for the most part, but it still needs a bit of tweaking and I need to make it a bit thicker. 

What's your favorite thickening agent to use your your sauce?  And do you cook your sauce on the stove or just blend cold ingredients? 

[tschmidlin]

What's your favorite thickening agent to use your your sauce?  And do you cook your sauce on the stove or just blend cold ingredients? 

When I make ketchup based sauces, tomato paste makes a great thickener if needed.  But you can just cook it down, I almost always do.  If I don't it's because I just realized we're out of bbq sauce and dinner is in 5 minutes . . .

[jeffy]

I've made the sauce from an Alton Brown recipe for ribs, where you take the juices you've cooked the ribs in (in foil in the oven with margarita mix, orange juice and his number 9 spice rub) and add stuff (honey, worchestershire sauce, coffee, etc.) to it, boil it down, reduce by half, and it turned out delicious.  But it only makes enough for the ribs you're making at the time and it is way more labor intensive than I care for.
I'd say it's better than the commercial sauces, but I've only made it once successfully.

[Beer Monger]

What's your favorite thickening agent to use your your sauce?  And do you cook your sauce on the stove or just blend cold ingredients? 

When I make ketchup based sauces, tomato paste makes a great thickener if needed.  But you can just cook it down, I almost always do.  If I don't it's because I just realized we're out of bbq sauce and dinner is in 5 minutes . . .

Good point.   I need to cook mine down a bit more.  But tom. paste is a good idea. 

[euge]

I like to take a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, garlic, red-pepper and ginger and heat about 2 cups of it in the micro. This dissolves the sugar and begins to meld the flavors. Then the sauce can be used as a marinade or a mop near the end of the Q.

Also benefits from additions of fermented bean chili sauce and/or sesame oil or even apricot jam. Yes! Apricots!

Quit using sauce for the most part, though this one is particularly good with chicken and beef.

In the past, I've used the cheapest store-brand sauce and doctored them up. They make a decent base for under a dollar, and I refuse to buy a $5 jar of "gourmet" or "famous" sauce. They may be heaven on earth but I'll never know.