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Yes, it is all your fault. If you had inundated our esteemed editor, Marcus, with complaints about my article in the last issue of UK BBQ Mag, I wouldn’t be here having to write this now. I am very disappointed in all of you.
Seriously though, I must thank some of you for your kind words about my last article and the rest of you for not saying anything nasty.
So what shall we discuss this time? Barbecue sauces, perhaps?
Since I got into this business, one of the biggest misconceptions of the great British public (in my humble opinion) that I’ve had to counter is the idea that all you need to produce barbecue is to marinade and/or cook meat in barbecue sauce. Now I know you can apply some sauces to meat for the last 15-30 minutes of smoking and even baste with some sauces, but many people seem to think you can marinade meat overnight in barbecue sauce, and/or cover the meat in BBQ sauce throughout a cook over direct heat. Then they wonder why the meat comes off the barbecue cremated and black. In my opinion (but, as always, I’m willing to consider other opinions), BBQ sauce is for dipping, not cooking.
The taste of real BBQ comes from the rubs, NOT the BBQ sauce – though I will say that a good BBQ sauce will often complement the meat and rub combination.
So what good BBQ sauces are there? Well, a few come to mind.
Blues Hog BBQ Sauces, now I’ve looked around for evidence to support this statement, but without success, so it’s anecdotal: one of the, if not the, most successful BBQ sauces in BBQ competition history has to be the Blues Hog BBQ Sauce range. If we ignore their Honey Mustard BBQ Sauce for now (which, by the way, is really nice), the Blues Hog Original, Tennessee Red and Smokey Mountain BBQ sauces are just awesome.
Personally, I like all the Blues Hog BBQ sauces individually: Blues Hog Original is rich and thick with a strong element of tamarind; Tennessee Red is a thin, vinegar-based sauce, and Smokey Mountain is just that – nicely smokey. As I said, individually they are great, but what I really love about the Blues Hog BBQ sauces is they effectively provide you with a BBQ sauce ‘chemistry set’ – you can mix the 3 sauces together to achieve the flavour profile and consistency that you want to give you a personalised BBQ sauce.
Incidentally, I’ve heard that KCBS Judges have become a bit sick of tasting Blues Hog BBQ sauce in competitions, but they keep awarding top places to meat covered in Blues Hog sauce, so competition teams keep using it. And, of course, others (‘no names, no pack drill’ to use an old Army saying) have tried to emulate the success of Blues Hog BBQ sauces with differing levels of success.
It’s All Your Fault….
by Richard Orme, Founder of BBQ Gourmet Ltd