Sauce Recipes BBQ aka Sauce 101: Region by Region

If you typed sauce recipes bbq, chances are you are looking for a recipe or want to learn more about bbq sauce. Indeed, bbq sauce recipes abound. No matter where you live, your grocery store probably has at least 15 varieties of bbq sauce, and if you google them, or look in books, there are hundreds of BBQ sauce recipes.

And, if you read the descriptions with their secret ingredients, they make it sound like turning water into wine. Come on, that's just marketing mumbo jumbo

It's really pretty easy. I will walk you through a basic homemade recipe in a minute, but before that we need to examine which regions use which kind of sauce, and examine their respective traits. But first, a disclaimer:

In Texas, where I grew up- Houston to be exact- we have an expression:

BBQ sauce hides bad meat.

This means the below average cook, or restaurant for that matter, can slather a sauce over every thing to hide an inferior product. It also means not to overuse the stuff!

There. I feel much better now.

Having said all of that, a good or great sauce can really jump start the flavor of your meat that you have slaved over, and great bbq sauce recipes can be used on all of your regular foods as well.

Now on to the BBQ Regions!

When you look at the "sauce recipes bbq" of the East Coast- namely North and South Carolina- you notice a couple of things. First, they are somewhat thin and high in vinegar. Also, there is a noticeable absence of tomato products.

Well, considering the early settlers thought the tomato to be poisonous (!) this explains the latter. As to the former, most- (all) of the bbq served in the Carolinas is porkbased- either pork shoulder, or the whole hog. (More on that on the pork page)

So, the sauce recipes bbq style of North Carolina and South Carolina, with their high vinegar and even mustard content go beautifully with the richness of pork. The acid in these - sauce recipes bbq - cut through the fat. Moving West- as the settlers did over time- the recipes start to incorporate tomatoes.

In the land of Tennessee, Memphis to be exact, the BBQ turns to ribs- primarily- (either dry or wet or wet/dry, but we'll dig into that more on the Memphis Rib page) and the huge amazing Memphis in May celebration.

The recipes in the Memphis region lean toward the sweet side- with ketchup added and mustard- present from before in the Carolinas. So: Memphis - a bit sweeter, with a bit of mustard and tomatoes/ketchup. Now, young Skywalker, we will head further west and north to the place many consider the mecca of BBQ.

Kansas City.

I disagree with this, but I'm Texan.

Although I will tell you, Kansas City BBQ is awesome.

I will get into this more when I attack regional restaurants, but suffice to say KC features all of the greats: pulled pork, ribs and the addition of the king of beef BBQ: BRISKET and the great great great burnt ends.

Kansas City BBQ sauce is what many in the US feel is quintessential sauce:

ketchup- based, with a kick of vinegar, some sweet, and some spice.

Remember above when I said homemade sauce is easy? Well, I just gave you the recipe...

photo by: dplanet

To make easy bbq sauce you just use these basic building blocks- I can give you starter amounts, but by all means- play with it!

Finally, let's head to the land of searing heat, flying cockroaches, scorpions, oil-field-trash and, I might add, some very fine women: Texas

(I know, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, I have left you out. Sorry.)

Texas sauces vary somewhat. The East Texas Piney Woods region, as close as it is to the Deep South features bbq sauce recipes with African American influences and are predominately sweeter and ketchup based.

As you move toward the center of the state- to my mind the capitol of Texas BBQ and one of the greatest BBQ regions in the country, the use of sauce is optional ,and, in the areas of Lockhart, Luling, LLano and Taylor, disappears altogether.

Remember when I said sauce hides bad meat?

For these are the spots where the German and Czech meat markets smoked the tougher meat cuts that were hard to sell and smoked those beautiful sausages, fondly called hot guts.

Here, they don't allow sauce mucking up mouth-watering, dizziness-inspiring meat.

So which bbq sauce recipe is the best?

Simple- the one you like. Do you like it hot? sweet?
For me, most sauce recipes bbq are good, but my ideal is a ketchup-based sauce with a sturdy backbone of vinegar, a pleasant sweetness, enough fire to tickle the back of your throat and depth. Of course, you must still use it in moderation...
Alabama white bbq sauce recipe A strange sounding sauce for chicken, but it really works!

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