April showers brought us May flowers and warmer days. The patio furniture is out. I spent a small fortune on flowers, and the grill is getting ready for BBQ season. So, it’s BBQ sauce season, too!
I’m not talking about all the methods of barbecuing, which has a complex history. It’s all about the finishing touch—the sauce. I know folks who say they’re not picky eaters, but offer them the wrong BBQ sauce, and yeah, they’re picky.
It’s believed the first BBQ sauce was invented in 1698 by a Dominican missionary while visiting the French West Indies. He saw cooks using lime juice and hot peppers to season barbecued meat, which probably had its roots in Africa where cooks used lemon and lime juice.
By the time the Spanish colonized what is now the southern United States, a wide range of flavors got in the sauce: wine, vinegar and salt from Spain, sugar cane and molasses from the Caribbean, chili peppers from Central America, and tomatoes from South America. Since vinegar was more readily available in the South than limes or lemons, vinegar-based sauces began to dominate.
BBQ sauce is regional, which is why folks are picky about it.
North Carolina sauce is the traditional, oldest method. It’s a thin sauce made with apple cider and white vinegar, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, salt, black pepper. It’s hot and sour, with no sugar or tomatoes.
South Carolina’s BBQ sauce, known as “Carolina Gold,” is mustard based. It was introduced by German settlers and includes brown sugar. Both Carolina sauces were designed to cut through rich pork.
Texans like a thicker, bold, tomato-based sauce designed to complement beef, and it’s optional—served on the side.
And of course, there is Kansas City BBQ sauce, thick, tomato-based, sweet from molasses or brown sugar, smoky, and tangy from chili powder. I think you can put this sauce on everything.
Oh, yeah—did you know there’s an Alabama white BBQ sauce made with mayonnaise? I’m not sure why it exists...something about it keeping meat moist without drowning out the smoke flavor. Ok, if you must.
As BBQ sauce got more popular, a commercial product appeared. The Georgia Barbecue Sauce Company, based in Atlanta, was the first company to commercialize barbeque sauce in 1909. It was a huge success.
It was during the 1920s that ketchup, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce made their way into the market, and in 1940, Heinz became the first company to sell barbeque sauces in bottles.
I didn’t have a lot of bottled sauce growing up because my mother made our BBQ sauce. It was North Carolina style with a few spoons of Kansas City.
Speaking of bottled sauces, I took a snapshot of all the brands of BBQ sauce in the local grocery store. I counted 26 brands and up to a dozen flavors within the brands. I guess variety is indeed the spice of life.
Happy BBQ sauce season.
