A tasty BBQ sauce is priceless. A BBQ sauce can make or break an otherwise tasty meal. While most people will buy their favorite brand of BBQ sauce from the local grocery store, there is actually a lot more to the sauce than meets the eye. Store bough sauces often times don’t capture the unique local flavor that some people have come ot know and love with their bbq.
First of all, did you know there are twelve types of BBQ sauces? Most people don’t. To most people, BBQ sauce is just different than ketchup, and it’s the dark red sauce you put on grilled meat. However, BBQ sauce is a phenomenon that has many regional variations. The regional variations help people express themselves and their unique culinary passions.
North Carolina BBQ
In North Carolina, good BBQ is part of the culture, and that region has their own distinct sauce, informed by regional ingredients and flavorings. Their BBQ sauce has cayenne pepper, a hot and unmistakable seasoning. South Carolina has yellow BBQ sauce, which is sometimes brown because it’s flavored with meat drippings, green peppers, and other random ingredients.
A proprietary BBQ sauce recipe is a wonderfully mysterious concoction that takes years of experimentation and love to get just right. Master BBQ chefs will tinker for years and years before perfecting their recipe. Often times families hand down their recipes from one generation to the next. Other variations of regional BBQ sauces include:
- Kansas City Sweet Sauce
- South Carolina Mustard Sauce
- East Carolina Mop-Sauce
- Lexington Dip
- Texas Mop Sauce
- Alabama White Sauce
- Kentucky Black Barbeque Sauce and Dip
- Tennessee Whiskey Sauce
- Louisiana Hot Sauce
- Memphis Dry Rub
- Tartar Sauce For Florida Smoked Mullet And Grilled Fish
So, as you can see, many of these sauces are flavored by local ingredients. While the base of most BBQ sauces is brown sugar, vinegar, and spices, the seasonings can be what truly set the sauces apart from others.
Tennessee BBQ
In Tennessee, whiskey is added to the BBQ sauce. In Louisiana, appropriately enough, hot sauce is a star ingredient. In Florida, where there is abundant seafood, a tartar sauce has been created for smoked fish. Distinct regions in America seem to incorporate their specialites into their BBQ sauce creation. A great BBQ sauce is a personal experience for many BBQ enthusiasts.
All of these sauces sound delicious and are made from the heart. This may be the secret of what makes BBQ sauce such a phenomenon: it is created by folks who love their families and their communities. Therefore, they want to put local ingredients into their sauces to celebrate their culture.
The sauces listed above are just the beginning of what creative BBQ sauce recipes are out there. There also exists a hot cocoa BBQ sauce, fruit flavored sauces, and sweet n sour sauces. The stories that a BBQ sauce recipe can tell is truly the reason that this one concoction has garnered lovers from all across the United States – nothing beats a great BBQ sauce!
Kellie Swaim is a marketing associate for Blacktop 360, the premiere portable tailgating grill https://www.blacktop360.com/pages/5-buzz.html.
