Barbecue
Sauce
Barbecue sauce
or BBQ sauce is a thick liquid flavoring that is
poured onto meat while being grilled or barbecued.
It is also used as a dipping condiment.
Most barbecue
sauces combine sour, sweet, and spicy ingredients,
sometimes with a smoky flavor. The most popular are tomato-based,
with vinegar
and sugar;
but vinegar- and mustard-based sauces are popular in the
certain areas of the American South.
Outside of
barbecuing, store-bought sauce is often used on meat or
other foods as a condiment.
Different
geographical regions have strong allegiances to their
particular styles and recipes, often creating lore and
keeping their unique recipes secret.
Some popular
styles of sauce and their distinguishing ingredients:
- Kansas City
(thick, red-brown, tomato,
molasses)
- North Carolina (liquidy vinegar,
pepper
flakes)
- South Carolina
(mustard,
vinegar, black
pepper)
- Alabama
(traditionally mustard
and vinegar
based and seasoned with roasted or smoked chile
peppers, although a white, mayonnaise
based sauce is equally popular in some regions of the
state)
- Georgia (a
tremendous variety exists within the state, but
"traditional" Georgia barbecue sauce
features a ketchup
base flavored with garlic,
onion,
black
pepper, brown
sugar, and occasionally bourbon.)
- Arkansas (thin
vinegar and tomato base, spiced with pepper and
slightly sweetened by molasses)
- Texas (tomato
based with hot chiles,
cumin,
less sweet).
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