Barbecue sauce: half an hour instead of a bottle of glucose syrup
Many bottled BBQ sauces are built on glucose-fructose syrup, vinegar and smoke flavouring. The homemade version takes half an hour, and its smokiness comes from smoked paprika, an ordinary spice, rather than a bottled flavouring. Everything else is a balance of four elements worth memorising: sweet, sour, savoury and smoke. Shift their proportions and you move the sauce towards a Kansas City, Carolina or Texas style.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Frying 10 min
- Simmering 30 min
- Bottling 5 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneSoften the onion and garlic
Chop the onion very finely and fry it in the oil 8 minutes over low heat, until soft and translucent. Add the garlic for the last minute. Don't brown it — scorched onion gives the sauce a bitterness you can only mask with sugar afterwards.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oil
Eight minutes, translucent, no browningBuild flavour on the spices
Add the smoked paprika, chilli, cumin and pepper and fry 60 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Some of the spices' aromas dissolve in fat, so a brief fry draws out more flavour than stirring them straight into liquid. No longer: paprika scorches easily and turns bitter.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp smoked paprika · 1 tsp chilli flakes · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp black pepper · 1 tsp salt
TipSmoked paprika is a key ingredient here, not a seasoning. Two tablespoons sounds like a lot, but it gives the sauce all of its smoky character.
A minute in fat, until the spices bloomAdd the rest and simmer half an hour
Add the ketchup, tomato paste, vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, water, sugar, honey and salt. Bring to the boil and simmer over low heat 30 minutes, stirring every 5. The sauce darkens and thickens noticeably, reducing by about a quarter, and the harsh vinegar smell fades.
Ingredients: 400 g ketchup · 2 tbsp tomato paste · 100 ml cider vinegar · 80 g dark brown sugar · 2 tbsp honey · 3 tbsp soy sauce · 2 tbsp mustard · 150 ml water
Half an hour, until dark and thickCheck the body and blend
It is ready when it coats a spoon and does not run straight off. For a smooth sauce, blend 30 seconds — unblended it keeps pieces of onion, which is also fine and typical of homemade versions.
Bottle it
Pour the hot sauce into scalded bottles or jars, seal and cool. Keep in the fridge for up to a month, or freeze in portions for up to 6 months. Don't store it in the pantry: the acidity of this homemade sauce with onion and garlic hasn't been tested, and under-acidified preserves can harbour botulism.
Hot, into scalded bottles
Before you start
Three styles, one base
Kansas City is this version: sweet and thick. Towards Carolina — double the vinegar and mustard and halve the sugar: the sauce will be thinner and distinctly tangy. Towards Texas — drop the honey, cut the sugar and add more pepper: the sauce should be peppery and less sweet.
When to brush the meat
BBQ sauce is high in sugar and burns within minutes over fire. Brush the meat only during the last 10 minutes of roasting or grilling, in two or three thin coats.
Real smoke
If you have liquid smoke, half a teaspoon for the whole batch is plenty. More gives a chemical, ashy note — one of those ingredients where less is decidedly better.
Beyond meat
Burgers, chips, roasted sweet potato, or mixed with mayonnaise as a sandwich sauce. A spoon in a stew or chilli con carne adds depth without changing its character.