The Top 10 Barbecue Sauce Brands for Baby Back Ribs and More

Whether you want some baby back ribs or pulled pork, all you need is a delicious BBQ sauce to finish them off! Without delving into the serious discussions over which states or areas produce the finest BBQ, there is a BBQ sauce for everyone’s taste, whether it’s southern-style, North Carolina-style, West Texas-style, or one of the many other styles available.

In this post, we look at a variety of BBQ sauces as well as some of the fundamental distinctions between the various kinds of sauces and what they taste best on. Therefore, if you’re searching for something different from the usual grocery store selections, keep reading for our recommendations of 10 of the greatest BBQ sauces.

Considerations When Purchasing Barbecue Sauce

Barbeque began in the eastern coast, where the southern-style of slow cooking over a wood barbecue, frequently done by slaves, evolved from indigenous people’s cooking practices in Florida and the Caribbean during Spanish colonization. This cooking method was known as babacots, which was translated into Spanish as barbacoa, and the word developed into barbeque.

The traditional barbacoa cooking technique was to dig a hole in the ground and fill it with burning wood. The pit was then filled with cow heads and allowed to smoke and cook slowly while the wood burnt.

A botanist and naturalist in Philadelphia witnessed slaves crushing and preserving Guinea peppers for use as a sauce for meat and fish in 1748. The botanist, Peter Kalm, observed that adding the pepper sauce to meals had a really pleasant flavor.

While grilling techniques and meat cuts are often used to identify regional barbecue, sauces may be just as essential. The many sauce styles may typically be categorized into one of four primary kinds of sauce, however through time, varieties of the different sauces have found their way into pits in other States or areas, allowing a broad array of sauces to suit whatever tastes you desire.

Tomato, vinegar, mustard, and mayonnaise are the most common BBQ sauce bases:

Barbecue Sauces With Tomatoes

This is a richer sauce that may be used on any meat, whether barbecued or smoked, but it is popular for grilled or smoked meat or hamburger sandwiches.

Tangy, sweet, and spicy tastes are common in these sauces, as is smokiness from liquid smoke.

The invention of ketchup by Heinz in 1876 was a watershed moment in the growth of barbecue sauces, with tomato-based sauces emerging in Tennessee, where a larger range of meats were cooked than in Carolina. When these tomato-based sauces debuted in Kansas City in the early twentieth century, it marked the beginning of a new era for BBQ sauce.

Kansas City (or KC-style) barbecue sauce, along with ketchup, incorporates molasses, vinegar, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and other spices and is popular for smoked beef brisket, chicken and spare ribs, or any other meats where the tomato will not overpower the tastes or palate.

Other tomato-based sauces include Texas-style sauces, which are often hotter with less sweetness due to the absence of molasses, and central Texas BBQ sauce, which is thinner and typically used on meat due to the presence of beef drippings. A Memphis-style sauce is also thinner and free of molasses.

To prevent the possibility of the natural sugars in the sauce caramelizing and subsequently burning the meat, a tomato-based sauce is frequently applied towards the conclusion of cooking or at the table. It may be used for smoking as long as the temperature stays below 265 degrees Fahrenheit.

Barbecue Sauces With Vinegar

Vinegar-based sauces, which are thinner than tomato-based sauces, are popular at North Carolina-style barbeques, where they are an essential complement to pork, even whole hog, since the vinegar in the sauce helps to balance the pig fat.

Often, these sauces are created using cider or white vinegar and spices. A vinegar-based sauce from Eastern North Carolina is a thin sauce with a more acidic flavor that is created using vinegar, spices, red pepper, and spicy sauces.

Certain vinegar-based sauces, such as the Western Carolina (Lexington or Piedmont), do include tomatoes, but they are thin and retain the vinegar overtones, frequently with a pepper kick. This, like a conventional vinegar-based sauce, may be used for pig dishes, whether eaten on their own or on sandwiches.

Mustard-Based Barbecue Sauces

Mustard-based barbecue sauces, which are common throughout the Mustard Belt in South Carolina, are often used on a whole pit-smoked hog, pork shoulder, or smoky pulled pork, where the sauce’s acidic and rich tastes compliment the meat much better than a tomato-based sauce.

A mustard-based sauce is primarily formed of mustard and vinegar, with additional flavors added, and is best served on the side to avoid overpowering the pork. When German immigrants came in South Carolina with mustards, these sauce forms most likely evolved.

Barbecue Sauces Made with Mayonnaise

The Alabama white barbecue sauce is produced using a mayonnaise base that has been thinned up with vinegar and lemon, as well as additional flavors like black pepper, to create a unique sauce that compliments smoked chicken and pulled pork dishes.

Making Use of Barbecue Sauces

Barbecue sauces are often better suited for barbecuing than than grilling since the sugars in a BBQ sauce do not burn at the lower cooking temperature of 225F.

When you add BBQ sauce to meat for grilling, the sauce might smoke and burn as the cooking temperature rises. Using a BBQ sauce while cooking at high temperatures might cause the sauce to become gummy.

If you wish to use BBQ sauce on your grilled meat, brush it on towards the end of cooking or about ten minutes before the finish; however, sauce may be put on ribs around 30 minutes or even longer before the end of cooking since most people like a thicker and stickier coating on ribs.

When you add BBQ sauce at the end of cooking, the caramelization of the sugars gives the meat a rich and deep taste. Just apply the sauce to the ribs or meats coat by coat, and if it begins to flare up, simply shift the meat to a cooler portion of the grill. Continue to monitor the meat and the grill temperature to prevent the sugars from burning.

If you smoke meat with BBQ sauce, the lower temperatures of the smoker ensure that the sauce does not burn. Some caramelization of sugars will normally occur, especially when the sauce is kept on for prolonged periods of time, although smoking meat with BBQ sauce will seldom burn.

Of course, you may also provide BBQ sauce on the side.

Some BBQ Sauce Useful Hints

If you’re new to BBQ, a complete slab of spareribs with the tips will need around three quarters of a cup of thick sauce, while a slab of baby back ribs will require approximately one-third of a cup, with additional sauce on the table for dipping. If you’re going to chop the ribs before serving them, don’t sauce the cut sides.

If you are applying the sauce after cooking, it is generally beneficial to slightly reheat the sauce on the stovetop or in the microwave before adding it to the meat. To limit the danger of foodborne disease, always pour the sauce into a bowl before brushing the meat, and after completed brushing, discard the residual sauce in the bowl.

If you’re offering pulled pork, you may want to assemble the sandwiches and let guests add their own sauce instead of coating them themselves, since some people enjoy a lot of sauce while others prefer just a little.

If meat isn’t your thing, or if you simply have a lot of BBQ sauce, try it over grilled shellfish or fish, or blend it with olive oil and lemon for a fast salad vinaigrette.

You may also use it to flavor nachos or quesadillas, potato salad, slaws, and even savory frostings for cornbread muffins. A tomato-based BBQ sauce may be used in place of marinara on pizza, or it can be mixed with baked beans, rice, or stuffed potatoes.

Conclusion

In this study, we examined a variety of various BBQ sauces, as well as the history of one of our favorite foods and how BBQ sauce styles varied between areas. We’ve also included some BBQ sauce use guidelines, such as when to use them while grilling and how much sauce to use to coat a slab of baby back ribs. We’ve also included some suggestions for other ways to utilize BBQ sauce in regular cooking to add some BBQ flavor to a range of dishes.

Whether you want to try something new with your baby back ribs, pulled pork, or even tofu, we hope our evaluations of the finest BBQ sauces have been useful and have inspired you to try something new the next time you fire up the grill or smoker.