Best Homemade BBQ Sauce On The Planet!
A few years ago I was tired of available BBQ sauces and wanted to make my own homemade BBQ sauce. I went to my shelf of BBQ books and started reading. After perusing pages and pages of recipes one recipe caught my eye, Memphis-Style Championship Red Sauce.
I was intrigued by the long list of ingredients, the last 4 of which are only 1/8 of a tsp (how the heck can that make a difference?) but decided to try it after reading this about it:
"Anywhere you go, it is not hard to find someone claiming to have "the best barbecue sauce." But there is only one sauce judged to be World’s Best for three consecutive years. Championship Red Sauce is hands down the "Best Sauce on the Planet" as selected over 500 entries at the American Royal International Sauce Contest. Our Red Sauce is a classic tomato-based barbeque sauce that enhances the flavor of all meat. Use it as a glaze or a dipping sauce. The all-purpose taste goes well on pork, chicken and beef and is a great replacement for ketchup. It took over 70 years and 4 generations to perfect this championship flavor."
Not kidding, we've made this sauce over and over and over. Friends and family LOVE IT. Follow the recipe exactly. Only adaption I ever made was substituting apple butter for applesauce, because I was out of homemade applesauce and figured apple butter would be even denser and more flavorful. To my taste buds it did not enhance the flavor, but on the other hand it did not detract from it.
Championship-style Memphis Red Sauce
Prep time: 30 mins
Makes 4 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups ketchup
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup vinegar
- 3/4 cup tomato paste
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup corn sugar
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon apple sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and blend well. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer over a medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool. Consume!
The original recipe says it "stores in a tightly sealed container for 2 weeks in a refrigerator." I have kept it in the fridge for many weeks longer than that and it is fine.
UPDATE:
My wife and I decided to try canning this recipe. We made a quadruple batch and put it in 8 ounce jars canning it like tomato sauce. The end result was excellent. Personally, as with anything, it's best fresh and still a bit warm, but the difference is small enough that I declare it excellent and will continue the practice! And we now have jars of it to use when desired, share with friends and family, give to someone when smoking meat for them or simply bless someone with the best sauce they'll ever taste!