I'm one of those people who like to think that good barbecue doesn't need sauce, but that doesn't mean that I don't use it anyway! Different sauces bring additional dimensions to the food, and I'll eat BBQ plain or with any of many different sauces depending on my whim at the time. It's all good, no need to worry about it.
why is it, as you say, so hard for you to wrap your head around this?
You have to differentiate between enhancing and covering up!
if cooked right then the meat should be able to be the focal point and sauce should be used to just enhance or offset flavors but the meat should shine through. If the meat wasn't cooked right and can't hold its own then that is when you smoother the stuff in a thick coating of sauce to hide the mistakes.
just because something doesn't need it doesn't mean it isn't or can't be enhanced by it.
When doing Q a lot of folks try to build and add layers of flavor. The rub adds many layers, the smoke adds a layer, sauce adds a layer, etc...
Some people want that layer of sauce because it adds, offsets, or enhances a flavor profile. For different people that can be different kinds of sauce from thick sweet Kansas City style, to a mustard sauce, vinegar sauce, Alabama white sauce, etc...
Personally I like a thin layer of sauce on something like ribs. I want the meat to be the MAIN attraction... Not the sauce... I want the sauce to just enhance or offset maybe the meat and rub. i.e. Maybe I'm using a spicier rub and want a thin layer of sweet sauce to offset the heat and ultimately give the ribs a sweet and spicy profile.
Pulled pork i will eat without sauce unless I'm building a sandwich with some vinegar slaw in it then I enjoy a dab of sauce.
And some people just enjoy the rub and that is fine too. Everyone has their own taste preferences. Go with what you like. You may have the best steak in the world in front of you but still love A1 and want some to go with it but my guess would be you want it to enhance not cover up the meat.
It's all about "different strokes for different folks". I've been known to say that good whiskey (Scotch or bourbon" doesn't need ice but that doesn't stop me from dropping a cube in a glass now & then. If think that everyone has to have/like BBQ just one way, maybe you've been "Lost in China" a bit too long...
I have 3 outdoor devices (plus a couple indoor items) Starting with the PBC, Faux Kamado Kooker,(Akorn metal Kamado) & Oklahoma Joe offset grill and smoker. I use the FireBoard WiFi Thermometer. IQ110 (heat control device for akorn) recently acquired a Char-Broil Big Easy TRU-INFRARED 3-in-1 Roaster, Smoker and Grill, I also have A Anova & Joule Sous Vide Wands and The Steakager ( a unit for Dry aging big hunks of meat!)
Growing up I always enjoyed Brisket and Ribs (always had to have Sauce I like the sweet kind) then one day back in 2010 as I was just beginning to try smoking my own meats and fowl. I read in Texas Monthly (<---its a magazine I know that is a new concept to a lot of you but look it up on Google it was a thing) that Bartley's BBQ in Grapevine TX was 1 of the best in DFW. So I decided to go see! Found it in a strip mall nothing special so it seemed. Went in and it was a cafeteria style. Got my meat and ribs. Paid at the end and pick up my tray and started to head for the condiments station...??? Wait there was none?? So I turn back around and walk back to the cashier (I notice a few people at different tables watching me one of them actually hit his friend that was distracted and pointed my way??) I ask "Where is the Sauce?" the whole room go quite and then a collective Ohoooooo starts?? That's when the pitmaster (the one who had cut my meat) gives me a stern look and says Boy have you tasted the meat yet?? why do you want sauce to cover up the taste of the meat??? Try it 1st! and turns and walks away. I'm cowering and say ok walk and sit. I try the meat how good could it be?? That was when I knew I needed to upgrade my cooks. The meat was tender and juicy had a wonderful bark and the right amount of smoke! Dang it it didn't need any sauce!! I was a convert!! About that time a lady was paying for here food she had the same perplexed look I had had a few minutes before. Then she did it she ask. There I was Going Ohoooo with the rest. since then I have strived to make meat good enough to eat alone! I have gotten better at it and now when I give it to friends I always say try it with out sauce 1st please!! (but I'll admit a good sweet sauce on ribs with a little onion is near perfection!!)
The following will illustrate why you may feel awkward asking the sauce question: I put Mayo on my hot dog. If I'm at a ballpark I always look around to make sure no one sees me doing it because it is not an accepted practice in most crowds.
When my wife introduced me to fries dipped in mayo or tarter sauce. I thought "yuck", but then I tried it and it was good, very good. At that time I was a ketchup fanatic. I still like ketchup on scrambled eggs!
To me, sauce is just another part of BBQ. It creates depth and complex flavors. But if you like it "Nakid" than eat it that way. There is nothing wrong with that either. I know the stuff I make can be eaten without sauce. No problem. Sometimes I eat it that way sometime not.
But a lot of people that I cook for, love sauce. It's not that they don't "know real BBQ" thats just the way they like it. Some, myself included, love the added texture and smoothness that sauce can bring to the table. I agree, some do cover up dryness and lack of flavor with sauce. But to me, its about balance. I don't wanna cover up the smoke and wood flavor, that is at the heart of BBQ, but I DO want to compliment it.
(BTW for sauces on ribs.....I like to mix Blues Hog BBQ Original BBQ sauce with Tiger Sauce, Texas Rib Candy and some melted butter and its unstoppable!)
Last edited by Spinaker; November 28, 2016, 09:46 PM.
Sounds intriguing, Spinaker ! Do you make your Dragon Sauce, or buy certain brand(s) ?Seen Tryme, and Green Dragon as top results at google.
Texas Rib Candy - Sweet, or Heat?
Thanks, in advance, Amigo!
I use the pomegranate full heat pic candy. Its amazing. But they have a ton of flavors. They are sweet heat. But you can also get ones without the heat.
Huskee and Spinaker T-Roy if not mistaken started with the WSM then he move up to the Yoder Wichita and now he has a Kamado Joe. I may have seen all of his videos some I like some I disagreed with.
First BBQ I ever ate was out of a little shack (and I do mean shack) in Wichita, Kansas in the early '70's.
Can't remember the name of the place but he served good BBQ on a piece of wax paper--you sat on a home made picnic table to eat.
The old man running the place put EXACTLY the amount of sauce on it that it required. If you made the mistake of asking for more he would tell you not too politely that it was as sauced as it needed to be and if it didn't suit you you were welcomed to go somewhere else.
It was a pretty popular place considering. After you learned how much sauce was needed on his BBQ it was actually damned good.
Sort of anecdotally reminds me of Henry Ford saying you could order the Model T in any color you want as long it's black. You can have as much sauce as you want--somewhere else!
Started Low-N-Slow BBQ in 2012. Obviously, it's taken hold (in chronological order:
1.) A pair of Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5's
2.) #LilTex, a 22" Expensive Offset Smoker (looks like a Yoder Witicha)
3.) #WhoDat1, a HUGE Gravity Fed Insulated Cabinet Smoker (cooking chamber 3'x2'x6')
4.) A Full Size Commercial Dryer/converted to Vertical Smoker.
5.) Jambo Backyard stickburner (my FAVORITE Pit so far)
6.) GrillMeister, a huge 24"x48" Adjustable, Charcoal Grill from Pitmaker.com
7.) 22" Weber Kettle with Slow-N-Sear
8.) Vault insulated reverse-flow cabinet smoker from Pitmaker
9.) BarbecueFiretruck...under development
10.) 26 foot BBQ Vending Trailer equipped with HUGE Myron Mixon 72xc smoker is HERE, Oct 2016!
11.) Opened www.PaulsRibShackBarbecue.com Food Trailer officially in March 2017
12.) Austin Smoke Works 500 Gallon Propane Tank Offset Smoker, named "Lucille" as travel pit for PaulsRibShack, Oct 2018.
12.) Opening Brick & Mortar location at 4800 Nelson Rd, Spring 2019. Had a pair of 1,000 Gallon Austin Smoke Works pits, both in RibShackRed for our new place!
Fabulous Backlit Thermapens, several Maverick Remote Thermometers (don't use any remotes anymore), Thermoworks Smoke, Other Thermoworks toys, Vacuum sealer, lots and lots of equipment...
I'm loving using BBQ to make friends and build connections.
I have #theRibList where I keep a list of new and old friends and whenever I'm cooking, I make 1 to 20 extra and share the joy.
I think what gets the ire up of folks who have learned to smoke some darn good meat is when an AverageBBQJoint cooks some, well, less than Amazing meat, then puts a tasty sauce on it...and the guests who eat there just love it and brag about it...in our earshot!
Couple of Observations in response:
1. God made meat taste so good we love it even if the way it's cooked is a good bit less than the maximum amazingness possible.
2. Until you've tasted super-good barbecue, then average Q with a tasty sauce is good!
I really don't sauce anything on the pit* because a.) I like to serve it in a cleaner fashion, and b.) it's less work. As a result, I tend to put on a heavier coat of rub, which is sort of my sauce-substitute!
Started Low-N-Slow BBQ in 2012. Obviously, it's taken hold (in chronological order:
1.) A pair of Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5's
2.) #LilTex, a 22" Expensive Offset Smoker (looks like a Yoder Witicha)
3.) #WhoDat1, a HUGE Gravity Fed Insulated Cabinet Smoker (cooking chamber 3'x2'x6')
4.) A Full Size Commercial Dryer/converted to Vertical Smoker.
5.) Jambo Backyard stickburner (my FAVORITE Pit so far)
6.) GrillMeister, a huge 24"x48" Adjustable, Charcoal Grill from Pitmaker.com
7.) 22" Weber Kettle with Slow-N-Sear
8.) Vault insulated reverse-flow cabinet smoker from Pitmaker
9.) BarbecueFiretruck...under development
10.) 26 foot BBQ Vending Trailer equipped with HUGE Myron Mixon 72xc smoker is HERE, Oct 2016!
11.) Opened www.PaulsRibShackBarbecue.com Food Trailer officially in March 2017
12.) Austin Smoke Works 500 Gallon Propane Tank Offset Smoker, named "Lucille" as travel pit for PaulsRibShack, Oct 2018.
12.) Opening Brick & Mortar location at 4800 Nelson Rd, Spring 2019. Had a pair of 1,000 Gallon Austin Smoke Works pits, both in RibShackRed for our new place!
Fabulous Backlit Thermapens, several Maverick Remote Thermometers (don't use any remotes anymore), Thermoworks Smoke, Other Thermoworks toys, Vacuum sealer, lots and lots of equipment...
I'm loving using BBQ to make friends and build connections.
I have #theRibList where I keep a list of new and old friends and whenever I'm cooking, I make 1 to 20 extra and share the joy.
One thing I have found in serving lots of guests is the Power of the Side-By-Side Comparison.
For example: What's the difference between a Perfect Blue Smoke brisket cook on an Offset and a good smoke done on my big Gravity Fed smoker? I have cooked a bunch of briskets on each of these, and liked them all. My big gravity-fed cooker, #WhoDat1, had a big firebox with strong airflow, which means a rather oxygenated fire. But on my offset, an insulated firebox Jambo Backyard, if I pay attention and work the fire, I can have absolute blue smoke the entire cook.
Does it make a difference? Well, we cooked up briskets on each on a Sunday, invited a pile of folks over, and did the Side-By-Side. Both briskets were cooked to doneness really well. And the guests loved both. But with the side-by-side, they were able to taste, think, and...all who voted gave a tip of the hat in the stickburner direction, which I credit to the magic of that cleaner fire.
What does that have to do with saucing? Often, folks haven't tried really good barbecue without sauce. If they get a chance to try it, maybe they will see a diminished need.
When I serve sliced brisket at a party, I'll usually encourage folks to try the brisket without sauce, and ask them to let me know what they think. But I'm not a militant about it. It ruins the fun!
If think that everyone has to have/like BBQ just one way, maybe you've been "Lost in China" a bit too long... 
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