Meatheads KC Classic BBQ sauce is a big hit with my customers. Use it on my Burgers and Boerewors Rolls. The BBQ sauce is now also requested as a topping for "chips" or fries as you know them. The problem is the sauce is expensive to make and I do not charge for the sauce and I prefer the sauce to be exclusively a secret sauce on my Burgers and Wors rolls. Some of my regular customers want to buy the product but I just don’t have the time to make extra to sell and then there’s the price I would have to sell it at. I am currently making about 3 litres a week and more and more is being used on fries. Does anyone have a similar fashioned sauce with fewer ingredients (cheaper to make) but same great taste that I could use instead for my fries?
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While i have never seen the prices in SA I have the the prices for imported goods from there to the US. Yikes!
it would help to know what is the expensive part. Also are you using the Tamarind paste? That should be less by you right? That's fantastic stuff.
happy to hear you are doing well.-
HouseHomey In general I think we get ripped off. Pure Honey, molasses and even dark brown sugar are expensive and then the combination of all the ingredients just make it a costly really delicious sauce. Shamefully haven't made with tamarind paste {yet). Fewer ingredients would be helpful as a cost saver. Thx for response.
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holehogg another thing to consider is making the sauce included on the burgers and wors rolls, but charge something for it on the side as a dipping sauce. A burger probably uses a tablespoon of sauce I would imagine, and 3L would go a long way. You start giving it out for fries, it will go quick.
Example: I had buffalo wings the other night at a restaurant the wife and I frequent. While they toss the wings in their sauce, you can request extra sauce or extra blue cheese or ranch on the side. They charge 50 cents or 75 cents (I forget) for extra sides of the wing sauce or dressings. And I see nothing wrong with that, and just pay it if I want extra sauce, as I actually dip my fries (chips to you) in the wing sauce and blue cheese dressing.
If people really like it, they will pay 50 cents or more for a little disposable portion cup of sauce, and you can even pop a lid on it for to go orders. The ones I am thinking of are often used for cheese dip at places like Taco Bell, and are probably 2 ounces or less in size.
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For forever I made ranch dressing by the 5 gallon bucket load. .50 for ranch is standard and for anywhere from a 2oz to 4oz portion cup with lid depending on where I was. Homemade sauce would likely be a smaller portion or more expensive larger side. Depends on your market.
Also you may may want to figure out where you're "economy of scale" is (if you haven't already done so) and try to reduce your average cost per serving if your certain you will be using the sauce.
Do you have other sweeteners! Maybe a darker brown sugar for less molasses. Agave, a similar honey but not as expensive.
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HouseHomey New to both smoking and catering and I'm on a wonderful learning curve. I'm doing this more out of passion than anything else. I mention this because I have a long way to go when it comes to being able to economise with alternate substitutes for certain ingredients etc etc.etc. I have spent the bulk of my last year practicing / learning just about smoking with some great results and some disappointments but yes things continue to go from strength to strength. all the good advice / guidance is all welcome.Comment
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I guess you cannot walk into a discount wholesale club like we do around here, and buy pre-made BBQ sauce in gallon jugs... if I was in business with a BBQ food truck, and the sauce was too costly to make, I would go with one of the commercial sauces I see in the places here like Costco or Sam's Club. They sell stuff here like Sonny's (a sweet BBQ sauce my kids all love) and Sweet Baby Ray's and a few others, at costs below what it would probably cost me to make sauce from scratch.
I would imagine if BBQ is not a "thing" in South Africa, that the stores and wholesalers do not sale BBQ sauce of any sort either.
Best suggestion I have is to buy ketchup and mayo and ranch dressing and such condiments and spice it up. A lot of places around here have a creamy orange looking dipping sauce around here that I believe is just a blend of ketchup and mayonnaise or maybe ranch dressing, possibly with a few spices added. Also sounds like malt vinegar is an option that you already provide the customers.Comment
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jfmorris We do get off the shelf jugs of catering BBQ sauce etc but they are not that great and very few varieties. We do have store bought bottled BBQ sauces that are really good but very expensive. Was hoping somebody had a great el cheepo winning recipe that would make me a hero. thanks for input.
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You might try taking the most KC-style of the catering sauces available to you and modifying it based on Meathead's recipe, with an eye on cost. I would start by upping the heat and adding umami-oriented ingredients (Worcestershire sauce [or maybe Asian fish sauce if it is cheaper], steak sauce, yellow mustard [or mustard powder if cheaper]), garlic, onion. If tamarind paste is affordable I would try that as well.
There are sixteen ingredients in the original recipe, six of which are made products themselves, so some trial and error is going to be necessary, and the result is not going to be identical. But it could still be good and distinctive.
Something to think about, anyway.Comment
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I think Baltassar might be on to something. If the cost of the catering sauces is greater than tomato sauce and mustard, then charge for chip (fries) sauce as HouseHomey does. Breaking even, saucewise, and still having a distinctive sauce is not all that bad. And starting with a sauce that covers most of the ingredients allowing you to only add a few to make it "secret" sounds like a winner.
Keep us posted on what you finally choose to do, holehogg . I wish you well.
Kathryn
P.S. Maybe a seasoned BBQ entrepreneur like PaulstheRibList can give some advice as well...Comment
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Love that you found something your customers enjoy! Novelty combined with excellent quality is a great place to generate demand! Why? Because you can then package it and get a profitable price. Congratulations, you just found a possible Special at your place! Package the Sauce Fries as a Special, and charge $1 or $1.50 or $2 more, and YOU put the sauce on the fries! -
Maybe you will have to experiment further, adding a texture item, or a little topping of pulled pork ends, or brisket trimmings...
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i would guess you would figure out how much it costs, how much you are using, how much you are selling, on average, and just increase your prices overall to cover the costs if you can't charge per use. if you spread the cost of the sauce over all your customers i would have a hard believing it would be too much to notice. price fluctuations happen for new businesses as they figure out their real costs.Comment
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