I've decided to make a signature sauce - need help

[Obi-Dan]

My wife and I have historically made edible gifts for people come the holiday season. Baked goods, dry soup mixes, gourmet cocoa mix, etc. It dawned on me we should be making a BBQ sauce with as much as I BBQ. I've never made my own BBQ sauce but I want it to be something different. I'm going to make three batches with different profiles, see which one I like and start trying to refine it. My ideas are: 1) Dr Pepper and Sriracha, 2) honey bourbon, and 3) a fruit flavored (probably peach or mango) sauce maybe with some heat.

Today I made the Dr Pepper Sriracha. I melted a half stick of butter and sautéed three cloves of minced garlic and half a yellow onion. Then I added 12 oz of Dr Pepper, a cup and a half of ketchup, a half cup of apple cider vinegar, a 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tbs molasses, 2 tbs black pepper, 2 tbs sriracha . I reduced it to let it thicken.

It came out pretty good. But it's missing something. It's a little sweet, a little tangy, and a little spicy so I'm happy with the balance of flavors. But something is missing from the flavor profile that I can't put my finger on. So I thought I would turn to the greatest tribe out there. Any thoughts on what I should add?

I'll keep you all posted on the process of the other sauces as well. Thanks in advance for any advice on what this one is missing.

[JCGrill]

I think maybe a little umami to round things out? Soy sauce would be good for that. Or maybe worcestershire.

[Obi-Dan]

Worcestershire sauce. I think that may be it. My daughter said salt but I knew that wasn’t it. But the saltiness of the Worcestershire plus the umami flavor it brings. Thanks. I’ll add some tomorrow and reheat.

[JCGrill]

By the way, I'm excited to see what you come up with for the third one.

[Obi-Dan]

Ha. Me too.

[aladdin4d]

A mild green chile or Anaheim pepper?

[Obi-Dan]

I wonder about a roasted pepper. I could roast them on the grill and add some smokiness. I might try this on another batch. Thanks.

[Red Man]

For the honey bourbon...I make Meathead’s Tennessee whiskey bbq sauce, but I cut the molasses to 2 tbsp and add 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp brown sugar. It’s really good. I also make a mango scotch bonnet bbq sauce using this recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...cue-sauce.html , substituting scotch bonnet peppers for the habaneros. It’s pretty good. I’ve only done that one a couple times and still working on my tweaks to the recipe.

[Obi-Dan]

I like this a lot. Thanks for the tips.

[Santamarina]

That TN whiskey sauce is a good one. I’ve made it a couple times - staying true to the recipe. Might try some of these mods next time.

[mountainsmoker]

Yep, three possibilities, Worcestershire, fish sauce, a good bunch of roasted peppers. Like those used in mole. Redman suggestion is good also.

[jfmorris]

Are you going to can this, like in mason jars or something? Just curious, as this is an interesting project, and I was wondering how you make it shelf stable so that you can wrap it up as a gift... Seems to me that pint mason jars would be the easiest way to go, but maybe you have other ideas.

[Obi-Dan]

Canning in small mason jars is my end plan. In the creation stage here I'm just boiling some left over bottles I have on hand.This batch went into a old 200ml scotch bottle.

[Ahumadora]

Huskee probably has boxes of empty bourdon bottles stacked up at his house that would be good to use.

[Dewesq55]

in my experience, most good tasting BBQ sauces (at least the red ones) have mustard and some version of American chili powder or ancho powder. In my sauces, I use about a 1 to 3 ratio of of mustard to ketchup (1/3 cup mustard to 1 cup ketchup, for example.) For chili powder, I use either homemade, such as Meathead's Homemade American Chili Powder or just ancho powder - home ground from dried anchos or store-bought.

[Obi-Dan]

I use ancho chili powder a lot in other dishes. I really like that flavor. I considered mustard. I may use it on the next test batch.

[Dewesq55]

I sometimes refer to chili powder/ancho as "the bbq spice." When I was first experimenting with making my own sauces, without the benefit of this site and it's recipes, I was having trouble getting them to taste like what I expected from BBQ sauce, until I tried adding some chili powder, then voila!

[MBMorgan]

If it's umami you're after, I've had good luck with making a powder of finely ground dried porcini mushrooms. It doesn't add salt or change the flavor profile much (if at all) ... but it definitely rounds things out.

[N227GB]

Nom Nom Magic Mushroom Powder from Whole Foods is another option.

[Obi-Dan]

N227GB You has me at Magic Mushroom Powder

[CaptainMike]

This is very similar to my Dad's Rodeo Sauce. In addition to the washyersister sauce he added several drops of liquid smoke and some good sherry.

[Obi-Dan]

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know how the next batch comes out. I'm going to add some worcestershire sauce to this batch and then make a second batch. I'let ya'll know.

[tbob4]

You are on the right track. When I make a sauce I start with my base then add a bit of this and a bit of that. I taste it, adjust it with this and that or some of that-over-there. In the end my wife always says "It's good but you will never replicate it because you didn't write anything down" Follow her advice, and my method with the suggestions above.

[mountainsmoker]

Obi-Dan I forgot to mention in my post a book I picked up many years ago. It is from Paul Kirk a championship BBQ cooker. Any way the book is "Paul Kirks Championship Barbeque Sauces" You can probably get it on Amazon. Anyway he gives ingredients and how they go together plus some recipes plus a plus a basic recipe that can be alternated. It not only includes sauces but rubs, marinades and others.

[Obi-Dan]

Added to my amazon book list.

[drobinson]

I think you should try adding some mustard.

[MarkN]

The only thing I did not see anyone list that I occasionally toss in is Espresso Powder.

[Obi-Dan]

maybe with some cocoa?

[ssandy_561]

One of the best BBQ sauces I ever made I used peach cider as an ingredient along with Southern Comfort, apple cider vinegar, bacon grease, onions, powdered mustard, ketchup, dark brown sugar, Worcestershire and black pepper.

The peach cider was the star of it.

If if you want peach flavor try to find some peach cider. It worked great for me.

[Mr. Bones]

Dang, that sounds delicious!!!