Your Favorite Commercial BBQ Sauce?

[Willy]

What all brands/varieties do you like? I've got my favorite homemade sauces, but sometimes I cheat and buy a bottle at the store. I just found Lambert's Sweet Sauce O' Mine, which I thought was outstanding. I'm trying to duplicate it now. I also tried the new Weber sauce recently and thought it was pretty decent.

I confess to being "one of them" for whom sauce is mandatory. I cite Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary"as proof I am correct: SAUCE, n. The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven.

[Jerod Broussard]

For hot I don't want nothin' but Black Swan Beso del Fuego.

For sweet from the local store, pretty much anything will work.

[Willy]

I note lot of folks like BdF, alas, it's not available where I live. Any suggestion as to a good e-tailer of lots of different brands of BBQ sauces where one could mix and match. I really don't want to buy a case of something I don't know about nor do I want to spend $20 for a single bottle (shipping).

How hot is BdF? I like heat, but I like my tongue and lips, too.

[DWCowles]

Willy it's not that hot that it burns your lips or tongue. To me it's just right. You can order it from walmart.com or amazon.com

[Huskee]

I'm one who likes sauce if it's needed. I've been working hard the last several years to make my meats juicy and well seasoned so I don't need it. But we're all different in that respect. I used to be a big sauce lover. When I do use sauce, it's either my own Shawsh which is a standard KC style with a subtle citrus kick, Max's Black Swan, or Sweet Baby Ray's. I like SBR's original and their sweet & hot.

[DWCowles]

I'm like Jerod Broussard the Black Swan Beso del Fuego (Kiss of Fire) is fantastic on just about anything if you like heat. For sweet BBQ sauce I either make my own or Sweet Baby Rays.

[fzxdoc]

I like Jardine's Killer BBQ sauce and my husband is a Jardine's 5-Star BBQ Sauce fan. Recently I had some Dreamland BBQ sauce on pork. OMGoodness was that delicious.

Like Huskee , though, I usually like my BBQ with a dry finish so I can taste the flavor of the meat and the rub's spices. I serve the sauce on the side unless I get a special request to baste with sauce toward the end of a cook.

Kathryn

[Breadhead]

I'm a Rufus Teague's man... I like the "with a kiss of heat" option.

[Brian/S]

I'm not a sauce fan but, I cook for many who do like sauce. I found that most people who drown their meat in sauce like it thick and sweet....KC style, that is. I'll use Sweet Baby Ray's mostly... I can buy it in bulk.

[CandySueQ]

I like sauce! SBR is hard to beat and is available at most grocery stores. I really, really like Head Country and I'm happy I can get it at my local Wal-Mart. I use Blues Hog and Craig's sauces in competition. Bare Knuckles Sauce out of Georgia is a wonderful spicy vinegar sauce. Then there's the finishing sauces...

[smarkley]

I am in agreement with a few others here... I don't like sauce but my family does, but I do like making my own. If that is not possible, and I have to buy it, it would be Sweet Baby Rays

[PappyFatcap]

I like the Carolina Gold from Lillie's.....

[smarkley]

Let me ask you something about that... is that type of sauce pretty spicey Hot?

I have some Carolina Gold type stuff from some guys in Oregon and when I tried it, I really dumped a lot on, and holy crap it is HOT! Now, I like hot spicey food but this stuff was almost over the top.

[PappyFatcap]

This is not spicy at all. It's just a mild, mustard-y goodness. That's why I'm a fan of this sauce. I like hot in certain situations but as I've grown older I don't handle all-out heat as well.

Sounds like you got your mitts on something like a spicy Chinese mustard that you'd put on an egg-roll...

[Mosca]

Here in the Northeast, among sauces that can be bought from a store, Dinosaur original is our favorite.

The best commercial sauce I've ever tasted is Roadhouse original. It has limited distribution in the Midwest (Chicago area mostly). It has an interesting backstory, too: Taste of Success: Jeff Sanders Hits the Sauce

[DeusDingo]

i get Bob's bitchin' BBQ sauces but don't know if that counts since it is really only available in the vicinity of dodgeville, WI. if we go national brand i'm not too picky since they all taste about the same to me. i guess bull's eye is pretty good.

[oldsteve]

Here in Northern California we have a BBQ/Dipping sauce called J. Lee Roy's. Its made in Oroville, CA. My favorite is the Original. There are also is a Smoky and a Hot version. I use it to finish ribs and chicken. Its also excellent as the name implies, for dipping. I don't know how wide their distribution area is, but its definitely worth looking for.

oldsteve

[billg71]

My go-to sauce for pork is Johnny Harris, either the Original or the Hickory-Smoked if I want a little more heat. It's primary ingredients are vinegar, ketchup, prepared mustard and Worcestershire sauce, in that order.

I also like Pappy's XXX for pork, again if I'm looking for heat. I can't report on ingredients since I get mine from a friend who buys gallons, I just take a quart bottle over occasionally and he fills it up. It's sweeter than I generally like on pork so I usually just mix a little in with the pulled pork, not a lot. It has a pretty good kick and I like the bourbon flavor.

I like Stubb's Original on beef or chicken, it's a sweet sauce but not overpoweringly so. Primary ingredients are water, tomato paste, cane sugar, vinegar and molasses. I used to get KC Masterpiece from a friend who was from KC and would bring me back a bottle or two when he went home to visit(this was back in the '70s before they got big-time) but it just isn't the same stuff now.

I have a couple bottles of Lotta' Bull Original(ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire) I'm waiting to try out and a bottle of 3 Beers(tomato paste, water, brown sugar, cider vinegar, white wine vinegar). Both look interesting for beef and yard bird.

I grew up in eastern South Carolina so I'll have to admit I'm a little biased in my taste in sauces, my first memories of barbecue were of a whole pig being pit-roasted over pecan wood, turned and mopped continuously with a thin vinegar sauce. We never used a mustard sauce, mustard is for hot dogs! (ducking and covering!)

Best,
Bill

[(Neal)]

I use several, but for pulled pork, I offer KC Masterpiece Original and SBR's