BBQ Sauce Reviews

In depth analysis of the best sauces for your BBQ.

BBQ Stu’s Barbeque Sauce - Original (3/5)

BBQ Stu’s Original BBQ Sauce

Psalm 34:8 says “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”  The words “Psalm 34:8″ also sit on the side of this BBQ sauce.  I wonder how long it took these guys to comb through the psalms to find a fitting reference for their BBQ sauce?

I liked the sauce and my only really complaint was the pineapple surprise flavor. It has the makings for a 4 with some simple marketing touch-ups.  Their hotter version I really loved, and that review will be coming soon.

Continue reading “BBQ Stu’s Barbeque Sauce - Original (3/5)”

June 16th, 2008 Posted by brian | All Reviews, 3 Star Reviews, Unique BBQ Sauces | no comments

BBQ’N Fools Signature Barbecue Sauce (3/5)

BBQ’N Fools Signature Barbecue Sauce

When it comes to your BBQ, we’re not Fool’n around - so says the slogan underneath the roasted jester. And I’d agree, they aren’t foolin around with this standard KC style BBQ sauce, but I have to say there’s not a lot different or outrageuously flavorful going on here.

Continue reading “BBQ’N Fools Signature Barbecue Sauce (3/5)”

June 10th, 2008 Posted by brian | All Reviews, 3 Star Reviews | no comments

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Habanero Red Sauce (3/5)

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Habanero Red Sauce

I’ll save some of my typical upfront meandering, simply because I already did that in my last Big Bob Gibson post. Well, I do have one tangential thought to bring up… being a web-based reviewer of products.

Continue reading “Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Habanero Red Sauce (3/5)”

January 26th, 2008 Posted by brian | Spicy BBQ Sauce, All Reviews, 3 Star Reviews | no comments

Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce (3/5)

Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic BBQ SauceThe BBQ sauce world does not revolve around tomatoes, so I had to review a mustard-based sauce for my fellow sauce lovers. This well-known Southern Carolina style, Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce fit the bill. There’s some positives and negatives here, so this will be my first middle-of-the-road rating (3/5). My wife has a serious mustard problem habit and I’ve tried some great mustards and used them as chicken/rib/fish sauces and they came out quite a bit better than this… hence the rating of a 3. I will keep exploring this mustard BBQ sauce style, as I think there’s a lot of potential for a disruptive brand to really make their mark in this category.

When preparing, keep in mind that because you are using a mustard sauce and not a tomato-based sauce (which tend to have a lot more sugar) so you can truly apply as much as you want, whenever you want. The sugar in this stuff will not burn off on the grill. It will lose some of its oomph, but there’s really no trick to just keep adding more sauce… Put some chicken breasts in a bucket with this stuff. Let a rack of ribs bond with it. Let them sit overnight. Let them mate. Then throw them on the grill the next day. While cooking, keep adding more. You’ll experience a unique and rich mustard meat flavor.

Continue reading “Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce (3/5)”

September 27th, 2007 Posted by brian | All Reviews, Mustard BBQ Sauce, 3 Star Reviews, South Carolina BBQ Sauce | one comment

Lip Lickin’ Sauce - Bold & Spicy BBQ (3/5)

Plus side: Great cooked flavor, use of simple healthy ingredients, and no weird preservatives and thickening agents. Anchovies.

Downside: Thin, no heat when expected, a little boring. Anchovies.

Lip Lickin’ Sauce - Bold & Spicy BBQWestern North Carolina style BBQ sauce is thin by design, but sometimes a little too thin for my tastes. Lip Lickin’ Sauces market Western North Carolina style sauce (thin) available in two flavors. Smoky and Sweet, and Bold and Spicy. I tried the Bold and Spicy and was pleased with my dinner, however a little thrown off guard by a product I was expecting to have some ZING.

On to the tasting.

I sampled the flavor before cooking it up. Straight outta the bottle, when it got home from the grocery store, it was room temperature, and almost covered my entire countertop as I tried to land a drop of the sauce onto an innocent unsalted saltine (oxymoron?). Did I mention this stuff is thin? Eventually I tasted it. There’s not a lot of complexity, but for first time tasters and newbies, this could make is a much preferred alternative to the mass market stuff. The first few ingredients of the bottle usually give away an idea of the expected flavor, and in this case it’s tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, and water… They keep it simple, so you can actually taste most of what’s in there if you have for tastebuds for it. Sniffing it reveals a strong vinegar / tomato / black pepper / anchovies aroma - which is different and nice.

Consistency

Well, yeah, it was thin. Things tend to thicken a bit when they are cold, so I waited a fortnight before firing up the grill to sample this BBQ sauce. And behold - after time in the fridge, the sauce was a new man! Thickened up enough just enough to be applied easily to the chicken at about the 3/4 mark in grill cooking doneness. Beginners note - always apply BBQ sauce late in the cooking process, otherwise the sugars burn up and thus their flavors burns away into a dark black soot skin - which isn’t tasty for most humans except my dad.

Cooking

On to the cooking. I applied liberal amounts of Lip Lickin’ Sauce - Bold & Spicy BBQ - to 6 drumsticks. The drumsticks had already been cooking for awhile (I tend to cook thicker chicken parts using indirect heat to make sure they cook all the way through). I used a baster to scoop/brush on the sauce and well, because this style just isn’t that thick, it takes a little more sauce to ensure coverage. A little while later after three rounds of flipping and applying, they were done.

Taste

Nothing really special, nothing new, nothing that makes me think “this is going to be my house sauce from now on”, but all in all, I’d say this is worth a try. Again, the carefully selected ingredients (only ten) are a great testament to this small, authentic BBQ sauce maker. The sauce becomes nice and sticky, and you can taste less flavors than when it’s uncooked, but I think the “highlighted” flavors left over are just great. The edge of the vinegar burns off, and the sweetness drops down a notch to make quite a bold flavor indeed.

What’s missing was the Spicy. I guess the word “spicy” has several different meanings and if you wanted to get literally it must be something close to “has a lot of different spices” when used in a food sense. But, most people I know, including myself, use spicy to describe things that are hot. The only peppers they use in this sauce are the household staple black and the colorful red - and these combined have about … zero heat.

Good value - $3.69 for 19 ounces.

Ingredients: Tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, black and red peppers, salt, corn syrup, garlic spices, anchovies & tamarinds.

Nutrition Info: 50 calories per 34g serving, no fat, 12g carbs, 310mg sodium

Website Link

June 3rd, 2007 Posted by brian | All Reviews, 3 Star Reviews, North Carolina BBQ Sauce, General | no comments

Your Gateway to Barbecue Information
A service of
netRelief, Inc.

This site is a member of The Smoke Ring BBQ Webring
A linked list of BBQ websites

Next BBQ Site - Next 5 BBQ Sites - Prev BBQ Site - Random BBQ Site

Join the BBQ ring or browse a complete list of The Smoke Ring BBQ Webring member's BBQ sites

If you discover problems with any of The Smoke Ring BBQ Webring sites,
please notify the Ringmaster