Head’s Red BBQ Sauce (5/5)

Head’s Red BBQ Sauce

Head’s Red BBQ Sauce (5/5)

I’ve had various varieties come in from all over the world country, and I gotta say this sauce stacks way up there.  With it’s deep red hue and a deep complex flavor to match, this sauce has been my favorite around the house for the past few weeks. In fact, it’s the only sauce my wife has been referring to by name. The other ones she just kinda points at – this one?  Or how bout this one?  🙂  For that and for the reasons listed herein, it gets my highest rating of 5 stars.

Here’s a description of how this sauce was born, from Bill Mehilos, creator of Head’s Red:

Head’s Red BBQ Sauce came about when I got involved in BBQ competitions in the Midwest area about 5 years ago. I had always enjoyed cooking authentic slow cooked BBQ at home and decided to try my luck competing with other fanatical BBQ cooks from across the country in these competitions.

I formed a cooking team with two other BBQ cooks from the area and and we named ourselves the Chi-Town Smokers. In order to set our food apart from the other teams I tried to come up with a sauce that was unique from what other cooks were using. Although the use of commercial BBQ sauces are allowed in competitions I was never completely happy with these sauces mainly because they all tasted pretty much the same and were overly sweet.

That’s when  I created Head’s Red BBQ sauce. I took the homemade sauce that I always used for my home BBQ and after some trial and error in the kitchen I came up with what I thought was a good combination of a slightly sweet yet tangy flavor that would complement the meat it was used on instead of overpowering it like most of the commercial stuff does. My sister coined the name for the sauce though by combining my childhood nickname along with the deep crimson red color of the sauce.

OK, Heady… Set… Go – on to the review!

The First Sniff
I actually didn’t really like the first sniff.  Because this is more of a what I’d like to coin a compound sauce (comprised of various multi-ingredient mixtures such as ketchup, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce) it has a lot of different “things” floating around in it.  Just think, the ketchup company might have used white vinegar, and the chili sauce may have been made with some other kind of vinegar, and guess what, the Worcestershire sauce ALSO has vinegar. All these vinegars floating around next to and with one another increases the oddness of the vinegar smell. But I was proved wrong where it counts – on the grill.

Consistency
Great consistency – not too thick, not too thin, clings well, not syrupy, just right (random thought – maybe I should videotape the consistency of some of these sauces??)

Before Cooking Flavor
Great stuff.  I went overboard with this sauce, and it’s versatility as a hybrid BBQ/chili sauce goes a long way. For my uncooked reviews, I usually use one of the following extremely scientific methods.  A) dip a finger into the sauce B) dip a cracker into the sauce.  The stuff is sweet, but has just the right mixture of flavors to make a lot of them stand out.  Complex yet simply tasty.  I ended up putting this on sandwiches (try ham and swiss cheese with a little miracle whip/mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion – wow), and as dipping sauce for various appetizers and roll-ups.

After Cooking Flavor
Excellent. I had this on chicken, pork, burgers, veggie burgers, grilled vegetables, and… I think that’s it.  I went through this sauce extremely fast compared to anything else I have in my fridge (which is about 20 sauces currently).  The grill brings the sweetness down just a notch and let’s you taste the lower ingredients on the bottle such as the molasses, Worcestershire, cider vinegar, and garlic.

Awards
Grand Champion
, Zoo B Q BBQ Competition – Racine Washington

Ingredients (sub-ingredients not listed due to pure laziness)
Ketchup, Chili Sauce, Brown Sugar, Molasses, Worcestershire Sauce, Cider Vinegar, Spices.  CONTAINS FISH.

Nutrition (per serving)
Calories 45
Total Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0g
Sodium 270mg
Carbs 11g
Protein 1g

Website
www.headsredBBQ.com

Marketing and Packaging Tips
I’m a marketing guy so I’d like to recommend the following: better label (maybe all Red) with a giant head on it. Turn the bottle sideways and stick the head on it like that.  Make it interesting and fun.  Maybe a redhead. Right now, the label just barely does it’s job. Also get on the internet a bit more and get listed by websites who resell sauces…

All that aside, this stuff is pretty darn tasty and it deserves credit for it’s chili sauce BBQ yummi-ness.  After all, flavor carries the most weight here on BSR.

– Brian

Site Editor, BBQ Sauce Lover, Family Guy, Hi Tech Marketer by Day. He recently wrote the Ebook “How to Market Your BBQ Sauce” which can be purchased on this site.

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Comments

  1. Try it on salmon….. YUM!

  2. Eric Devlin says

    We often agree in our reviews, sometimes we differ; but on this we concur completely. Heads Red is excellent.

    I look forward to more reviews!

    Eric Devlin

  3. It’s been over a month now since this one was posted. Any news on when new reviews will be done???

  4. Soapboxpreacher says

    I didnt care for this one very much. Something about it that I didnt like…the consistency and fish sauce in it, strange combination. Its base is ketchup…I just didnt get the taste at all. Maybe it might be good on fish but I tend not to put BBQ sauce on fish. Just my 2 cents, I typically agree with you on your reviews but this one was a 3 at best for me!

  5. No worries, soapbox.
    I’m grateful for your recent, thoughtful comments – they add further insight and balance to my one-sided reviews. After all, this site is (for the most part) a big collection of my own opinions (a guy who has 80 BBQ sauces in his pantry awaiting him!)

    B

  6. just for the record..there is NO “fish sauce” in Head’s Red. It contains Worcestershire sauce which has anchovy in it. Because of that CONTAINS FISH has to be on the label per govt standards on labeling , just like it is on a bottle of Worcestershire for people with fish allergies.

  7. Great Sauce made by a great person. It is definetly on the purchase list for my house.

  8. Mrs Ja wise says

    where can I buy heads red bbq sauce in the uk pease

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