Hog Heaven Smokehouse BBQ Sauce (4/5)

“It wasn’t easy getting a Rabbi to bless a pig!,” says San Diego-based Hog Heaven founder, Ira Pupko.  He’s referring to the Kosher certification (denoted by a hechsher on the label) that is achieved through a fairly rigorous inspection process.  Ira says that the Kosher certification “was important to us, because it’s synonymous with quality.”  Their sauces have no high fructose corn syrup, no glutens, and no preservatives – so it’s perfectly “natural” for them to claim that this is an All Natural Sauce.  Ira is just bringing these products to market now and is looking forward to bringing these sauces to market after 20 years of sharing and improving upon these sauce recipes.  Sounds pretty kosher to me.  🙂

OK, let’s get on with the review!   Nelchah!

The Smokehouse (original) is part 1 of 4 of the Hog Heaven batch I received last week in pre-bottled stage.  The line-up also includes Smokehouse Heat, Apricot Jalapeno, and Apple Chipotle.

Let’s get to the review!

Aroma

Smells like a classic, tomato-based BBQ sauce with strong notes of onion and smoke.

Consistency

Just right.  Not too thin, not too thick.

Ingredients

Good stuff – no high fructose corn syrup, no glutens, and no preservatives. Does contain natural smoke flavoring (liquid smoke).

Taste Before Cooking

It’s just a nice classic flavor built from relatively few ingredients but satisfies the tastebuds on many levels – hitting you with smoky, sweet, salty flavors and a nice amount of onion. Very simple and good with absolutely no tangy vinegar flavor (which I like in KC style sauces).

No it's not Gatorade, it's BBQ Sauce!

 Taste After Cooking

It remains the same sauce after cooking, which is great.  Some sauces change after the fire of the grill, but the sauce stays intact with a solid onion/smoky flavor.

L to R: Apple, Apricot, Smokehouse, Smokehouse Heat

Fresh Sauce

Cooked and Caramelized

Bottom Line.

Hog Heaven Smokehouse is an excellent sauce to use in place of a lot of the store-brand junk that contains bad ingredients and mediocre flavors.  Use it for for regular backyard BBQ and something nice to throw into say… mac & cheese or baked beans! It was an enjoyable, yet mild sauce – which was it’s only drawback.  To me, it doesn’t really stand out in the crowd. But even so, you would be very happy having this one on your next meal..  It’s a great sauce that most anyone would enjoy.

Website:

http://www.hogheavenfoods.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HogHeavenSauces

 

 

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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