We tested 13 brands of barbecue sauce – there are our favorites

I grew up eating southern barbecue in the houses of the aunts and distant cousins ​​in the Carolines and rural virginia. During family meetings, there was almost always a whole pork or a shoulder of pork, smoked and cooked low and slow in an old drum on hard wood for hours, until the meat collapses practically. It was well cut, sometimes with mixed pieces of crackling, and generally served on a bun with a cabbage salad. The sauce? Lexington style: cutting edge and vineyard with just enough sweetness. Despite this regional loyalty – and the severe warnings of my uncle Scotty, who held the pit – the crowd, generally more than 200 strong, has always insisted on the “regular” barbecue sauce. The red and sweet type made famous in Kansas City. Even in the country of sugar barbecue, this sweet and sweet tomato sauce went to the table.

In the United States, there are many styles of regional barbecue sauce in the United States, including sauces based on east and western northern caroline vinegar, mustard-the-la-monnaie sauce in southern Carolina, creamy sauce based on alabama mayonnaise and acid sauces based on Memphis and Saint-Louis tomatoes. But enter almost any grocery store, and you will find that many bottles labeled “barbecue sauce” are in Kansas City style.

With this mind, we decided to reduce our test of barbecue sauce with Kansas City style sauces. To find the best Kansas City style barbecue sauce, our publishers have tested 16 different brands that you will find likely to find in your local grocery store, as well as several coming directly from Kansas City. We have tasted everyone alone in a random order, without knowing which brand was which one. After crossing all the sauces, we tabule the results and crowned a global winner, as well as several worthy pretenders that we would be happy to serve our own barbecules.

The criteria

A classic Kansas City barbecue sauce should have enough vinegar to provide an tangy counterpoint to the softness of the brown sugar or molasses, as well as a soft heat kick from spices such as chili powder, black pepper or cayenne. The sauce must be based on tomatoes and made with ketchup or tomato sauce, and must include seasonings such as garlic powder, onion powder, mustard and perhaps a touch of pod or chili for complexity. Liquid smoke is often used to imitate the flavor of traditional cooking of pits, but it often has a clearly artificial taste; He should offer a suspicion of smoke without controlling the nuanced flavors of the sauce. Kansas City style sauces should also be thick enough to hang on to toasted meats, such as ribs or chest, but always be fluid enough to brush or water on the side.

Our winners: it’s a tie!

Trader Joe’s Organic Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce

This winning sauce was the most universally appreciated among our tasters and the least offensive for anyone. Jessie, our visual editor, thought it was well balanced. Geneviève, our editor -in -chief, described it as “sweet, tangy, salty and not excessively”. With the exception of our editorial director, Daniel, who thought that the tomato paste was too dominant, everyone thought it was balanced: it was soft but well, with a pleasant and light acidity.

Bull eye barbecue sauce

This sauce was the most nostalgic in the group; Daniel thought he had a taste “like a sauce of barbecue sauce in absolute absolute bottle”. Amanda, our director of the associated visuals, rents the “balance of spices”, while our associated culinary publisher Laila appreciated her smoke. It was a sauce that many of us would bring to our next barbecue.

Finalists

• 365 by Whole Foods Market, original barbecue sauce
• Cowtown bar-bq sauce
• Original organic barbecue sauce and biological gathering

The three won solid scores at all levels. Although none had been as delicious as our winners, our publishers have always appreciated each of the above sauces. Whole foods The sauce was of the front molasses and generally considered a balanced flavor. Target’s good and brings together The sauce was a favorite for its classic, bright and tangy barbecue flavor and, according to Daniel, would be a good choice for all those who want “a sauce more molasses”. City cache obtained high marks for its complexity and what Laila described as her “rich spice flavor”. Everyone had something to do – be it the brightness, spices or balance – which made them worthy of a place on the picnic table.

The contenders

• 365 by Whole Foods Market, original barbecue sauce
• Arthur Bryant’s original barbecue sauce
• Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ SAUCE
• Bull eye barbecue sauce
• Cowtown bar-bq sauce
• Rich and sassy barbecue sauce by Dave’s Rich & Sassy
• Gates Original Classic Bar-Bq Sauce
• Original organic barbecue sauce and biological gathering
• Jack Daniel barbecue sauce
• Masterpiece KC Original barbecue sauce
• Kinder’s original barbecue sauce
• Kraft Original Slow-Side-Barbecue BBQ Sauce
• Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce
• Stubb original barbecue sauce
• Sweet Baby Ray baby barbecue sauce
• Trader Joe’s Organic Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce

In conclusion

Most of the sauces we have tested have followed a similar basic formula – the tomatal base, sugar, vinegar and spices – but execution varied considerably. Some were far too sweet, with high -fitting corn syrup listed like the first ingredient and almost no acidity to balance sweetness. Others were strongly based on liquid smoke or “natural smoke flavor”, resulting in overwhelming smoke and often to artificial taste. Some were too acidic, while others had a slightly spicy ketchup.

Our favorite sauces have struck a better balance: rich and sweet, but superimposed on flavor, spices and just enough smoke to evoke this familiar flavor cooked in the pit. Most of our best choices list tomato puree as the first ingredient – with the exception of Bull’s Eye, which lists it in second position – and all include molasses as keyword and aroma agent. Trader Joe’s and Cowtown’s Sauces stand out to completely jump the thickness. While Trader Joe’s took first place, the finalists like Bull’s Eye, Whole Foods, Cowtown and Target’s Good & Great have brought a lot of classic and pleasant barbecue flavor, we would be happy to serve any barbecue.

Our test methodology

All taste tests are carried out with completely hidden and discussion marks. Tasteers have a samples taste in a random order. For example, the taster can taste the sample a first, while the B tootter B has first taste the sample six. It is a question of preventing the fatigue of the palace from unjustly give a single sample an advantage. Tasters are invited to fill out our tasting sheets classifying the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulent and the results are calculated without editorial entry in order to give us the most impartial representation of the real results possible.