Barbecue Sauce
Barbecue sauce balances on three axes: sweet, sour and smoke. Sugar brings the caramel and the gloss, cider vinegar keeps it from tasting flat, and smoked paprika stands in for an actual smoker. Everything else is just half an hour over low heat, in which the flavours fuse and the colour deepens to mahogany.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 40 min
- Servings
- 10
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 75 kcal
Ingredients
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What to use instead
Honey works in place of molasses and brings a floral note, though the sauce is then no longer vegan.
Makes: about 500 ml
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Combine everything cold
Put all the ingredients into a saucepan at once and stir until even. The spices are not bloomed in oil here — they release their flavour slowly along with the sauce.
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Step 2: Bring to the boil
Over medium heat, stir until the first bubbles appear, then drop the heat to its lowest setting immediately.
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Step 3: Reduce for 25–30 minutes
Stir every 5 minutes, always scraping across the base: the sugar settles and catches sooner than you would expect. The sauce should reduce by roughly a quarter.
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Step 4: Check the consistency
Draw a spatula across the bottom of the pan. If the track holds for a second before closing up, the sauce is done.
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Step 5: Balance it
Taste it hot. Too sharp, add a spoonful of sugar; too sweet, a spoonful of vinegar. It is the vinegar, not salt, that lifts the sauce out of flat sweetness.
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Step 6: Blend if you like
A quick blitz with a stick blender disperses the dried spices completely and gives the sauce a glossy, uniform texture.
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Step 7: Brush on at the end
Only glaze meat in the last 10 minutes on the grill, in thin layers. Sugar starts burning at about 160 °C, so sauce applied early leaves a bitter black crust.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Smoked paprika comes sweet and hot. Buy the sweet one — it is much easier to add heat with chilli than to take it out.
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Variation
For a South Carolina style, swap half the passata for yellow mustard. The sauce turns sharper and is superb with pork.
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Swap
Honey works in place of molasses and brings a floral note, though the sauce is then no longer vegan.
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Storage
Two to three weeks in a clean jar in the fridge — the sugar and vinegar act as preservatives. Let it come to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 10 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 75 kcal | 750 kcal |
| Protein | 1 g | 10 g |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g |
| Carbohydrates | 17 g | 170 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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