Calling the sauce gurus

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metalmonkey

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 17, 2014
73
17
Sugarcreek, OH
I need some help from some sauce pros. I'm not really a fan of heavy sauces. Dry rubs are fine but they get to dry after a little bit. And I'm not much of a fan of mustard bases. Call me a picky twit I know but I'd like to find a way to lighten up the heavy tomato/ketchup based sauces. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start? This would be for my pork smokes, ribs butts etc.
 
Add dark beer, apple juice, etc, to the sauce. A little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Once you add the sauce onto the meat in the smoker, it will tighten up(thicken) slightly with 30-60 minutes of smoke(heat).
 
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No I haven't tried vinegar based sauces. Maybe I will sometime. First I think I'll start with the apple juice idea. Will that affect the flavor of the sauce much. I understand thinning it is diluting it but....
 
For me, the tomato/ketchup sauces are already over the top in flavor. Some are too much and cover the flavors of the meat. The addition of apple juice shouldn't be much change to the flavor profile. It may add some sweetness, . If it's too much, try apple cider vinegar or beer. The beer will add an earthy depth to the sauce. Not over the top, but very complimentary.The apple cider vinegar will add an acidic brightness and bring other flavors to the forefront.

I know, sacrificing a beer is sacrilegious to most on this site.
beercheer.gif
 
 
I like cider vinegar, little brown sugar, squeeze of ketchup, squeeze of sweet baby rays, and then some rub. I usually just tweak it til it tastes right.
 
I need some help from some sauce pros. I'm not really a fan of heavy sauces. Dry rubs are fine but they get to dry after a little bit. And I'm not much of a fan of mustard bases. Call me a picky twit I know but I'd like to find a way to lighten up the heavy tomato/ketchup based sauces. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start? This would be for my pork smokes, ribs butts etc.
If all you want is to lighten it up just add water. Get it heated up in a sauce pan and add hot water.

What flavors do you like?
 
Great I will work with it and see what I get. With any kind of cooking I tend to know flavors and ingredients fairly well but I struggle with starting points. Thank you both for the input.
 
I think a good starting point would be Jeff's sauce recipe.

You can tweak it to your taste, and the proceeds help to support this site.

Al
 
Call me crazy but when I cook butts the last four hours or so I put the butt in a aluminum pan the pull it out for the very last 30 min. And all the droppings that was in the pan witch has all the smoke and rub in it is what I make my sause from.
 
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