Sauce Help

[caseyswenson]

My favorite purchased sauce is from a little dive in Rochester, MN called John Hardy's.  I would really like to try replicating their sauce as a starting point for making my own as I would prefer to make vs buy.  It is a spicy tomato sauce and the ingredient list is below but I'm not sure where to start as far as proportions.  Was hoping someone could point me in the right direction of a recipe or idea.

Tomato Puree, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Corn Syrup, Salt, Modified Food Starch, Soybean Oil, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Spice, Onion and Garlic Powder, Mayonnaise(no idea why this is in here - must be an extremely small amount), Tabasco Sauce, Pickle Juice, Cayenne Pepper, Lemon Juice.

It is a very thin sauce with a light sweetness and then some nice heat that follows without burning.  Considering all the sugar in the ingredient list I would assume it to be sweeter then it really is.  Anyone with any ideas on or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it!  Thanks.  

 

[dougmays]

sounds good! sorry i have no clue how to help but i want to subscribe to this thread to see what the pro's say! :)

 

[rowdyrawhide]

Do you like gates and sons. If so do a search for grapette BBQ sauce by nepas. To me t is very similar to gates with a grape flavor. If you want to skip the grape flavor then sub water or sugar water for the soda.

Hope this helps
Aaron

 

[walleyeman]

I love that sauce to Im from iowa and have to stop their every time i get to rochester

 

[dallaslayer]

I know from FACT yes i said fact, that the base sauce is OPEN PIT doctored. My mom and dad knew John when he came to rochester and he told her that was all he used and some "KICK". I have been working hard to replicate it for some time and the closest I get is by using basic home cooking stuff that he would have had at easy disposal_ tabasco and apple cider vinigar (sp)  I still havent gotten it right on but its closer whats funny is that my second favorite bbq place is Ted Cooks and they have a very close sauce also. Im thinking the last part of the recipe is simply SOUL!

 

[hermandvm]

Based on Dallaslayers response the ingredients up to garlic powder are likely Open Pit.  To an 18 oz bottle of Open Pit I added the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 cup Tabasco, 3 TBL pickle juice a few shakes of Cayenne, and a tiny squirt of Mayonnaise.  It came out pretty close.  Next time I would back off on the tabasco, heat can be adjusted with the cayenne to your liking. 

 

[palladini]

You can start making your own, knowing that the ingredients on the product label are listed in order of amounts used, it should be easy to make. I imagine that you getting high fructose corn syrup is a no go, so increase the corn syrup or add some brown sugar. All the rest of the ingredients you should be able to source out.