Homemade BBQ Sauce

It’s funny how when you’re a kid, you tend to not pay attention to things. I never paid attention to the fact that my mom always made her own BBQ sauce. We grilled pretty regularly during the summer and my parents had a division of labor for grilling days. Daddy was the grill master and mom did all the prep including making the sauce and seasoning the meat. I remember a big aluminum pot of tangy sauce simmering on the stove while daddy grilled the ribs. Now that she’s gone, I’m sad that I never got the recipe from her.

This is my first attempt at making BBQ sauce in years. I was trying to duplicate the sauce of a restaurant that I had loved in Charleston.  They had the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever tasted – hands down. It was spicy and slightly sweet which is exactly what I like. This recipe started out as a variation of that recipe but turned into something completely different. This list of ingredients may look a little long but I wanted to include everything I added although it all probably isn’t necessary.

A few things to note:

• I used a medium sized onion and pulverized it in the food processor. I really didn’t want any chunks of onion floating in my sauce.
• Ketchup can be extremely salty so don’t  add any more salt until it’s cooked down and you’ve tasted it.
• If you don’t have lemons, double up on the vinegar.
• Add liquid smoke to your taste. Everyone doesn’t like smoke in their sauce but I think it adds something.
• Cooking the sauce helps the ingredients meld together. It will taste different once its cooks a bit.