barbecue sauces | ButcherBox

Ahhh! Barbecue sauce. A hot button culinary topic if there ever was one.

Fortunately, I’m a meat guy from the home of lobster and clam chowdah, so my loyalties with BBQ sauce aren’t regional and tend to be with whatever will make what I’m cooking taste amazing!

Here’s a breakdown of some of the fantastic barbecue sauces you can find throughout America. These are best when done following a homemade bbq sauce recipe, hundreds of which are online and you can experiment with. The best bbq sauces avoid high-fructose corn syrup-heavy ingredients for cayenne peppers, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and brown sugar. However, sometimes a little ketchup can be all you need to make the perfect sauce for any meat.

Alabama White Barbecue Sauce

The white barbecue sauce made famous at Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q in Northern Alabama is by far one for the more unique of the American BBQ sauces, but only because our national perception of the perfect sauce for BBQ chicken is shaped by the rows of dark brown Sweet Baby Ray’s bottles lining our grocery stores and the more midwestern and coastal influences of Kansas City, Memphis, and Carolina.

Honestly, mixing mayo and horseradish is phenomenal; Robert Gibson knew what he was doing 96 years ago when he invented the sauce.

Alabama White sauce is best for…

Grilled chicken or pork chops. Lightly flavored meat, some char from the grill, a creamy tangy sauce to dip into.

It is amazing paired with a summer ale, something with a creamy finish and citrus notes.

Memphis BBQ Sauce

Next, we go to the signature barbecue flavor of Memphis, Tennessee. Traditionally Memphis BBQ is dry rub only and often served with sauce on the side. Memphis sauce features lots of molasses and vinegar, and tomato-based, often by using tomato paste. This is all to say it’s certainly a familiar barbecue flavor but is often much thinner than your average BBQ sauce. 

Try Memphis BBQ sauce on…

Definitely smoked baby back ribs. Memphis BBQ is a great way to serve ribs if you want to avoid the mess of traditionally-sauced ribs. Memphis ribs are dry, the sauce is wet, and your fingers stay clean! Mostly…

The perfect beer for Memphis BBQ is definitely an IPA. With a light and refreshing taste but some bitter hoppy undertones, and IPA can bang heads with the smokey spicy bark on great ribs.

Texas Barbecue Sauce

Now to Texas. The Lone Star State is big, bold, spicy, and tangy; they also have great BBQ sauce. Featuring a tomato sauce base and a combination of garlic, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice, Texas sauce using has some extra heat from cayenne peppers, chipotle peppers, or some other chili pepper.

Seriously, Texas sauce has immense flavor and purposefully so, Texas barbecue is magnificent.

Texas Barbecue sauce was made for…

Beef brisket. There is no choice but brisket. Beefy, bold, and fatty, the most flavorful of all meats is magical with the richest of all BBQ sauces.

As for a libation to go with the BBQ brisket, I’d go light here, mostly because I want room for more brisket. All the ranchers I’ve met drink Michelob Ultra like water. So judge if need be, but don’t knock it till you try it.

St. Louis Barbecue Sauce

Rolling into Missouri we have the home of the great St Louis ribs. Good pork tends to be sweet, and the classic St. Louis sauce is sweet to match. Sticky. Sweet. Tomato-based. Unlike most other American barbecue sauces, St. Louis prefers to hold the liquid smoke from their namesake sauce. If you’re gonna sauce your ribs, this is the way to do it.

Best use for St. Louis sauce…

St Louis ribs of course. But the flavors work great on really any fatty cut of BBQ pork.

And as for beer, the only choice is the St. Louis original, Budweiser, right?

Kansas City BBQ Sauce

Staying in Missouri, we next have the ubiquitous Kansas City style of sauce. This is closest to the universal BBQ sauce experience. Thick, sweet, smokey, and tomato-based, with ketchup as a key ingredient, Kansas City BBQ sauce is pretty much delicious on anything.

Smother Kansas City sauce on…

The most beefy-tasty meats like sirloin steaks, chuck steaks, the cowboy cuts, or brisket burnt ends. All these cuts have to have enough beefy flavor to marry well with such a rich sauce.

I’d lean towards hops again for a beer to go with St. Louis barbecue ribs. You want something to cut the richness, definitely a hoppy lager. Sam Adams is a personal fave, but maybe I’m biased, having grown up not far from their headquarters in Boston.

South Carolina Barbecue Sauce

Moving into the Carolinas is where flavor and consistency get really interesting. In South Carolina, we leave the tomato-based sauces behind for mustard, vinegar, as well as ground black pepper, garlic, and other spices. This sauce is spicy, super tangy, and has a dash of sweetness. It is amazing on smoked pork matching well with the rich meat with incredible brightness.

South Carolina sauce should drench…

Pulled pork. It’s how I was taught by a Deep South chef, and goshdarnit, if it ain’t still the best choice on tender, smoked pork.

Beer? Again, let’s match with a craft IPA. I’m looking for citrus, maybe even some tropical notes. Something fruity to add sweetness as a counterpoint the tanginess of the sauce, so a cloudy New England-Style IPA is perfect. I like local favorite Night Shift based in Everett, MA, which has an amazing choice of varieties.

Eastern North Carolina BBQ Sauce

Into eastern North Carolina we go, where we encounter perhaps the simplest of all BBQ sauces. Basically, this style is just vinegar and spices like cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes. It’s a sauce that works well with anything grilled or smoked and really lets the meat speak for itself.

Use Eastern NC sauce with…

Pork chops, grilled chicken, dressing for a chicken salad, and any lighter meats that can use a tangy boost.

Best with a lighter beer, I’d go with a pale lager or pilsner. Make sure it is full-bodied enough to add some richness but light enough not to overwhelm.

Western North Carolina BBQ Sauce

They take BBQ sauce very seriously in the Carolinas. It is, after all, thought to be the birthplace of American BBQ. And so, in western North Carolina we find a second variety. This one is similar to its eastern cousin, but with the addition of some tomato for flavor.

Good luck arguing which sauce is better with anyone from the Tarheel State. Fortunately for me, I get to pick and choose my loyalties…

I can’t get enough Western Carolina sauce on…

Some of the richer cuts of light meat like chicken thighs, pork sirloin, and country-style ribs The tomato adds a bit of sweet acidity to this sauce that helps those more flavorful cuts.

Pair with a wheat beer — like an Allagash — that adds a bit of muted sweetness with a barely there tanginess. A real compliment to the Lexington Piedmont style sauce.

Smoking meat is a prehistoric culinary art. In the past, the technique was used to preserve protein-rich foods. Smoking dehydrates meat and imparts antibacterial properties that keep it from spoiling quickly. While our ancestors used the method to preserve red meat and fish, today smoking is used for all kinds of meat — not just as a preservation method — and the enhanced flavor makes it quite the delicacy.

We’re most familiar with smoked meats in the form of barbecue: When meat is treated to the low and slow treatment in a smoker, connective tissues and collagen within the meat break down, resulting in ultra-flavorful, ultra-tender food. Top that off with the bevy of barbecue sauces we’ve invented — vinegar-based, sweet, thick and tangy, you name it — and you’re in heaven.

This guide delves into the ins and outs of smoking meat at home — from equipment to wood chips to the best cuts of meat to smoke.

Equipment

There are several fancy smoker options, from pellet smokers to vertical electric smokers to offset smokers for the true meat smoking aficionado. These smokers are specially designed for applying indirect heat at steady low temperatures, and most cost several hundreds of dollars. While cooking with a Traeger wood pellet grill can be amazing, if you’re a novice who’s not ready to invest too heavily into smoking equipment, have no fear.

Everyday gas grills and charcoal grills can be manipulated to smoke meat with just a little effort.

Gas grills can be tricky to use as smokers, as they’re designed to cook meat over direct heat at high temperatures — the opposite of smoking, which is low, indirect heat over a long period of time.

With a little patience, however, a gas grill will smoke your meat. You’ll need to build an indirect heat zone and a direct heat zone within your grill, making sure to keep your meat in the indirect zone. Experiment with your burners until you’re able to bring the internal temperature to around 250°F which you can check with a meat thermometer (for most cuts of meat, anyway).

You’ll need a smoke box to hold your — soaked and drained — wood chips. Newer gas grills sometimes come with a built-in metal smoker box, but you can also purchase a heavy duty metal smoker box or make an inexpensive one at home by placing the wood chips in a foil pan, covering it with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and adding slits with a knife.

It’s a good idea to set up a drip pan to collect the drippings of your meat. Also, be sure to add a small amount of liquid to the drip pan — like water, apple juice, or beer — to add moisture and keep the drippings from drying out. Don’t set the pan directly on top of the burners, but rather on a grate, with another grate above for the meat.

As for a kettle or charcoal grill, like a traditional Weber, things are a little simpler. Remove the cooking grate from your grill and place the drip pan on one side. Remember to fill it with some liquid. Next, pile up your coals or lump charcoal on the opposite side of the grill.

Once the coals are white hot, you can add your wood and then smoke your meat over the drip pan. While you’ll occasionally need to open the grill to add more coal or wood, try not to disturb the smoking process.

Cuts of Meat

In truth, you can smoke pretty much any kind of meat or seafood. Poultry, red meat, pork, fish are all fair game — game meat, like venison, is also great when smoked.

But, if you’re looking for meats that respond really well to the smoker, you’ll actually want to aim low, rather than high. Low-cost, tougher cuts of meat tenderize when smoked low and slow.

For example, try Boston butt — or simply pork butt as it’s also simply called — for sumptuous pulled pork. Be sure to rub your pork butt amply with your desired spices — we like this smoky coffee rub recipe. Other pork options include ribs, like this brown sugar rub and mustard barbeque sauce-laced recipe. You can also smoke sausages for a complex, savory flavor.

While you can smoke leaner cuts like pork loin, it’s not ideal, as it responds better to grilling or roasting than smoking.

Beef brisket is the king of smoked meat, and the perfect cut when it comes to smoked beef. Give this smoked brisket with citrus marinade a whirl. But one thing to remember is not to smoke steaks—seriously, a simple grill or hot skillet is a better bet.

Poultry like whole chickens and turkeys turn out great in the smoker. You can also smoke chicken leg quarters if you’re not feeling up to the whole chicken yet. Here are some pecan smoked chicken wings for a super simple smoked recipe.

Wood Chips and Chunks

Not all wood is created equal when it comes to smoking meat. For one, you should never use any old wood you chopped down in your backyard — it’s potentially toxic. Never fear, though, there are plenty of other woods to experiment with as you smoke meat

While wood chips are sold more readily in most grocery stores and hardware stores, they tend to ignite quickly and burn out quite fast. This is not ideal for smoking low and slow. Wood chunks, on the other hand, burn for hours in a smoker. They do take a bit longer to ignite, but if you’re smoking meat, you’ve probably already committed the time.

If you use wood chips, be sure to soak them for at least 30 minutes before using. This will ensure they burn long enough to impart some flavor to the food.

What about the many varieties of wood? Getting the smoky flavor you want requires choosing the right wood.

Consider them on a scale of mild to intense. Fruity woods, like apple, peach, cherry, and pear, are light and sweet. They pair well with poultry, fish, and pork. Hickory, maple, pecan, and oak are stronger, but not overwhelming. Beef, game, and pork all go well with these woods. Mesquite is the most intense wood—it’s best used in moderation and with red meat.

Once you’ve mastered smoking with one wood, feel free to experiment with mixing woods for different flavors.

Now, you’re equipped with everything you need to know to get started on smoking meat. Get cooking!

Tag Archives: barbecue sauces

A guide to the best barbecue sauce (and beer) for every meat