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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.

Like most everyone who enjoys a treat now and then, we here at ButcherBox have a bit of a sweet tooth.

It might be a bit odd to hand out candied bacon — or pig candy as it’s known in different parts of the country — to the kiddos who come to your door on Halloween. And some people might think it strange to keep some sweet candied bacon strips in the refrigerator. But here, you are among bacon lovers.

We don’t judge. We also know our taste buds don’t care if they are treated to thick-cut bacon with eggs for breakfast or at a sugar-laced version at a cocktail party in the evening.

Which is what makes bacon candy so fantastic.

The rise of candied bacon

So let’s dig into the sweet and savory dish that is bacon candy.

These days, the traditional breakfast meat has developed a bit of a cultish following. Bacon is everywhere from the Bacon and Beer festival in Boston — which sells out very quickly each year and has expanded nationally — to bacon-themed food trucks to a featured role at almost any Bloody Mary-heavy brunch.

More and more, bacon is breaking out on its own as a singular dish, most often as bacon candy. Stop into any hip (or hipster, if you see it that way) restaurant, and you might find a glass filled with candied bacon adorning the bar.

The flavor of bacon candy combines the already savory taste of bacon and adds brown sugar or pure maple syrup and maybe a touch of chili powder. The fact that it can sit out at room temperature for hours or be kept chilled for weeks makes bacon candy the perfect snack food.

This phenomenon isn’t just occurring at trend-setting locales either; you are as likely to find candied bacon replacing the usual bowl of mixed nuts everywhere from your local steakhouse to a high-end hotel bar.

Bacon candy springs from the cocktail party circuit

So how did this trend start?

According to author Fred Thomspon, who chronicles all sorts of bacon-themed culinary delights in his cookbook “Bacon,” the history of this delicious snack is a bit of a mystery.

Bacon candy is believed to have first gained popularity in Washington, D.C.’s party circuit. But Thompson speculates that pig candy was most likely an import to the nation’s capital brought from the kitchen of an unknown Southern hostess.

The rise in the treat’s current popularity as bar food is linked, by a number of different people, to a small wine bar in California. According to lore, Lou’s on Vine in Hollywood began offering their take on pig candy to patrons as an alternative snack, and the buzz — and bacon — spread from there.

How to cook bacon candy

After all this talk of sweet bacon, you might be wondering how you can make it on your own. Worry not, the recipe is quite simple. Many candied bacon recipes call for baking the pork with a garnish of light brown sugar and/or maple syrup.

Twists on the dish include adding some spices, like ground black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes or chili powder to create the ultimate cocktail party snack, brunch side, or anytime food.

Check out the video below of ButcherBox Head Chef Yankel Polak making some bacon candy with maple syrup, sriracha, brown sugar, ground black pepper, and coconut aminos:

Here is another great bacon candy recipe that is one of the more popular recipes found at AllRecipes. It is made even better using ButcherBox bacon that comes from heritage-breed pigs.

Bacon Candy Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Ground black pepper to taste

1 pound ButcherBox bacon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Mix brown sugar, rice vinegar, maple syrup and ground black pepper in a small bowl.

3. Place bacon slices on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet.

4. Cook in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, turn slices and bake another 5 minutes.

5. Remove bacon and brush both sides with brown sugar mixture. Return bacon to the oven and bake another 5 minutes. Repeat basting every 5 minutes until bacon is browned and crisp, a total cooking time of about 35 minutes.

6. Let sit on a cooling or wire rack at room temperature.

After letting it rest, eat and enjoy the sweet, bacon goodness!

Tag Archives: easy recipes

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