Doctoring A Commercial Sauce


 
J

James Harvey

TVWBB Pro
Any recommendations for doctoring a commercial sauce (Blues Hog, Sweet Baby Rays etc...) to "make it my own"? I see Harry Soo recommends adding some more citrus and heat and cuting the consistency with juices. I'm not looking for anything too in depth but wisdom would be appreciated.
 
I'm all for adding a shot of Vodka and some Pineapple juice. Simmer and I'm good to go.
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Tim
 
Thanks Tim. What does the vodka bring to the sauce? I understand the sour of the pineapple.

Also, do you heat to evaporate the alcohol or is that part of the flavour?
 
What it adds.Hm I dunno. I guess it depends on the Vodka?
Yrs ago I enjoyed a sauce at a BBQ joint. I got to talking to the Chef and asked on the sauce, He said he just used SBR's with a splash of the vodka and pineapple juice. I been doing that ever since with all bottled sauces.
I do bring it to a hard simmer at first.

Tim
 
I like Blues Hog just as it is. I cut the thicker sauces 50% with apple cider vinegar. If it's a mild sauce I also add crushed red pepper or pepper seeds from the dried red chili peppers I have.
 
I picked up some Sweet Baby Rays today (425Ml bottle) as a tester. I've read about adding some apple juice, pineapple juice, hot sauce and cayenne (Harry Soo). Would anyone have suggestions as to amounts/ratios (i.e. - 1 cup of sauce to X AJ, X PJ, X hot sauce & X cayenne). I'm just looking for a starting point so I don't over-doctor the sauce I have up front.

BTW - I'm thinking of subbing De Arbol or Bird's Eye chile powder for the cayenne.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Harvey:
Thanks Tim. What does the vodka bring to the sauce? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Unflavoured alcohol has no taste or smell. It's the alcohol you're looking for so you wouldn't boil it off. As for what it brings, it is soley the tingle/buzz/choose your word for what the sauce brings to your food. I'm thinking of penne with vodka sauce.

And expensive or cheap?? Seeing as grain alcohol is grain alcohol (sometimes potatoes), the price of vodka up here is

grey goose $48
cheapest russian $24.

The reason for the difference: marketing. It may have been filtered another time or two but geez, how do you think they pay for those fancy ads in the alps with those cool looking dudes and dudettes?

From what I've read, vodka is NOT ALLOWED to have a distinctive flavour or aroma.

AND don't get me started on 10 year old scotch vs 15 vs 50 year old.

You really think they have 50 year old booze sitting around in a vat somewhere waiting to get bottled? Sheesh.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Harvey:

BTW - I'm thinking of subbing De Arbol or Bird's Eye chile powder for the cayenne. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jim, be careful about substituting chili powder for cayenne pepper. Most if not all chili powders are combos of different spices.

I found this:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Chili powder begins with the use of ground chilis. For the most part, the powdered chilis used for the mixture are red or cayenne peppers. However, there are some combinations that choose to use paprika or green ground chiles instead. A typical blend will also include garlic, oregano, and cumin. As is true with the chilis used, the other three ingredients are ground into a fine powder. Whatever the choice in chiles, they should be dried thoroughly before being ground into a powder.

Beyond this basic recipe for chili powder, an assortment of other spices may be added as well. Some examples of additional spices used in chili powder are black pepper, cloves, mace, nutmeg, coriander and cinnamon. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you're looking for pure heat, stick with pure cayenne. If you wanted to change the flavour , then go for it.
 
Thanks Len. I'm still gunshy on the alcohol add so I'll sit it out for now. As for the chile powders, they are both pure chile powders (I grind them myself) not a blended chili powder. Chili powder is a blend of chiles, herbs, cumin etc... which you already know.
 
It is easy to make your own from scratch too with a ketchup base. I also make a honey mustard bbq sauce that is awesome with pulled pork..
 
Long ago someone on this board posted a recipe that called for adding honey to KC Masterpiece sauce. The ratio was one part honey to 5 parts sauce. I have found this modification to be very good.
Ray
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Harvey:
I picked up some Sweet Baby Rays today (425Ml bottle) as a tester. I've read about adding some apple juice, pineapple juice, hot sauce and cayenne (Harry Soo). Would anyone have suggestions as to amounts/ratios (i.e. - 1 cup of sauce to X AJ, X PJ, X hot sauce & X cayenne). I'm just looking for a starting point so I don't over-doctor the sauce I have up front.

BTW - I'm thinking of subbing De Arbol or Bird's Eye chile powder for the cayenne. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I find Sweet Baby Rays and Blues Hog virtually inedible. Way, way, way too sweet for me. So, for me, were I to make additions it would be to cut the sweetness.

Both are lacking in flavor depth due to oversimplicity and too much sweetening (it flattens flavors). They both scream for fruit additions.

How I might alter: To one cup or so of SBR's I'd likely add - to start - 1 T tamarind concentrate or pomegranate molasses plus a T or 2 of pineapple juice. From there I might add a little splash of pineapple or apple vinegar.

Chile de árbol or bird's eye is not going to change the flavor profile much from cayenne, but that's okay. I'd first boost the chile flavor by adding some ground guajillo, then adjust heat by the addition of cayenne, chile de árbol, bird's eye, or the like.

I'd likely add a pinch of ground bay, one of ground sage, another of ground thyme. I would not add 'hot sauce'.

The above I'd heat to a simmer then remove. After it cooled a bit I would add several drops of lemon juice.

But how I might alter SBR or BH might well be different than what you would prefer.
 
Kevin, I use B.H as a finishing sauce only. On it's own way to overpowering with sweetness. Plus it adds a nice sheen to ribs
 
Wow. Just spent a bit trying to doctor Sweet Baby Rays. I really dislike this sauce. The sweetness was expected but the smoke flavour really made it unappealing. After playing with a few sauces I think I'm just going to make my own. By the time I'm done with a commercial sauce it bears no resemblance to the original anyway. Why not just build what i like vs. trying to change what I don't.
 
Precisely. And why pay 4 or 5 dollars for 50 cents worth of ingredients when you can simply start with your own 50 cents worth from the get-go.

Sauces are easy to make, especially typical Q sauces. Mine tend to be atypical - as compared to most commercial stuff - but are still easy and still inexpensive.

Procedural differences can reap rewards. In many commercial sauces (and many book recipes) the ingredients are simply combined and cooked. By using classic saucemaking techniques - caramelizing the onions first, deglazing with liquids, reducing, among others - one can really boost the depth of flavor in the finish, and end up with results far superior to typical sauces - with just a few more minutes of work.

Here is an example. Note the procedure - very simple but not typically used in commercial or many book recipes - and note the addition of fat (in this case, oil and butter), also atypical in many otherwise similar recipes. Fat is used here to brown the onions (and it does not require much) but fat also carries flavor, especially flavor elements that are only soluble in fat - and there are many. The bit of butter here adds its own flavor, a welcome addition. But as you can see, the process is very easy, requiring only a little more time than the typical throw-everything-into-the-pot approach.
 
Thanks Kevin. I'm going to give this a try with a few backs today. I'll post my thoughts on both.

A few questions, and apologies as they may have been answered in the thread previous but I wasn't clear.

If I plan on making a sauce like this the day before, are there certain flavours that I may need to "restore" after refrigerating for a day? If so, is it just a "brightening" as noted?

Regarding the chipotle, since I'm smoking a relatively small piece of meat (ribs with hickory and apple probably) is the smokiness of the chipotle going to overinfluence the overall product? I understand that this would be heavily dependent on how much smoke I put into the meat so, for discussion, I'm using 2 hickory and 2 apple chunks with basic Kingsford coal over a 5 hour smoke.

Finally, what are your thoughts, if any, on Harry Soo's SYD method? I did a side by side with backs using brown sugar and agave on one and not on the other and the sweetened rack was better IMO. I continue to have some dryness in the top, white meat on backs though.

Appreciate all the feedback. Thanks for your time !
 
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