Homemade Barbecue Sauce—From the Grocery Store!

If you’re someone who likes to grill, then you know that barbecue sauces are second only to meat in menu importance. And there are so many to choose from! Check out our shelves at Bliss Shurfine Food Mart, and you’ll see lots of different barbecue sauces, all of them with different tastes, colors, and even textures.

But even with that array of options, you may still not be getting exactly the flavor you want. Making your own homemade sauce is an option, of course—but it takes about five hours to do, and your grill is out there waiting!

There’s another possibility: choose a barbecue sauce from the grocery store and then add ingredients that will give it a unique homemade taste, something that’s especially yours, and without the homemade time!

Let’s start with sweet versus tangy. Many barbecue sauces lean on the sweet side, so if you’re looking for something with a little kick, a little tartness, then you’ll want to add ingredients like vinegar, hot sauce, and chili powder to the store-bought product.

If you like some heat, then you probably already have a favorite hot sauce. But there’s a wide range of them to choose from, so compare ingredients to find which one suits you best: remember that there is flavor in hot sauces as well as heat. Make sure that the hot sauce you select harmonizes with the barbecue sauce you’re using as your base.

If you have a sweet tooth and are grilling a cut of meat that works well with sweetness, then you can consider adding honey, molasses, or even brown sugar to the sauce. Want to be really daring? Try chocolate: it works amazingly well with chilis.

But don’t stop just at the perfect balance of sweet and tangy: you use spices in your cooking, why not use them in your barbecue sauce? Okay, so everyone thinks to add garlic and perhaps a little onion powder, but be bold: cumin or herbs like cilantro or sage will give you a taste that’s uniquely yours.

Think about texture, as well. Your sauce doesn’t need to be smooth, does it? Of course not: add chopped onions, chopped peppers, chopped garlic, or chopped tomatoes to it and see what a difference a change in coarseness can make. It creates something that’s definitely not your standard barbecue sauce—and your friends will be asking for the recipe.

As we finally move into spring and are approaching the season for outdoor cooking and living, it’s fun to think about the grill and the long summer evenings spent outside. Make this year the one you experiment a little with your sauces, and you’ll have some extra fun. Bottled barbecue sauces, as well as any ingredients that you need to spark your creativity, are all available at Bliss Shurfine Food Mart in Manchester, NY. Why not stop by and see us today?