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BBQ Sauce - Cloning a Commercial Product

5K views 31 replies 17 participants last post by  Shoemaker666 
#1 ·
Hi Guys

I'm going to post an almost impossible request and you probably wondering why post it anyways if it's considered impossible but to me I wouldn't be able to understand the request to follow - I know however there are those out there that can unpack a request and understand it better than the person asking it.

So here goes - there's a Commercial Sauce called Spurs Grill Basting which is basically a BBQ Sauce used as a MOP on your grills like steaks. burgers, chops, etc. Now, we love this sauce to bits and have it on everything but it's become expensive - we know in these economic dificulty, you have to cut back wherever you can.

Basically, I am trying to attempt cloning this sauce based on the ingredients list I have. Just a little info about the sauce and this is where it get difficult for me the requester to describe it's flavour but I'll try my best.

1. It's a BBQ Sauce
2. The sweetness is just perfect.
3. Consistency is "Coat the Back of a Spoon" consistency.
4. It has just the the right amount of heat of offset it's sweetness.
5. A tad bit of tartness but hardly noticable
6. It's spiced perfectly whereas no single spice is noticable
7. It has just the lightest smokiness to it.
8. Caramelizes perfectly once it hit a nice steak or works well on ribs too!

Below is the ingredients list - I know I may not be able to clone this sauce identical to the Original but to get close will be great.

([Water, Spice Pack [Sucrose, Salt, Spices & Herbs (Irradiated), Dextrose, Corn Syrup Solids, Flavour Enhancer, Preservative [Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate], Flavouring, Spice Extracts, Acidity Regulator], BBQ Sauce [Water, Spice Pack [Sucrose, Chemically Modified Starch, Salt, Spices (Irradiated), Preservatives [Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate], Tomato Paste, White Spirit Vinegar, Brown Sugar, Worcester Sauce Concentrate [Water, Molasses, Acidity Regulator, Colourant, White Sugar, Worcester Spice Pack [Salt, Spice Flavourings (Celery, Ginger, Black Pepper, Capsicum, Cloves), Starch (Maize)], Salt, Garlic Powder (Irradiated), Stabilizer, Preservative [Sodium Benzoate], Modified Starch], Worcester Sauce Concentrate [Water, Molasses, Acidity Regulator, Colourant, White Sugar, Worcester Spice Pack [Salt, Spice Flavourings (Celery, Ginger, Black Pepper, Capsicum, Cloves), Starch (Maize)], Salt, Garlic Powder (Irradiated), Stabilizer, Preservative [Sodium Benzoate], Vegetable Oil (Canola Seed with added antioxidant TBHQ), Brown Sugar, Tomato Paste, Peach Pulp (Peach Puree, Acidity Regulator, Preservative: Ascorbic Acid), White Spirit Vinegar, Xanthan Gum], Seasoning Salt (Salt, Spices (Irradiated), Flavour Enhancer).

Thanks
 
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#2 ·
There are a few reasons why it is impossible to help you. The first is that you describe the taste using words like "perfect" and "just the right amount" and those descriptions are practically meaningless to everyone but your own palette.

1. It's a BBQ Sauce
2. The sweetness is just perfect. Perfect how? Perfect for everyone? What about people who hate sweetness? Your perfect sweetness might be too sweet for me.
3. Consistency is "Coat the Back of a Spoon" consistency.
4. It has just the the right amount of heat of offset it's sweetness. Some people like things spicy. The "right amount of heat" to me is no heat at all.
5. A tad bit of tartness but hardly noticable I am extremely sensitive to tartness so even the smallest amount is VERY ...noticeable to me.
6. It's spiced perfectly whereas no single spice is noticable Meaningless description here, what spices are you talking about?
7. It has just the lightest smokiness to it.
8. Caramelizes perfectly once it hit a nice steak or works well on ribs too! Virtually all BBQ sauces are supposed to do this.

The next reason you cannot recreate this recipe is even if you owned all the junk they put in it you still wouldn't be able to make it without accurate amounts. I mean seriously, who has Acidity Regulator and Absorbic Acid in their pantry? And what is a Spice Pack anyway?

So you really have two options. First, you can try making a real BBQ sauce with a few real ingredients and give your palette time to adjust to tasting real food and you will eventually stop liking chemicals. There are plenty of cooks around here that pride themselves on wonderful sauces that represent various BBQ cultures of the USA. It is a matter of taking the time to test a lot of recipes. Secondly, you can decide that this BBQ sauce is important enough to you to just spend the money on it. Maybe buy it in bulk or find an online purveyor that cuts you a good deal.
 
#4 ·
Since the OP is in New York, and there are a number of retail shops in the US that sell products from South Africa (there's one that specializes in them where I live) this might not be impossible. Lots of people from South Africa live in the US too. Glass half full.
 
#6 ·
Since this is something that is sold on the African continent I doubt that anyone from here would even know what it tastes like.

We have one member that I know of from Africa. @Butzy.
And unfortunately, I am not a sauce person and hardly ever go to spurs....

And I agree with the previous posters:
Take a simple recipe for a bbq sauce and make it.
Taste it and compare with the spurs sauce you still have and start tweeking.

If I see it, I will buy a bottle and try help you assessing what's used in the sauce
 
#7 ·
That is so nice of you @butzy! Hopefully the op will be back to collect his input. But I do have to say that given the long list of ingredients on this product I can't foresee any natural ingredients living up to exact chemical taste of it. This is the worst part of modern food science. Its objectives are to be cheap to manufacture, shelf stable forever, and addictive to the eater. They make it so easy to get addicted to it and very difficult to retrain your palette back to fresh food.

That reminds me, I saw shelf stable bacon at the market yesterday. Help.
 
#8 ·
While the description sounds good, but insufficient to recreate the product... the ingredients list sounds much like embalming fluid.

Trying to break down the list into sub-elements, it seems like a tailoring of a prepared BBQ sauce into a thinner basting sauce rather than a thick sauce. The "secret spices" will be impossible to guess just from the ingredients. I do similar, BTW, but tend to use Jack Daniels to thin out an acceptable prepared BBQ sauce.

Here's a suggestion for an alternative, if your open to that kind of suggestion. It has very similar characteristics to the words you use to describe the Spurs Grill product. I've been using this recipe for about a year now and it's become a favorite of me and my family - man, woman, and child. Only one alteration I make: 1 - 2 chipotles rather than 2 - 4. The chipotles we get are from Mexico and more than 2 would blow the top of your head off. In a sealed container in the fridge it keeps quite a long time without detriment. I've frozen some too... and hit it with a stick blender before use since it can break a bit.

http://curtisstone.com/recipe/apple-bourbon-barbecue-sauce
 
#9 ·
I would start with good ketchup, molasses, worchester sauce, hoisin sauce, and whatever is in your spice rack.  living in eastern North Carolina, a sauce like you describe is kept in the house for yankees and other infidels.  here Bar-B-Que sauce is cider vinegar, ground peppers, and fresh herbs(optional).  some of the first supermarket bbq sauces were spice packets to be mixed with ketchup.
 
#10 ·
It really is impossible to help you out without ever having tried this sauce as others have said, and like Koukouvagia says your descriptors are based on your own personal preferences which makes it even harder, but if I was to try and recreate this sauce here is what I would start with and then adjust from there.

3 cups ketchup

1/4 cup yellow mustard (American style mustard)

2 T Worcestershire sauce

2 T cider vinegar

1/2 cup water (possibly more depending on what the final thickness is you want to achieve)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground clove

1/2 t celery seed ground

1 1/2 t onion powder

1 1/2 t granulated garlic

1 t black pepper

3 T Chili powder

1/2-2 t cayenne pepper (depending on your heat tolerance)

1-2 drops liquid smoke (go very easy on this as it is strong stuff-you can always add more)

salt (if necessary, but probably won't need it)

Mix all ingredients together in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and allow to cook 15-20 minutes, stirring often so that it doesn't burn.  I find most of my sauces then benefit from a day in the fridge before using.
 
#12 ·
Hi All

Thanks for taking the time to respond and point me in the right direction. When I put out this request, I already knew this would be a difficult way to describe what I'm looking for but never the less I received excellent feedback.

So like many of you have indicated, the sauce I mentioned above is your off the shelf BBQ sauce that is doctored up to become addictive to the taste buds and rightfully so - that's exactly what is does however after the feedback, I figured it would be good to take this in a different direction. Instead of trying to clone a product, rather I doctor up something of my own to suite my taste buds.

So that is exactly what I did with the recipe below and I'm off to a good start.

·         1/2 medium yellow onion, grated on the large holes of a box grater

·         1 Cup Store Bought BBQ Sauce

·         1/4 cup ketchup

·         2 tablespoons Yellow Mustard

·         2TBL Brown Sugar

·         2TBL Worcestershire sauce

·         2TBL White Vinegar

·         Hot Sauce to taste

·         Chilli Ketchup Sauce to Taste

·         Peri Peri Sauce to taste

·         0.5TBL paprika

·         0.5TBL dark brown sugar

·         1/4tsp salt

·         0.5tsp Whole Yellow Mustard Seeds

·         1/8  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

·         1/4  tablespoon granulated garlic powder

·         1/4tsp dried oregano

·         1/8tsp whole coriander seed

·         1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

·         1/4  teaspoon fresh red chilli

·         1/8tsp Cumin Seeds

I plan to unpack my procedure based on what improvements I would like to do on my next attempt but instead of changing too many variables at once, I thought I would work with one at a time starting with those that play a big part in imparting flavour.

1st up on the list is onion - I grated the onion on the large holes of a box grater and then saute it till it became translucent before adding it to the sauce. I found it overpowered the sauce to the extent that the other spices in my sauce were hard to even detect. My questions as follows.

1. Do I use fresh saute onion or dried powder?

2. Must I finely chop onion and cook or leave in larger pieces? (I'm wondering if finer pieces cook faster and brings out too much of the onion flavour)

3. Should the onions be cooked with the sauce or just added to it?

4. I love the natural sweetness of onion but I've ended up many times screwing up my entire dish because the onion overcooked and overpowers the dish - how to best to avoid this.

Thanks
 
#13 ·
Let your onion cook further.  Cook it over medium heat until it caramelizes.  That will mellow out the flavor and help to bring out its sweetness.  When I use fresh onion in a BBQ sauce I either do that or grill them over low heat to get a bit of char on them.  Either way, I just rough chop them, add them to my sauce, allow it to cook for awhile then blend the whole thing with a stick blender to get a smooth sauce.
 
#15 ·
onions are like celery and bell pepper, 1/4 cup not enough, 1/2 cup too much.  i would cook your onions then add them last, a tablespoon or two at a time till you get the desired taste.  we use much simpler sauce here, so I have been experimenting with the charcoal and wood used to cook the BBQ.  white oak, red oak, maple, hickory, pecan, walnut, apple all add their own flavor.  i am a woodworker and save all my scraps, end cuts, and planer shavings for outdoor cooking.  
 
#16 ·
i am a woodworker and save all my scraps, end cuts, and planer shavings for outdoor cooking.
Scott you sound like you know your BBQ and what you are doing but I'll mention it anyway, just in case. I assume that you are not using any treated wood for your BBQ as treated wood contains a number of harmful chemicals that are released when it is burned and can be deposited onto your food.
 
#17 ·
yes, i am cautious about the wood i use.  same with charcoal, I use hardwood lump.  all different size pieces, takes a little longer to start, but pure wood.  briquettes are powdered charcoal and 25 to 50% other stuff, especially the match lite kind.  

and Yes i know that meat fat dripping onto hot coals makes smoke that may contain carcinogen, but the flavor it gives.

All seriousness aside, if I removed everything from my diet that might contain something potentially dangerous to my health, I would quickly die from thirst (our well is below an old tobacco farm).
 
#20 ·
Thanks guys for encouragement. 

butzy, what about roasted onions - I'm thinking of roasting up a few veggies - Onion, Red Bell Peppers, Jalapeno's, Mushrooms, Dried Peach and then tossing it into a Blender before adding it to my sauce in small batched till I'm happy with the taste - you think this will work?
 
#22 ·
You could certainly roast them but if you have a grill I think the better option would be to, at least, grill the onions, red peppers and jalapenos.  You'll get some smokiness from the grill, and including a bit of char from the onions will add some flavor and just a bit of bitterness to your sauce.  For the peppers, grill them until the skin is blistered and charred all over then throw in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow them to steam a bit.  You can then easily remove the skins. 
 
#23 ·
I like to lightly semi-cold smoke the mirepoix (vegies,peppers, garlic, whatever etc). Then chop them up and saute to a dark brown, to caramelize the natural sugars. to start my sauce. That way I get a good start on smokiness and sweetness to my sauce.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Something I recently learned about the professional / competitive BBQ circuit that is relevant here; the ingredient list you posted included a "flavor enhancer" - this is most likely MSG. I have learned that MSG is an incredibly potent thing to add for dry rubs.. and I assume BBQ sauce (many chefs use their dry rub as a basis for their BBQ sauce as well).

It seriously should not be underestimated. It can make the difference between a sauce/rub tasting good and someone going.. "holy cow! how did you make that so flavorful?" I've only recently started incorporating it into my dry rubs and a little bit makes a big difference in side by side tasting I have done.
 
#26 ·
It's controversial and probably not villainous but I can do without.
It's only controversial because a single physician wrote an unfounded op-ed on MSG being the reason people felt sick after eating at Chinese restaurants and that became household legend. Sure, there are some people who may have a reaction to msg, just as some people have a seafood allergy. MSG is naturally occurring in many foods, cheese, tomatoes, and seaweed for instance. Still - there will be people who identify as being sensitive to msg, just as there is a large group of non-celiacs that believe that gluten is harmful to them. Here's what the FDA says about it:

Is MSG safe to eat?

FDA considers the addition of MSG to foods to be "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). Although many people identify themselves as sensitive to MSG, in studies with such individuals given MSG or a placebo, scientists have not been able to consistently trigger reactions.
Regardless everyone has the right to choose what they like to consume. I just wanted to add both the knowledge of its use in competitive BBQ and my experience in performing side by side comparisons.
 
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