Sauce-Off

First of all, before I begin this post I need to give special props to The Bride.  She took time out of her busy schedule to make the house presentable for our guests.  For those of you who watch The League, a "Special Lady Day" is in her future.  

Although my golf league's season is over, we have agreed to meet once a month just to keep current and have some fun.  I took the initiative to host dinner at my house instead of meeting somewhere for dinner, mostly because I had an agenda.  As I was perusing The Guide a number of weeks ago, I realized that there were several barbecue sauces.  Instead of trying them one at a time over a long period of time, I wanted to be able to try them side-by-side, and with a group of experts would be all the better.  My plan was to make a bunch of chicken wings (a great canvas for sauces), and invite the fellas over to help serve as judges.  

The first recipe up for evaluation was Fritz's Favorite Barbecue Sauce Sauce on page 45.

Second up was a recipe simply called Chili Barbecue Sauce, also on page 45.

The third contestant was Weber's Tangy Barbecue Sauce on page 47.

The fourth sauce was something called Loco-Motion Sauce on page 49, and in my hurried nature this afternoon I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients, but will list them here: OJ concentrate, chili sauce, molasses, soy sauce, white wine vinegar, whole-grain mustard, worcestershire sauce, tobasco sauce, and kosher salt.

Finally, the last entrant was the Crazy Cola Barbecue Sauce on page 49.



I grilled up the wings, and when everyone had arrived I set them out with the sauces. 

The judges were not informed the names of the sauces, nor about any of the ingredients.  They were simply referred to as Sauces A, B, C, D, and E.  Each judge was given a form on which they could record any notes they desired, and then give a final ranking.  Here are their notes:

Sauce A (Fritz's Favorite Barbecue Sauce Sauce )

(1) Coffee tone unacceptable, orange is nice, nice gentle afterburn

(2) Jerk, orange, nice

(3) Translucent, mild sauce, light, slightly sweet flavor, chicken flavor was dominant over the sauce

(4) Tastes like vinagrette, too sweet

(5) Mint tones, good with lamb or kabobs?

Sauce B (Chili Barbecue Sauce)

(1) Nice spice, good acidity, fine balance, excellent "cling" factor

(2) Cumin, good spice/heat

(3) Spicy aroma, flavor is fairly mild with definite tomato

(4) Good classic BBQ, spicy, sage?, thick

(5) Spicy, chili pepper, slight afterburn, to me wings and sauce needs to be hot

Sauce C (Weber's Tangy Barbecue Sauce)

(1) Rather tomato-y, needs kick to be a BBQ sauce

(2) Sweet, thick

(3) Smells somewhat like a traditional KC BBQ sauce, taste reminds me of KC Masterpiece with a little less flavor

(4) Sweet pepper, thick

(5) Tangy, southwestern, thick

Sauce D (Loco-Motion Sauce)

(1) Strong OJ syrup, needs acidity to balance, also needs spice, OJ too strong, unidirectional

(2) Too orange-y, nice amount of spice, but some nice acidity

(3) Sweet aroma, citrus flavors overwhelm the sauce and chicken, great for a "luau" BBQ

(4) Sweet citrus, pineapple?

(5) Maple, beer/porter/smokey

Sauce E (Crazy Cola Barbecue Sauce)

(1) No "cling," very little flavor

(2) Is this steak sauce?  Too thin, not bad

(3) Little "cling" to the wings, reminds me of a steak sauce, good flavor, but not for wings

(4) Spicy vinegar, thin, not a wing sauce, but good flavor

(5) Watery, nondescript

As for the final rankings, here they are from favorite to least favorite:

(1) B, C, A, D, E

(2) B, A, D, C, E

(3) B, C, D, E, A

(4) B, E, D, C, A

(5) B, C, A, D, E

So the clear consensus favorite was Sauce B, the Chili Barbecue Sauce.  After that, it was all over the place.  A big thanks to The Gentlemen for helping me out on this little adventure, they were a big help!