Actually very easy

Barbecue sauce

The beliefBarbecue sauce is assumed to need a long spice list and some kind of smoking.

The truthKetchup, molasses, vinegar and a little heat. What gives it the smoky note is not wood but the compounds already in dried and roasted peppers.

30 minutes

How to make it

What you need

300 g ketchup or tomato purée
80 g molasses
60 ml cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Half a teaspoon of salt

How the engine read this list (8 lines)

300 g	Ketchup or tomato purée	tomato-paste
80 g	Molasses	molasses
61 g	Cider vinegar	vinegar
8 g	Mustard	mustard-seed
2 g	Paprika	paprika
2 g	Chilli flakes	chilli-flakes
10 g	Garlic	garlic
3 g	Salt	salt

An empty weight means that line could not be turned into grams — either the amount is open ("to taste") or the ingredient has no record here. Neither enters the sum as zero; they do not enter it at all.

Put everything in a pan and stir. The order does not matter: there is no chemical stage here, only a meeting.
Bring it to the boil, drop to the lowest flame and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally — the sugar settles and scorches.
Take it off when it coats the back of a spoon. It thickens noticeably as it cools, so leave it a little loose in the pan.
Blend it if you want it smooth; leave it if you want the pieces of garlic.

Why it works

Barbecue sauce clings to meat because two reactions run at once when it heats. Sugar caramelises around 160 °C and thickens; at the same temperature its carbonyl group meets the amino acids of the meat in a Maillard reaction. Together they build that dark sticky crust. The catch is that above 180 °C the sugar stops caramelising and starts burning, and turns bitter — which is why the sauce goes on in the last eight to ten minutes of grilling rather than at the start. The molasses is not there only for taste: the invert sugar in it, a mix of glucose and fructose, reacts at a lower temperature than plain sucrose and makes the glaze come up sooner.

The rough sum

466 grams going in

560 kcal in total

100% of the mass has figures behind it. This is the sum of what GOES IN rather than of what comes out. Wherever something evaporates, drains or ferments the two differ: a kilo of milk is 150 g of cheese.

Diets it qualifies for

Gluten-free · with care Vegan Vegetarian Lactose-free

Storage & shelf life

How long it keeps

Fridge, in a closed jar: 3 weeks
Freezer: 6 months
Brushed onto raw meat: Cook the same day
Room temperature: Not advised

The body of this sauce is sugar and molasses, and that sugar gives it some protection; but there is less vinegar in it than in ketchup, the pH stays above 4, and the fridge is not optional. A sauce that has been brushed onto meat and then put back in the jar is carrying raw meat: do not double-dip the brush — decant a portion into a separate bowl.

When to bin it Mould, gas, or a silky film on the surface. In a sugary sauce yeast is the commonest spoilage and it smells like beer.

History

Where it comes from

Barbecue sauce evolved independently across the American South and still exists as four separate families: vinegar and pepper in the Carolinas, mustard in South Carolina, mayonnaise in Alabama, sugar and tomato in Kansas City. The type most people make at home is the Kansas City one, and that is this recipe. What is interesting is that the vinegar-and-pepper type is the oldest, because tomato sauce was not cheap until the end of the nineteenth century. The Turkish equivalent is roasted pepper paste: the same job on the same logic, with a different source of acid.

The knack

For a smoky note add a teaspoon of isot. You do not need wood smoke: isot is sun-dried and sweated, and already carries it.
Brush it on in the last eight minutes of grilling. Put it on at the start and the sugar burns before the meat is cooked.
Too sweet, a spoon of vinegar; too sharp, a spoon of molasses. This sauce is tuned between two ends.

Pastes and sauces