BBQ Sauce, Commercial or make your own?

[Pa_BBQ]

I have my concession trailer about finished inspector will be here Tuesday to inspect it and pick up the information for the business license.

I am starting off very small, going to start with just pulled pork, chips and drinks. I will offer sauces on the side and there are no BBQ companies around here to ask so will ask you guys about BBQ Sauce.

Do you buy commercial or make your own? I would love to make my own but have no clue where to start. I have a couple Carolina sauces I make and like (mustard based) but for the Stubs type sauce I have been buying it at walmart.

So if you use commercial types, do you leave it in the original bottle or at least make it look like you made it?

Sorry if this has been covered before I did a search and did not find an answer.

Since I do not compete, maybe someone would share a basic sauce to start with and I can tweak it to my liking.

[HBMTN]

I make my own, I don't think there is anything wrong if you use a store bout but I would not re-bottle it and make people think it was mine. For instance I use a commercial rub, so I became a retailer of the rubs and sell them by the bottle from our vending trailer. I tell customers if you like our food buy some of this rube and make the food you cook better as well.

[Pa_BBQ]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

I make my own, I don't think there is anything wrong if you use a store bout but I would not re-bottle it and make people think it was mine. For instance I use a commercial rub, so I became a retailer of the rubs and sell them by the bottle from our vending trailer. I tell customers if you like our food buy some of this rube and make the food you cook better as well.

Thanks and what a great idea. I would not want to take credit for something I did not do, but also do not want to give the impression that you can just walk into Walmart and make what I make.

We all know its not the Chief knife, or the oven its the Chief but still do not wan to come across as too generic either.

[caseydog]

Both.

I sometimes make my own, and often use Sweet Baby Ray's right from the bottle.

I also take commercial sauces and add things to it to make a new sauce. I like to add heat and sweet to my commercial sauces. Take any store sauce, and add honey and black and/or cayenne pepper to it. I love it.

If you use a commercial sauce right out of the bottle, then you need to leave the label on it, or put it in an unmarked bottle -- you may prefer a squeeze bottle to the glass bottle, and a plastic bottle is definitely safer. That is a legitimate and practical reason to use a bottle that does not have the maker's label on it. IMO. I would never do it just to make people think I made it.

If you doctor it up, I think it would certainly be okay to put it in an unmarked bottle, but I still would not put any kind of label on it that leads people to think that it is your own.

The only way I would put a label on it that people would take to believe that you made it, is if you actually did make it, from scratch.

CD

[tony76248]

Sweet Baby Rays works for me too. That said, I normally go to Sam's and get the Head Country for $10 a gallon. I have never had anyone complain.

[bigsapper]

Rudy's is my favorite off the shelf sauce. Here's a recipe that's very similar. Be careful about too much lemon, tho...
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_163/1...ge=1#i28907034

[mmmmeat]

ive been thinking about this as well, with trying to start my own, i have thought long and hard about proven ( in my own home with my very own picky family) that i will be using Plowboys rubs, and BIG BUTZ BBQ sauces.

Big Butz has a wide variety of flavors so i can offer sweet to spicy (us az folks love spicy, and when claimed spicy NEEDS to be spicy )

And i have extensively used Plowboys on ribs, and chicken.

Brisket i generally use a simple homemade "dalmation" which is salt and pepper. course grain, of course.

[landarc]

I do both as well. On the rare occasion that I cook for others, I tend to buy the sauce. But, if I was to vend and not make my own sauce, I would either put it in a warmer (crock pot on low) or put it in squeeze bottles. I would never claim it as my own, but, I would be vague as to what it is. The exception would be if I was using a sauce from someone that I support, such as Big Butz, in which case, I would make it clear that I am featuring Big Butz sauces as long as the maker approved. I would not do that if he did not approve. One of the reasons for repacking into squeeze bottles.

[mmmmeat]

Originally Posted by landarc

I do both as well. On the rare occasion that I cook for others, I tend to buy the sauce. But, if I was to vend and not make my own sauce, I would either put it in a warmer (crock pot on low) or put it in squeeze bottles. I would never claim it as my own, but, I would be vague as to what it is. The exception would be if I was using a sauce from someone that I support, such as Big Butz, in which case, I would make it clear that I am featuring Big Butz sauces as long as the maker approved. I would not do that if he did not approve. One of the reasons for repacking into squeeze bottles.

Yeah what he said, but in hopes of a lil bonus becoming a vendor of the products like mentioned ^^^^ up there somewhere, I'd want to spread the bbq love in this desolate bbq land I'm in.

Posted from my fancy android fone!!

[landarc]

There are a lot of specialty food shops around here that are now doing sort of a split retail/restaurant thingy, where they sell both prepared food and the products they use. It seems to me, a good way to have a operation that allows you to sell to the customer on a couple of levels. And if you are using the same product, then you are going to carry the inventory anyway, why not cut both sides of the sale.

Now, I can also see where a guy like Tom would say no, after all, it means that he is, in a way, endorsing your product. This is a tricky thing, co-promotion can be a real issue for both sides.

[mmmmeat]

Originally Posted by landarc

Now, I can also see where a guy like Tom would say no, after all, it means that he is, in a way, endorsing your product. This is a tricky thing, co-promotion can be a real issue for both sides.

Tru, thats why if I were to go this route, id get the vendors blessing, no matter the product


Posted from my fancy android fone!!

[big brother smoke]

I make my own for catering, peach, raspberry chipotle and cherry!

[azmark]

I've been making my own sauces for a while and have tweaked and changed a lot until I found my liking.

Here is the basic where i started and went from there; about 5 more ingredients and a few mixture changes but still pretty much the same.

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Rub
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
12 twists fresh ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. crushed Red Pepper
At least 1/4 tsp. of Louisiana Hot Sauc

[chachahut]

Not meaning to start anything here, but if you're not making the rub, not making the sauce, buying the meat from a store (not raising & butchering it) & not growing the trees for the smoke wood - what exactly ARE you doing? Throwing some meat in the smoker for a few hours?

Seems to me if you want to sell BBQ to the masses it should actually be all YOURS.

To answer the questions, I make 6 stock house sauces & 2 rotating Sauce of the Moments plus 3 different rubs & have not used any sauce or rub I have not made myself for over 6 years.

Then again, I make a nice bit of change selling my sauces & rubs at the Hut.

[landarc]

Although I get your point Frank, I think there is no end to how you take that line, growing your own herbs and spices, farming your own veggies, harvestring your own honey etc...and it happens out here. I think what youa are selling is the convenience, speed and maybe even, yes, the skill of throwing the meat into a smoker for a few/12 hours. I think that making a sauce and rub is a lot simpler than actually learning to cook meat. Even more so, you can make sauces and rubs with very consistent materials and ingredients that take a lot of the skill out of the equation. Every cut of meat requires a little different cooking, and cooking it to be the same every day. I think there is a lot to that.