Sauce is the lifeblood of American barbecue. Without it, Kansas City-style ribs would lack the sticky sweetness that keeps you licking your fingers. Carolina pulled pork would simply be a pile of shredded cooked Boston butt.

Traditional American barbecue sauces have always had an air of mystery. The lengthy ingredient lists. The complex layers of flavors. The secrecy bordering paranoia surrounding the recipe. The mythical pit masters who vow to take their secret sauce recipe to the grave.

Well, we’re about to break the code of silence. In honor of Pork-tober, here are five of our favorite barbecue sauces. Equally terrific on pork chops, tenderloin, ribs, and pork butts.

What’s even better: three of the sauces require only three ingredients. You read that right three ingredients!

So get out your saucepan and get cracking!

We at Barbecuebible.com wish you a happy Pork-tober!

Five Barbecue Sauces for Pork

North Carolina Vinegar Sauce

Makes 2 cups.

This mouth-puckering condiment was America’s original barbecue sauce, and while a watery mix of cider vinegar, hot red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper may not seem like barbecue sauce to most Americans, North Carolina-style pulled pork just wouldn’t taste right without it. The vinegar counterpoints the fatty pork, while the black and hot peppers crank up the heat. In the western part of the state, ketchup is added for sweetness—a practice I’ve made optional here. Note: Some pit masters add liquid hot sauce in place of (or in addition to) hot red pepper flakes. Others add water to diminish the vinegary bite.

2 cups cider vinegar
1 to 2 tablespoons hot red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper (about 1 tablespoon of the former and 1 teaspoon of the latter)
2 tablespoons ketchup (optional)

Place the ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until the salt dissolves. Alternatively, place the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until the salt dissolves. To serve, mix with or spoon over pulled pork (smoked shredded or chopped pork shoulder). It’s also great with shredded barbecued chicken or duck.

South Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce

Yield: Makes 2 cups.

South Carolina’s contribution to regional American barbecue is mustard sauce. BBQ buffs in these parts understand the wonders that mustard can work on pork; how the spice enhances the meat’s sweetness, while the acidity cuts through the fat. A good mustard sauce is a study in balance: the bite of mustard and mouth-pucker of vinegar offset by the sweetness of honey or brown sugar. Tradition calls for using ballpark-style mustard, which I’ve always found to be jarring on the taste buds. Call me a heretic, but I prefer the suaveness of Dijon-style mustard or a grainy mustard from Meaux in France.

2/3 cup Dijon-style mustard
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (lots of pepper) to taste

Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and whisk to mix. Simmer for 3 minutes, then let cool to room temperature for serving.

Alabama White Barbecue Sauce

Visit Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama, and you’ll find a barbecue sauce unlike any on the planet. Created by a railroad man-turned-pit master in the 1920s, this piquant mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar, and black pepper has accompanied barbecued chicken for five generations of pit masters. Well, let me assure you, this singular sauce is equally delicious on pork. I know the mayo thing sounds strange if you’re not from Alabama, but take my word for it, it’s awesome.

Makes 3-1/2 cups.

2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup prepared white horseradish (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper and salt (you’ll need about 2 teaspoons of the former and 1 teaspoon of the latter)

Place the ingredients in a deep mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pineapple-Chile Salsa

Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light Magazine.

Serve at room temperature over grilled pork or fish.

Stir together 2 cups finely chopped fresh pineapple (about 12 oz.), 2 thinly sliced scallions, 1 seeded and finely chopped red Fresno chile, 1/2 seeded and finely chopped serrano chile, 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro, 1 tsp. lime zest, and 1/4 tsp. kosher salt in a medium bowl. Serve immediately, or store covered in refrigerator up to 2 days.

Chipotle Molasses Barbecue

Smoke and fire are what make barbecue barbecue and they’re about to electrify the sauce to go with it. The smoke comes from chipotles—Mexican smoked jalapenos. The fire comes from the chilies, plus Sriracha and horseradish mustard.

2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup Sriracha
1/4 cup horseradish mustard or Dijon-style mustard
1/4 cup bourbon whisky
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark—your choice), or to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Sambuca
1 tablespoon minced chipotle chili with can juices (or to taste)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and gently simmer the sauce, uncovered, until thick and richly flavored, 10 minutes. Correct the seasoning, adding pepper or sugar as desired. Let the sauce cool to room temperature for serving. Store in clean jars away from heat or light. Refrigerated, the sauce will last for at least a week.

Whether you like your pork tangy, sweet, smoky, or spicy, there’s a sauce here that hits the spot. Each one tells a story from a different corner of American barbecue, and every spoonful adds its own twist to the meat we love most. Fire up the grill, grab your favorite cut of pork, and taste your way through these classics.

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Passions-to-Profit: Celebrating the Barbecuing Entrepreneur

As the traditional end of summer, Labor Day also serves to celebrate the American work force and their commitment to productive, inventive and important contributions to our society. In this spirit of honoring America’s hard-working heroes, we’d like to dedicate the entire month of September to applaud the entrepreneurs who’ve applied their talents to making your barbecuing adventures more engaging…and tasty!

First-in-a-Series: True Made Foods; Family Legacy and Serendipity Converge

Ryan Mitchell grew up in barbecue. He was prepping hogs and tending the coals alongside his dad, Pitmaster Ed Mitchell, for as long as he could remember. While barbecue is in his blood, growing up alongside it was a constant chore. The unrelenting work around barbecue pits initially made Ryan want to forge his own path. Ryan earned a scholarship to play football at East Carolina University, and after graduation, went into investment banking. The 2008 financial crisis then changed everything for him—Ryan was given the choice of taking a severance or moving to Singapore. He chose the severance and turned the experience into a growth event. He took a look at his life and realized that his heart and heritage was really back in barbecue.

Planting the Seeds with a Perfect Partnership

We (the Mitchell family) have primarily been restauranteurs, but we’ve always wanted to launch our own BBQ Sauces and Rubs. We suffered a number of set-backs and prejudice when trying to launch our BBQ Sauces the first time in the 2000’s and kind of gave up on the idea for awhile. But then our current business partner, Abe Kamarck, reached out to us in 2017. He had launched a no sugar, all-natural ketchup brand, True Made Foods, and wanted to expand into BBQ Sauces and was looking for a Pitmaster partner. It was the perfect fit, since at the time my dad (Ed) had just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic and we have always wanted to bring BBQ recipes back to their roots and do something different from the wall of junk you currently find in the grocery store.

Design Serves to Solve Challenges

We are still overcoming those obstacles! We’ve had lots of false starts and challenges along the way, too many to list here. The CPG space is brutal, probably tougher than the restaurant industry! One problem we have recently overcome was our labels. We let our old labels be influenced too much by the natural foods industry, so they did not represent the BBQ culture that is core to our identity. We have recently redesigned our labels to better represent our heritage. Yes, our products have no added sugars and are all-natural, but that is because we are true Pitmaster representing hundreds of years of family legacy. Our tradition and culture should lead and be the core message on our labels.

The Difference is in the Details: Wholesome Ingredients

Our No Sugar BBQ Sauces are authentic, regionally-inspired recipes that date back to when before high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar became the major ingredients in every BBQ Sauce in the grocery store. We make BBQ Sauces for people who know.

Our BBQ Sauces and Rubs are 100% natural with NO HFCS, Added Sugars, Stevia, Monk Fruit or any other non-nutritive sweeteners. Instead, we make our BBQ Sauces the way our ancestors did, with all natural, puréed spices, fruits and vegetables, providing real flavor and better performance on proteins and on the smoker.

Quite simply, they’re America’s basics, made better!

Recipe

Passions-to-Profit Series

• Hitchfire
• Sauce Goddess
• Oscarware
• Portland Salt

Check out our 1000+ Recipes section here on Barbecue Bible.Com

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