Bbq sauce choices

SmokeytheEGG

Do you stick with one sauce? Let your meat determine your sauce? Change it randomly?  Regional? No sauce? The reason I ask is I got away from vinegar based for a few years. Here lately I've been craving it like a pregnant woman wanting pickles.  I put it on my spaghetti last night. It goes very well with pork but it works for about anything.

GATraveller

My family and friends laugh because I have about 10 different sauces in the fridge and 4-5 in the pantry. Some store bought and some homemade. They all come out when bbq is served and I pick and choose based on nothing in particular. 

Scottborasjr

If I don't make my own I love Blues Hog and Head Country. I don't use a lot of sauce, I like to make stuff that stands on it's own. 

blasting

Am I showing a complete lack of BBQ sophistication to admit I like Sweet Baby Rays?

GATraveller

blasting said:

Am I showing a complete lack of BBQ sophistication to admit I like Sweet Baby Rays?

Absolutely not - we like it in our house except my kids call it Sweet Baby Ruth's 

bluebird66

I like Weber's Buzzin Honey.

chrisc133

blasting said:

Am I showing a complete lack of BBQ sophistication to admit I like Sweet Baby Rays?

I like Sweet Baby Rays on ribs. Hard to beat when it's only $.50 a bottle on sale. 

Theophan

I haven't tried very many commercial BBQ sauces, and I admit it's possible that if I had tried some I've never tasted, yet, maybe I'd use them all the time.  I like Stubbs the best of the commercial ones I've tasted.  I seem to like a more tangy sauce with some tartness to it better than a sweet but not at all tart sauce like Sweet Baby Ray's.  But I like the ones I've made at home better than any I've tasted from a jar, so far, anyway.  I've only made Adam Perry Lang's once, and thought it was a pain, but boy, it really was good.  My old standby sauce has been one from Jane Butel's Finger Lickin' Rib Stickin' Great Tastin' Hot and Spicy Barbecue cookbook, in her recipe, "Jane's Favorite Ribs."  The last time I made it, it almost seemed a little too tart, though, even though I like some tartness, and I may cut back a little on the vinegar next time.  It has a very noticeable Southwestern flavor from ground red New Mexico chiles.  I also made Jimmy Beal's "Wild Boar Soul" sauce that's posted on this forum and thought it was great.

I've only made it once, so far, but when I made the bourbon-laced "Bour-BQ Sauce" from Smoke & Spice, I thought it tasted so good it ought to be illegal!  Maybe it won't knock me out so much next time, I don't know, but boy, that stuff was sure good on their rib recipe.  That recipe also has been posted here.

SmokeyPitt

For pulled pork I go with vinegar based.
Ribs I usually go with a sweeter and thicker sauce.  However I usually mix a store bought sauce like sweet baby rays with vinegar based sauce. Blues hog I mix like 40/60 blues hog to vinegar. I think of BH as bbq sauce concentrate. 
For beef I really like Stubbs original.  I once mixed sweet baby rays Worcestershire sauce for beef ribs and it was really good. 

SmokeytheEGG

I am a Stubbs and Sweet Baby Ray guy myself. I also have some home made and smaller company brands I pick up here and there. Ribs and chicken wings tend to taste better with the thicker sauce. And I agree with the vinegar for pork.

stompbox

I use whatever brand I have on hand which normally means it was on sale.

Carolina Q

About the only bbq sauce I use is homemade vinegar (eastern NC) for pork butt. Occasionally western style, but mostly not. The only other thing I ever sauce is ribs, but since I do ribs only once every couple of years, it doesn't really matter. Pan sauces sometimes, but that's not what you meant.

Boileregger

I like SBR on ribs.  For pulled pork I have a homemade mustard vinegar sauce modified from a recipe found on the forum.  No sauce on brisket, that would be sacrilege.

pgprescott

I like blues hog, sweet sauce o mine, or bone suckin sauce for ribs. Head country on chicken. I like a spicier Texas sauce called pit happens for Briskey. I like vinegar sauce on the P pork. I am in love with the mustard sauces, rub some butt is my fave. I like a lot more than these, but I definitely feel that different sauces are geared towards different proteins. 

Skiddymarker

blasting said:

Am I showing a complete lack of BBQ sophistication to admit I like Sweet Baby Rays?

SBR is the best "base" sauce, IMO. SWMBO likes it as it is, I tend to doctor it up depending on what it is going on. 50/50 mix with Valentina Mexican hot sauce is excellent on wings. 
I also like John Henry's Original BBQ sauce. Way too many around to stick with one favourite......

shucker

we keep blues hog original and tennessee red as well as head country on hand at all times.  these are our go-to sauce bases in house and at competitions.  ive also developed a strong liking for Mermaid BBQ sauce, its great on wings, pulled pork, ribs, whatever.  After those, there's usually another 2 or 3 misc sauces in the house that I pick up here and there to try but most of them dont have staying power in my rotation.  

Monty77

I have between 10-15 sauces on hand at any given time, some are favourites and some are for one type of meat. 

shadowrider

Head Country for me.  However I will do my own rub and make up an apple cider vinegar mop sauce for butts (I mop them while they cook).  For sauce I'm not a fan of a vinegar sauce.  I also don't use a lot, but generally need some on all my Que.

Focker

My personal faves as of late are Stubb's Original and Gates' Original Classic.  (I'd go to Stubb's in TX before waiting in line at AFs or the SL.)   

Boy loves Blues Hog Original.  

BH Tenn Red when I'm lazy with PP.  Maull's Original is a must for St. Louis pork steaks, a staple cook when postseason baseball approaches.  As a Cards fan, this is expected.  All are within arm's reach as needed.  

First choice is to make my own.  Sometimes with the time constraints of daily life, that just doesn't happen.  Nice to have available options.