Page 98 - Amazing Ribs - Book

Kansas City Classic Sauce
Although there are several distinctly different regional styles of BBQ sauce in the US, the thick red stuff is what most of us reach for when our spouse says “pick up some barbecue sauce, willya?”
If you are no longer living with your parents, you really should have a homemade sauce so that when your guests ask “What brand of sauce is that?” you can plunk a hand-labeled bottle on the table. When they beg you for the recipe, you can then tell them “It’s a secret,” and mumble the old saw that ends in “...and then I’d have to kill you.”
Most Kansas City sauces are brass bands with multiple lay- ers of flavors, sweets, and heats. They go shamelessly for the sweet tooth. The best have multiple sources of sweetness (brown sugar, molasses, honey, and onion—which gets sweet when it is cooked); multiple sources of tartness (vinegar,
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