Carolina Red sauce becomes Kentucky Red

[kybluesmanluvsbbq]

Recently I tried a simple sauce recipe for "Carolina Red" vinegar-based sauce. The recipe was:

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp finely ground red pepper (cuyanne)

Just mix and serve at room temperature or chill. Wooohooo that was some vinegary tongue-biting nasty stuff!!!!!!!!!! My mouth puckered for 10 minutes after just a taste. Waaayyyy toooo much vinegar. Still I wanted a really good southern style NON-molasses based sauce so I started tweaking.

The mix I came up with (Kentucky Red) that everyone we shared it with loved was:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (got rid of a full cup)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup warm water
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp finely ground red pepper (cuyanne)


That took most of that vinegar tongue bite out of it, gave it a tad more kick, and tasted really good yet retained that southern style vinegar flavor. We love it! Give it a try. Simple ingredients. Simple to make.

I also have a fired-up version:

Same as above except:
1/2 cup hot and spicy Heinz ketchup instead of regular
1 heaping tbsp finely ground red pepper instead of 1 tsp.

This fire-up version is my favorite. Same good flavor, a lot more heat. Give either of these a try and let me know what you think. If you love to have your tongue bitten off then try that original recipe up top (not mine, I take no responsibility for your perma puckered mouth).

 

[rtom]

thanks it looks good, I'm not big on the vinegar either I'll have to give this a try

 

[solar]

I'm with you, I don't like a really sweet sauce, I like the more red type sauce you have here, I'm going to give it a try. Has anyone tried "Open Pit" BBQ suace? It's a red sauce and by far the cheapest you can buy in the store, it's got a vinegar kick, but it's just right. Pretty much everyone I know likes the sweet stuff, so I make my Bourbon Sauce for them, and cut it down with some Open Pit for me.

 

[richtee]

Hey KYBlues..welcome to SMF! Be sure to drop us off a Roll Call forum post and introduce yerself proper-like. It's just the polite thing to do when meeting future family, and like them, we're nosy LOL! Enjoy!

 

[smoking gun]

Thanks for the recipe. I'll add it to my collection. If it's Kentucky style doesn't it need a shot of bourbon in it? J/K .

 

[workoutchamp]

Yes, for it to be official Kentucky Sauce, it will need Bourbon for sure.

If any of you all want to know anything about Bourbon - or need a recommendation for a special gift/event, I am a bit of a Bourbon snob and pride myself as being the top Bourbon expert at my house. :) We have or have tried dozens here at the farm.

If anyone is in the area and wants to pop over for a taste test, call me or email me - we'll treat you right.

FYI - a good all-around bourbon that is available almost anywhere for drinking, cooking, mixing or sipping is Maker's Mark - not expensive, super high quality and fantastic taste.

There are others that are great - for sure, but Maker's is hard to beat for a good overall experience. Their distillery tour is fantastic - and close to my place!

and they have some good recipes on their website.
Carmelized bananas with a bourbon splash at the end - whoa.

 

[carpetride]

A gentlemen with taste you must be!