In the mind of every grill master, there lies a crazy little dream of glory. Fogged by the smoke and salivating from the smell of cooking meat, plenty of people get the idea that their barbecue sauce is good enough to go public, in a bottle, with a label, on a store shelf.
Doug Tomek got the idea from a guest at his back-yard cookout who was overheard saying of his sauce, “If I could buy this, it would be great.”
Bingo. A dozen or so years later, “Uncle Dougie’s World’s Most Dangerous Barbecue Sauce,” along with a line of marinades, rubs and other condiments, is a full-time family business, with the sauce selling in food markets and butcher shops around Chicago.
Other people were already in the food business, such as Sally Fitzgerald, who owned a family-run restaurant on the near South Side called Fitzee’s. A nudge from son Michael got Fitzgerald to agree to sell her liquid magic in 18-ounce bottles with a bright yellow label with the name of the restaurant.
Fitzgerald and Tomek are just two of the dozens of local sauce specialists who have bottled their dreams. But taking a special sauce from the back yard to the big leagues can be a long, difficult journey.
Despite the encouragement from Tomek’s party guest, for example, he said, “When we decided to do it, to try to bottle the sauce, all we heard was negatives. People told us it would be too hard.”
But Tomek, along with his brothers and sisters, plowed through the yellow pages looking for companies that sold the bottles, the caps and other necessities, then made the sauce in a renovated farmhouse in Palatine and drove around to butcher shops and stores to sell it.
“It was overwhelming the first few years,” Tomek admitted.
When the idea to bottle her sauce came up in 1984, Sally Fitzgerald didn’t even want to participate.
“My son Michael had been on me about it and said, ‘Mama, why don’t you bottle this sauce?’ But I didn’t want to give up my recipe,” Sally Fitzgerald said. The Natchez, Miss.-born Fitzgerald grew up with Southern-style barbecue, but said she put her own stamp on it in the family’s Chicago restaurant.
Now, the sauce is available commercially to customers who pour it at home on everything from grilled chicken to ribs to fish. “And meat loaf–dynamite,” Sally Fitzgerald said. But son Michael acknowledges getting retailers to stock their product regularly is still a battle.
“I had to become the food broker and had to learn the jargon and go out and meet the buyers,” he said. “It is a tedious process. But it is a product we have a passion for.”
It is not that the Fitzgeralds haven’t been successful. Fitzee’s sauce has been on the shelves at Jewel and Dominick’s stores in the past and now can be found at Whole Foods Market, Foodstuffs and Treasure Island. The family also sells it at Taste of Chicago and other local events. But competition from other companies, the stores’ desire for new products and slotting fees–something that most chains charge to stock products–can play havoc with availability. A sauce from any small manufacturer can appear or disappear one month to the next.
David Schy is going through the same experience as he introduces his sauce, Buff-A-Que, a combination of barbecue and buffalo wing sauce flavors.
Although the chef, known to Chicagoans from his stints at Hat Dance and Hubbard Street Grill, has plenty of professional food experience, this is a very different field.
“It’s funny; I’m really the world’s worst salesman,” Schy said. “Also, people told me, ‘Don’t bother trying to invent a new barbecue sauce.’ But I like to do new things. I would like to do 10 sauces eventually.”
That should add to the thousands of barbecue sauces that have flooded the market over the years, from small companies and huge corporations. The Association for Dressings and Sauces, an Atlanta-based trade organization that tracks such things, can’t keep up with the number of barbecue sauces available, according to spokeswoman Jana Wright.
And with such volume, it is hard to blaze new trails in the sauce world; every variation of smoky, sweet, peppery and vinegary sauce seems to exist. Tomato or mustard, brown sugar or ground chilies? It seems as if most everything can and does go into a barbecue baste.
But making something distinctively yours doesn’t always translate to sales. Unlike other foods that went into commercial distribution early on–condensed soup in the late 1800s and salad dressing by the early 1900s, for instance–barbecue sauces traditionally were the province of the home cook. Commercial barbecue sauces did not appear in stores until Heinz introduced one in 1948, according to the Association for Dressings and Sauces. Now Bull’s Eye, Open Pit, Kraft and K.C. Masterpiece are just a few of the brands available nationally, and they compete against regional brands for customer attention.
That enormous challenge won’t stop millions of home cooks who will be stoking the flames of the grill–and their ambition–this coming holiday weekend, one of the busiest barbecuing times of the year, according to the National Barbecue Association.
Sauce ideas “keep coming year after year,” said Tim Collins, director of national accounts for Tone Products in Melrose Park. The food manufacturing company gets about 45 percent of its business from barbecue-sauce creators who turn to Tone for their production and bottling facilities.
“There will always be some new ingredient that people think would make a great new sauce,” Collins said.
For entrepreneurs like Tomek, whose company now produces about 1,400 gallons monthly, the appeal of creating a new condiment continues to be rewarding.
“It was fun when we started and it is still fun now,” he said. “There are all the deals you have to do, but we lucked out with people liking the product and requesting it.”
Hope for similar success might get the back-yard dreamers wondering about a new career this holiday weekend. It’s funny what happens when smoke gets in your eyes.
Adding that barbecue flavor
Finding–or making–a great sauce isn’t all you need for a great feast. Steven Raichlen, author of “BBQ USA” (Workman, $19.95), a cookbook and handbook for all things grilled, was in Chicago to promote his book and offered these bits of wisdom:
When it comes to seasoning, Raichlen says there are three opportunities to add flavor to barbecued foods. The first is before cooking, when a marinade is added to lean foods like chicken breast and some fish, or a rub of dry spices is added to fatty cuts.
The second place to add flavor is during cooking, with “a glaze, butter, baste or mop.” These are intended to keep food from drying out. (Mop sauces, those sauces continually swirled over meat with a mop-ended brush, are designed, Raichlen said, “for a genetic flaw in the male species. Men always feel like they have to keep moving.”)
Sauces based on oil and vinegar, citrus or yogurt can be brushed on throughout the cooking, he said. But watch the sugar content; a sweetened glaze will burn if it is on the fire too long, so those should only be used for quick-cooking foods, or added just at the end of the cooking.
“One of the biggest mistakes people make is adding [sweet] barbecue sauce too early,” Raichlen said. “Put it on either the last 5 minutes of cooking or after the food comes off.”
Raichlen also cautioned against stabbing meat with a fork to turn it. Use tongs or a spatula instead to avoid moisture loss.
Barbecue sauce also can be served on the side, or heated and spooned over cooked meat or fish.
— Kristin Eddy
A taste worth bottling
To find the sauces mentioned in this story–and a few other local flavors–here are some retail outlets. Note: Availability may change; contact the company directly for the most current information.
Buff-A-Que Sauce: This gets plenty of heat from chipotle puree, ground red pepper and hot sauce. Available at Sunset Foods in Northbrook, Elliott’s Deli in Harwood Heights and through owner David Schy’s Web site, www.newtaste.com.
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce: The mellow, fruity flavors in this local favorite come from natural smoke, caramel, pineapple juice and tamarind. Other flavors also are sold. Available at Jewel-Osco supermarkets and many other area stores. Contact Sweet Baby Ray’s at 877-729-2229 or www.sweetbabyrays.com.
Uncle Dougie’s Barbecue Sauce: Here’s a smoky, tomato-based sauce with definite vinegar and spice. Look for it at independent butcher shops, such as Paulina Market in Lake View; Ream’s Meat Market in Elburn; Wheaton Meat Co. in Wheaton; and Cub Foods, Whole Foods and Wild Oats stores. To reach Uncle Dougie’s, call 847-608-1464.
BarBeQue Man Signature Micro-Que’d Gourmet Bar-B-Q Sauce: Hickory, molasses and tomato flavors are strong in this sauce from an Elgin company. For availability, call Barbeque Man, Inc., 847-289-4477, or visit www.barbequeman.com.
Fitzee’s B-B-Q Sauce: A thin, tomatoey, sweet and mildly spicy sauce. Sold at the restaurant, 2130 S. Indiana Ave., 312-674-1775; also at Whole Foods and Treasure Island stores. (This item as published has been corrected in this text.)
Cugino’s Original Mob-B-Que Sauce: This slightly chunky sauce includes grapes, pineapple, balsamic vinegar and garlic. Sold at Sam’s Wines & Spirits and Sunset Foods. Contact Cugino’s Gourmet Foods Inc., Lake in the Hills, 888-592-8446, or visit www.cuginos.com.
Erie Street Red Steak & BBQ Sauce: A smoky, deep, slightly sour sauce gets its flavor from molasses, anchovies, grapefruit juice and tamarind paste. Sold at Sam’s Wines & Spirits. Contact Erie Street Cooking Products Inc., 773-489-6306.
— K.E.
God’s own dream sauce
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Yield: 6 1/2 cups
This thin, Carolina-style vinegar/mustard sauce from “The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce Cookbook” is an approximation of one used at Dreamland, a rib destination with a cult following near the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
1 can (29 ounces) tomato puree
1/3 cup yellow mustard
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons each: lemon juice, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, chili powder
1 tablespoon each: dry mustard, paprika
2 teaspoons each: ground red pepper, onion powder
1 teaspoon each: salt, freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Whisk together the tomato puree and mustard until smooth in a large saucepan. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat sauce to a boil; reduce heat, simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate unused sauce up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
10 calories, 9% calories from fat, 0.1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, 2.4 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g protein, 0.3 g fiber
Beer butter baste and barbecue sauce
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time:10 minutes
Yield: 3/4 cup
A little goes a long way with this thick, sweet sauce with a hint of caramel flavoring. Adapted from “BBQ USA,” this sauce is great when brushed over grilled shrimp kebabs or other seafood.
1 cup beer
2 cloves garlic
1 strip (2 inches by 1/2 inch) lemon zest
2 tablespoons each: fresh lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon dried seafood boil mixture, see note
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1. Heat the beer, garlic and lemon zest to boil in a non-reactive saucepan; cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, 5-8 minutes. Add lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, corn syrup and seafood boil; cook 3 minutes. Discard garlic and lemon zest.
2. Reduce heat to medium; whisk in butter, piece by piece, until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Note: Shop for seafood boil seasoning mixtures, such as Zatarain’s or Old Bay brands, in the spice section of most supermarkets.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
85 calories, 83% calories from fat, 8 g fat, 4.7 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, 325 mg sodium, 3.5 g carbohydrate, 0.1 g protein, 0 g fiber
Brisket basting sauce
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 2 1/4 cups
After a beef brisket has been smoked, it is brushed in this thin, lemony sauce, from “Barbecue Inferno,” before and after it is sliced. Some cooks slather the sauce on during the smoking. It also can be used with smoked lamb, pork or chicken.
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup beer
Juice from 2 lemons, rinds chopped and reserved
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook 4 minutes. Stir in beer, lemon juice and lemon rinds; cook 1 minute. Add the remaining ingredients; heat mixture to boiling. Reduce heat to medium low; simmer 20 minutes.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
105 calories, 95% calories from fat, 11 g fat, 3.9 g saturated fat, 14 mg cholesterol, 65 mg sodium, 1 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g protein, 0.3 g fiber
Sweet-hot barbecue sauce
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 1/2 cups
This ketchup-based recipe, adapted from “The Heaven on Seven Cookbook,” from Chicago’s Jimmy Bannos, produces a spicy blend of flavors.
3 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1/4 cup each: dark brown sugar, light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon each: white vinegar, freshly squeezed
lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon each: ground ancho chilies, ground guajillo chilies, ground cumin, ground Mexican oregano, Hungarian paprika, Spanish paprika, onion salt, garlic salt, freshly ground black pepper, ground white pepper, red pepper flakes
Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Heat to boil over medium heat; reduce heat to low. Simmer 10 minutes, whisking occasionally.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
32 calories, 2% calories from fat, 0.07 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 225 mg sodium, 8.3 g carbohydrate, 0.3 g protein, 0.3 g fiber
