While every barbecue region has its own signature sauce, most of them include a sweet element to balance tangy and spicy ingredients and complement the umami-richness of barbecued meat. Sweetness comes in many forms, and the type of sugar you use in your barbecue sauce can have major effects on the flavor profile. We consulted Matt Abdoo, executive chef and co-founder of Pig Beach BBQ, for his expert opinion on the best type of sweetener to use for your sauce.
In an interview with Tasting Table, chef Abdoo said, “Generally speaking, I love using brown sugar, honey, and molasses, as well as white granulated sugar.” The choice of which sweetener to use is a matter of personal choice; it depends on whether you simply want a sweeter sauce or whether you want a more complex flavor. To that effect, chef Abdoo thinks that “White sugar is great for making BBQ sauce when all you are trying to achieve is add sweetness without any additional flavor.”
Brown sugar, a type of sugar that contains molasses, has much more complexity. Chef Abdoo considers his preferred sweeteners, among other flavor agents, as having “very distinct flavors that enhance and create depth to the sauce you are making.” Brown sugar and molasses, for example, bring deep and rich caramel, burnt sugar, and even smoky flavors, while honey contains floral, fruity, and earthy notes.
Regional barbecue sauce sweeteners
Chef Abdoo clearly favors the complexity of brown sugar and sweeteners like molasses and honey. He’s not alone because brown sugar and molasses are key ingredients in many regional barbecue sauce traditions. For example, Kansas City barbecue sauce is sweetly unique because it uses both ingredients for a deep caramelized smoky taste to slather over a plate of ribs. St. Louis barbecue sauce adds apple cider vinegar to the Kansas City formula to make it a bit thinner and tangier. Texas barbecue sauce is a bold, umami-rich, and spicy sauce that balances the spice with both brown sugar and honey.
While these deep, rich sweeteners are part of many regional barbecue sauce recipes, they may not be for everyone, to which chef Abdoo told us, “if you are merely looking to add sweetness without the nuance and flavors that honey or molasses give … then white sugar will give you the sweetness you are looking for.” He gives white sugar the thumbs up, but there’s one category of sweeteners he doesn’t approve of: Artificial sweeteners.
Chef Abdoo dislikes the taste of artificial sweeteners and cautions sugar-free advocates who want to use them in a barbecue sauce recipe. “Just be careful, as a little goes a long way with them,” he said. So if you’re converting a regular barbecue sauce recipe to a sugar-free version, start by swapping real sugar for half the amount of artificial sweetener. You can always add more by the teaspoonful.
