If you’ve ever made your own homemade barbecue sauce—say you’ve cooked up some delicious baby back ribs—you know that nothing beats the impact of a flavorful sauce. So the next time you fall back on a generic bottled barbecue sauce you can be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed by the relative lack of spirit in many store-bought offerings. So what do you do with a bottle of sauce just sitting on your shelf waiting to go bad? Don’t worry there’s a solution to elevating that boring bottle of sauce into something more akin to your delicious homemade goods.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 TruBBQtv John Foley | 2016-10-30 13:00:06 |  80,629 Views |
Quick Tips #2: Improve Store-Bought BBQ Sauce | TruBBQtv
The solution is actually quite simple: all you need is a good splash of vinegar to give your bottled barbecue sauce the kick it so desperately needs. Your standard white vinegar will work just fine here; just throw some in until your sauce is nice and spicy. And you can also work with other types of vinegar to add some other flavors. Apple cider vinegar can be a great addition to typical barbecue dishes and white wine vinegar can add some delicious notes as well. So when in doubt reach for some vinegar to enhance your bottled barbecue sauce.
Different types of vinegar are a surefire way to enhance your sauce. But you can expand your horizons to other ingredients that will serve this purpose as long as they have a vinegary and acidic element. Take spicy whole-grain Dijon mustard for example. You can use this to add a spicy kick to your sauce while also putting an inspired twist on one of the many sauces from the United States. You can also use your favorite hot sauce for the same purpose or even a batch of spicy kimchi. A serving or two of the hot stuff can really elevate your bottled sauce.
There’s no reason to stop there though. While they all certainly meet the vinegar requirement there’s still room for expansion. Toss aside the need for vinegar and instead focus on acidic ingredients in general and you’ll unlock a whole new wealth of tools at your disposal. Take inspiration from Hawaiian huli huli sauce and use some sweet but tangy pineapple juice—the acidity will cut through your sauce and the fruit’s juice adds excellent flavor. Or use the acid found in other citrus fruits like lemon. The options end at the edge of your own creativity so there’s no doubt that you’ll be using up that bottle of barbecue sauce in no time.
