The 10 Best BBQ Sauces for Summer Grilling
There are two big reasons barbecue sauce goes so well with grilled food.
First off, grilled food possesses an addictive bitterness that elevates the meatiness and savoriness inherent in all grill-able foods. That bitterness is complemented and enhanced by sweetness. (Anyone who has ever tasted the glory of a grilled peach knows what this interplay is all about.)
Second, barbecue sauce (or at least good barbecue sauce) tastes incredible on its own. So if you're taking something incredible-tasting and slathering it onto incredible-tasting food, you're doubling up on deliciousness.
But, that last reason showcases the problem inherent to barbecue sauce as a category: So much barbecue sauce is bad barbecue sauce.
Bad barbecue sauce is way too high in sugar and not that high in really any other flavor, which means that you're essentially turning whatever you just grilled into candy. And instead of tasting all that grilled glory, you're just tasting sweeeeeeeeet.
Good barbecue sauce has some sweetness, sure, but it doesn't depend on sweetness to taste good. Good barbecue sauce has some heat, some complexity, and some nuance. Good barbecue sauce is like a good backyard cookout guest: interesting, but not overwhelming.
So here are the 10 best barbecues that keep their sugar in check, leaning on other flavors to bring your grilled fare to new levels of awesome. Each bottle is designed to bring new taste sensations to your favorite grilled food—without a cloying candy taste or finish.
This stuff is goooood.
