I’ve seen a wide swath of “BBQ sauces"—everything from thin vinegar basting mops to thick soy-based Asian mixtures. But when I think of BBQ sauce, and what most people think of when you say BBQ sauce, is a combination of the holy trinity: vinegar, tomato, and molasses. BBQ sauce of this category isn’t intended to penetrate the meat, and it should never be used to baste meat exposed directly to heat for long periods of time (unless you like eating carbon). The sugar content, however, makes the sauce a prime candidate for caramelization. Caramelization is the process whereby finger-licking good BBQ sauce gets stuck to your meat. Sticky sauce may be messy, but it’s preferable to having the sauce slide off entirely while you’re trying to eat a hunky rack of ribs.

So what’s the recipe for BBQ sauce? Well, the answer is there is no single recipe, even if we narrow down our options to those that include The Three Main Ingredients. Some people like it tangy (more vinegar). Some people like it sweet. Some people like it hot. Some people like it smoky and with a tasty bite of booze. Depending on what you like, you’ll have to adjust the amount of sweet, tangy, hot, smoky, and bitter components in your recipe.

I happen to like a full palette of flavors, so here’s what I did:

2 (12 oz) cans tomato paste
1 ¼ cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup Splenda or sugar
½ cup molasses
½ cup bourbon (I use Wild Turkey)
½ red onion, puréed through the food processor
3 cloves garlic, through the garlic press
3 heaping Tbsps chile paste*
1 ½ tsps chipotle powder
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp hickory liquid smoke
1 Tbsp salt
2 tsps freshly ground pepper
water, as needed

Place all the ingredients in a crockpot on low heat. Cook for at least two hours and at most six hours, adding water as needed to keep the sauce at the proper consistency. NB: I like to prepare a thicker sauce, and then thin it out later with the drippings collected from the meat.

Update 09/02/09: Tyler recommends more tomato, more heat, and less sweet. I may try these adjustments just for kicks (although my heartburn won’t thank me).

A Note On Making Proper Chile Paste

First, buy an assortment of dried chiles. For BBQ sauce, I like using cascabels and ancho aka dried poblano. (If you can get them, also toss in a few dried chipotles; just don’t forget to increase the amount of paste and eliminate the chipotle powder from the recipe.) When your bouquet of chiles is ready, pour boiling hot water over them and place something on top to keep them fully immersed in liquid. Set your timer to 30 minutes and walk away. When you come back, remove the hydrated chiles with a slotted spoon and pull out any stems. At this stage usually the seeds will pull out with the stem, as they are still attached. But if they don’t, no sweat. Transfer the chiles to your food processor and purée. If the mixture is too thick to purée easily, add some water.

The next step to making a proper chile paste is somewhat time consuming, but in my opinion essential. Place a fine mesh sieve over an empty container. If possible, pick a container such that the rims of the sieve can rest on the container unsupported while you work. Add a few tablespoons of your puréed mixture to the sieve. Then, with the backside of a metal spoon, push the mixture through the mesh; if you do the work properly, the seeds and hard flaky skin will be trapped above the mesh while the smooth delicious paste comes out the other side. Rinse and repeat this process for the remainder of the mixture, periodically using a gentle scraping motion to scoop out (and discard) the detritus above the mesh.