From Louisiana BBQ to Kentucky BBQ, the flavors are all different, but only because the final ingredients in the sauce are different. If you are considering hiring a BBQ catering service, you should get familiar with these regional differences in ingredients and flavors before you decide what kind of BBQ you want the caterers to bring. Here are five ingredients that completely alter the flavor of these regional sauces and how each of them makes the sauce and meat taste.
Tennessee Whiskey
Tennessee whiskey adds husky notes of aged oak barrels and a slightly bitter aftertaste to your BBQ sauce and meat. The better and more aged the whiskey, the less you taste the slight bitterness and the more smoky oak flavor you get. While you can use a Tennessee BBQ sauce on just about any meat, it works best on bland poultry and game meats because it adds more flavor to the poultry and hides the gamey aftertaste of game meats.
Louisiana Hot Sauce
If you like your BBQ with a seriously spicy kick, then maybe you would enjoy Louisiana BBQ with its hot sauce added as the final ingredient. Honoring the Creole and Cajun heritage of Louisiana's natives, the hot, spicy BBQ sauce flavors even the most exotic meats (e.g., frogs' legs, alligator, catfish, etc.) while still making a rack of ribs taste good. It has a slow burn to the spices, but builds in intensity with every bite.
Boston's (Massachusetts) Honey and Dijon Mustard
Boston, MA, likes to claim that the first honey mustard BBQ sauce came from their city and state. Nobody can prove or disprove this, but what can be proven is the sweetness of the flavor of the sauce after the honey and dijon mustard are added. The dijon cuts the heavy sweetness of the honey just enough so that the flavors in the sauce base are balanced with the tangy-ness of the mustard and the sweetness of honey. If you love a rich, tangy, sweet BBQ, then you might want Boston's recipe for your next catered BBQ.
The Southwest's Liquid Mesquite Smoke
Southwestern BBQ (which includes New Mexico, Arizona and some parts of Texas) uses liquid mesquite smoke. Liquid mesquite smoke is a flavoring taken from the mesquite tree, which lends its lightly sweet and very smoky taste to BBQ sauce and meats. It is wildly popular with anyone that likes a lighter sweet taste than Boston's honey and mustard sauce but prefers a more smoky flavor like Tennessee BBQ. The liquid mesquite smoke is added to the BBQ base sauce in very small increments until the flavor is just right.
California's Teriyaki BBQ
Finally, Californian BBQ sauce includes a little bit of teriyaki sauce for an Oriental BBQ flavor. A little soy sauce is added to the teriyaki to really bring out the salty and sweet mix of flavors for this coastal BBQ favorite. If you have ever eaten Hibachi-style BBQ and liked it, this is probably what you ate.
Hungry for BBQ now? Visit a barbecue catering company in your area like Grumpy's Bar B Que Roadhouse today!
