Skip to main content
Sauce

Doris's Barbacue Sauce

A tangy barbecue sauce made with ketchup, chile sauce, brown sugar, mustard, celery salt, chili powder, vinegar, salt, pepper, oleo, onion, and liquid smoke.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Doris's Barbacue Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients except oleo, onion, and liquid smoke, and simmer on the stove.

  2. In another pan, combine oleo and onion, and simmer until the onion becomes almost mush.

  3. Strain the onion and oleo into the first mixture. Stir to work it through.

  4. Add liquid smoke to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

233Calories
3 gProtein
12 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0
Smokenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Catsup
Forms the sauce base and supplies sweetness and tomato flavour.
Chile sauce
Adds heat and concentrated tomato-pepper flavour to the base.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce caramelise slightly as it simmers.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.
Oleo
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the sauce a smoother, rounder body.

The step that matters

Simmering the onion and oleo until almost mush. Cooking the onion until very soft lets it break down and thicken the sauce when strained in. Undercooked onion leaves pieces and sharp raw flavour in the finished sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sugar, mustard, celery, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sugar, mustard, celery, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More barbecue sauce recipes

Beer 3 See all 19 →

You might also like

Mixed MustardMixed Mustard9 recipesWine Sauce (for stewed fruit)Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipesCaper SauceCaper Sauce180 recipesBrown SauceBrown Sauce141 recipes