McDonald's Tangy BBQ Sauce

Home reconstruction

This is not a barbecue sauce in the pit-cooking sense and trying to make it into one is why home versions miss. It is thin, glossy, smooth, sweet and sharp, with no smoke and no texture at all.

Most people reach for liquid smoke, minced onion and garlic, and mustard seeds. Every one of those takes it further away.

What it actually is

Tomato, as ketchup and paste. Ketchup brings its own vinegar and sugar already balanced.

Sugar, in two forms — brown sugar and molasses. The molasses is where the dark colour and the slight bitterness come from.

Vinegar, and enough of it that "tangy" is a fair description.

Powdered aromatics only. Garlic powder and onion powder, not fresh. Fresh onion and garlic leave particles, and particles are exactly what this sauce does not have.

That is the whole thing. It is a simple sauce and the discipline is in not adding to it.

Why no liquid smoke

There is no smoke flavour in this sauce. It is a "tangy" barbecue sauce, which in the fast-food sense means sweet and vinegary rather than smoked over wood.

A few drops of liquid smoke turns it into a generic supermarket barbecue sauce — recognisable, but not this one.

What you need

• 240 ml tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 60 ml water
• 3 tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp molasses or black treacle
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. Whisk everything together in a small pan, off the heat, until the sugar and purée have dissolved with no lumps.
2. Bring to a bare simmer, not a boil. Molasses scorches on a hot pan base and a scorched sauce tastes bitter all the way through.
3. Simmer 12–15 minutes, stirring often, until it coats the back of a spoon and a line drawn through it holds for a second.
4. Cool completely before judging the consistency — it thickens noticeably as it cools.

The thickness trap

Sauce that looks right in a hot pan will be too thick cold. Every batch of this that comes out claggy was reduced to the consistency people wanted at serving temperature.

Take it off while it still looks slightly thin. If it does set too firm, whisk in water a teaspoon at a time — it takes very little.

Adjusting

Too sweet? More vinegar, not less sugar. The sugar is also doing the thickening.

Too sharp? A teaspoon more molasses rounds it off better than plain sugar does.

Not dark enough? Molasses again. It is the only thing in here contributing real colour depth.

Storing

Three weeks in the fridge in a sealed jar. The vinegar and sugar are both preservatives, so it lasts well.

It freezes for six months without splitting, since there is no dairy or fat in it. Useful if you make a big batch.