When people think of American barbecue, they often think of . In the same way, the city's barbecue sauce has become the country's standard. But the U.
S. is too big and diverse of a country to fit neatly into any category, especially when it comes to food. There's no denying that Kansas City's thick, sweet, and smokey sauce is an American staple, but we can't leave behind or the tangy sauce of the Carolinas.
In fact, we could sit here and , and never come to a conclusion. But one thing is for certain: barbecue sauce has come a long way from its origins. Meathead Goldwyn, author of " ," writes in that, although ketchup and vinegar are now the main ingredients for most barbecue sauces, butter used to be the star of the show.
The origins of the sauce are complex, coming together as Europeans colonized the Americas and found new ingredients as well as techniques for drying and cooking meat. Overtime, recipes started to form from fusions. The French brought in their love of butter, the Germans their use of mustard, Spaniards probably contributed vinegar.
West Africans forcibly brought to the continent added the use of cayenne and sage, and Indigenous Americans had native ingredients like tomato and chili peppers. Everything came together to make sauces meant to bring flavor and moisture to different kinds of meat. The evolution of the barbecue sauce According to Goldwyn, the first reference to sauce recipes for barbecued meat comes from the 1867 "Mrs.
Hill's New Cook Book" by a Mrs.
