Barbecue sauce is one of the most regionalized American foods. Do you prefer the sweet glaze of Texas style, the mustard kick from South Carolina, or the spicy tang of ? Hailing from Alabama is the truly unique white barbecue sauce. With a mayonnaise base, it looks more like a salad dressing or gravy than true barbecue sauce.
The Alabama style of barbecue sauce was born out of one pitmaster's likely desire to serve the most consistently moist chicken. Alabama white sauce was invented by Bob Gibson, owner and executive chef at Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama, in the 1920s. Renowned for his massive weekend backyard barbecues, Gibson would pit-roast whole chickens for the neighborhood.
As soon as the chickens were cooked, Big Bob would douse them in his mixture of mayo, vinegar, and spices. While it's lost to history how Gibson hit on this specific recipe, family and BBQ fans assume mayonnaise was introduced as a means of keeping the freshly cooked chicken from quickly drying out. Mayonnaise makes Alabama BBQ sauce different Bob Gibson was known as "Big Bob" for good reason: he stood around 6 feet, 4 inches and weighed almost 300 pounds.
After years of legendary neighborhood pit roasts, Gibson opened Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in 1925. The restaurant served the same delicious pork and chicken dishes from Gibson's backyard barbecues, finished – or, as Gibson's staff would joke, baptized – with his unique mayo-based sauce. Given its proximity to North Carolina, barbecue.
