Tasting Barbecue Sauces
In trying to find the top five barbecue sauces, we put our favorites on a list to try, added others we had read awesome things about, and went to HEB and picked up a basket of sauces to try (along with other snacks to dip them in). We set some rules in selecting sauces -- if it was from a Texas barbecue chain, it went in the basket. Products had to be under $4, and they had to be of some traditional flavor (no mango sauces). The taste test was for straight-out-of-the-bottle sauce. After recruiting a handful of hungry friends, our experiment was ready to go.
The contenders - in no particular order:
The results, after the jump.
5. Bullseye - Some comments: "too fake" and "sweet, ugh!" 
4. Sweet Baby Ray's - We think that the other flavors are better than the original, but it still ranked well. Comments ranged from "kinda bland" and "ketchup?" to kudos on the hint of tamarind in the flavor.
3. and 2. Jack Daniel's and HEB Carolina, tie - Jack Daniel's pulled in awesome comments like "gross" and "too sweet," while the HEB sauce got a "this is my most favorite ever," and a "does this have horseradish in it?"
1. Head Country Original Recipe BBQ Sauce - This sauce was the winner, by a full 5 points (we used a point system to be fair). It's from Oklahoma, but we've seen it around the Rodeo Championship BBQ tents over the last few years (we admit to being brave enough to steal tons of sample packets after a few drinks). It was called a little bland by some folks -- "is this cocktail sauce?" -- but like most of these sauces, it tastes killer on your favorite smoky meats.
We were pretty surprised by the results, as were our taste-testers, but the numbers don't lie. Perhaps things would be different once they were heated up on some meats. What are your favorite sauces?
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