Andy's BBQ Sauce

Welcome to the South, where we love our seasonings, rubs and sauces.  Can most of these items be bought at the grocery store? Yes. But you won't taste the love in them like they you do when someone in the family makes them.
Whether it's Come Back Sauce, Chick-fil-A copy cat sauce, Honey Mustard, or Lemon Soy-Sauce to serve up with fried rice,  we all prefer homemade. And don't get me started on our favorite salad dressings! You're talking to the girl who enjoyed "that stuff" over forty years ago when you had to mix it with mayo and buttermilk to enjoy it. (It was 1983 before you could buy a bottle off the shelf!)

If you have read some of my old posts, you've heard me pledge that I would never post Andy's recipe for his homemade BBQ sauce. I have honored that pledge, until now. Andy recently asked me where the recipe for his BBQ sauce was on the blog. It had been quite a while since he fixed any and he wanted to whip up a batch for some pork chops he would be grilling. I reminded him of the promise to not post it and directed him to find it on one of the big three-ring binders of all the recipes I've saved forever. I now have his blessing to share it. See...this electronic recipe book truly is the way to go! One of these days I'll get everything posted and I will be able to clear out my book case. Just kidding! Do you know how many hand-written recipes I have from friends and family? They are truly treasures from the heart that this gal would struggle with throwing away.

I pulled out the binder to post the BBQ sauce recipe and landed on this page with a zucchini bread recipe. Great find with all the zucchini we are harvesting. Momma always made the BEST zucchini bread growing up but the recipe is...you guessed it...gone with the wind. That biscuit recipe card? Yours truly wrote that in the 8th grade Home Economics class!

When I found the recipe, beside it was a sheet with my notes on what we mixed to fix a ginormous batch of BBQ sauce back in 2011. When Dale and Amanda got married, the wedding was held in Amanda's home town so we hosted the rehearsal dinner at a local restaurant. You know we just had to include some of our homemade goodies to kick start the celebration! I included our BBQ sauce and a small bottle of our homemade muscadine wine in the gift bags we gave to all the attendees.

I've rambled on long enough.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup ketchup
stick of butter
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
Honey or molasses to suit your taste (start with at least 1/3 cup)
Salt and pepper to taste.

DIRECTIONS:
Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan. Let it cook on medium-high heat until it starts to boil. Be sure to stir the sauce frequently. Then turn it down on low and let it cook down until it thickens up.

Let it cool, put it in a bottle and refrigerate.

We recently had the discussion about adding a small dose of alcohol to the sauce. He doesn't remember it, but we did add some bourbon when we made the sauce many years ago. If memory serves me, it was 1/4 cup of our favorite sipping whiskey. Mix it in and let it simmer.