Arthur Bryant's Original Style BBQ Sauce

In continuous operation since 1908, Arthur Bryant's has been written about many times and it's praises are sung by many throughout the internet. In an 1972 article in Playboy magazine author and self proclaimed food aficionado Calvin Trillian wrote “it has long been acknowledged that the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant's”. Now, that is quite a statement and while Arthur Bryant's was well known throughout the state of Missouri, this article thrust Arthur Bryant's into the national limelight.

Personally, I think Mr. Trillian made quite a bold statement, and I am not actually sure how you can very such a claim. After all we all have different tastes and what I may find as delicious, you may think tastes horrible. But the is the nature of opinions, we all have them and are entitled to our own unique perspective. I happen to think there are better barbecue places here in my home state of Texas, than Arthur Bryan's but that is just my opinion.

Anyway I digress, Famous for their 'burnt ends', the one thing that all the fans of Bryant's barbecue try and replicate is their original style barbecue sauce. As long as there have been blogs and message boards on the internet, there have been barbecue fanatics who have been working on creating a copy cat recipe for Arthur Bryant’s original style BBQ sauce that is served at their restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri.

According to Southern Living magazine “Bryant's uses double-strength pickling vinegar in the sauce, which makes for one hell of a punchy tang”. A double strength pickling vinegar is 10% (10% acid), most of the distilled white vinegar you buy on the local shelves of your supermarket is diluted to 5% (5% acid). In fact, I could only find one brand (Ozark White Pickling Vinegar) of 10% vinegar available on the internet. For some, even the power of 5% white distilled vinegar is too much, let alone 10% vinegar and many BBQ enthusiasts began to experiment with substituting the more mild apple cider vinegar for distilled white vinegar.

I have read from other's that a Bryant's that an employee once said that they used “double strength pickle juice”, to give their sauce that unique twang. While I have never seen or heard of commercially prepared pickles that were pickled “double strength”, using leftover pickle juice as the acid component to make barbecue sauce intrigued me. Barbecue restaurants go through a lot of 5 gallon buckets of dill pickle slices and using the leftover juice makes economic sense, especially in the early part of the 20^th century when few things in a restaurant went to waste. Even if it was only as a flavor enhancer and it comprised only half of the total vinegar component it would add a unique flavor to the sauce.

The Sauce

Bryant's is not the typical 'Kansas City' style sauce which has become popular today. It tends to be thinner, less sweet, and have more of a vinegary tartness that the typical Kansas City style barbecue sauce. The sauces found in the region tend to be thicker, sweeter and use quite a bit less vinegar. If anything, Bryant's sauce seems to be a cross between a Lexington or Piedmont style North Carolina sauce and a Kansas City style sauce.

The Recipe (My Version Of Arthur Bryant's Original Sauce)

As long as there have been blogs and message boards on the internet, there have been barbecue fanatics who have been working on creating a copy cat recipe for Arthur Bryant’s original style BBQ sauce. I have been playing with the following recipe over the years and I think it is a pretty good representation of Arthur Bryant's original sauce.

There are some things you need to take into account when trying to copy a particular recipe. The choice of ingredients makes a difference. A dark chili powder as opposed to a 'regular' chili powder has a greater depth of flavor, types of paprika have a different flavor component depending on whether it is Hungarian, Spanish, or whether it is labeled simply as paprika. Without knowing the specific brands and type of spices used in a recipe, you simply have to go with what you have in your pantry.

While I have included it as part of the recipe, I no longer add lard to my sauce. Lard adds no specific flavor component and I believe that it was originally used to help thicken the sauce. I have found that by using diced onion and minced garlic rather than their powdered form that the sauce thickens sufficiently when blended that I did not need to add lard.

1 ½ cups water

¼ cup dill pickle juice or apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar or 12 to 16 drops of liquid sucralose

¼ cup prepared mustard

¼ cup lard(optional)
2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon turmeric

Cook over medium high heat. Bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Then take your immersion blender or place the cooled sauce in your blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld and mellow. The sauce will thicken as it cools, but will still be looser than a standard KC style sauce.

Chef's Note: I actually like substituting pickle juice for the vinegar component in this sauce, and it is my preferred way to make it as the pickle juice gives the sauce a unique taste that I like. Doing this may make it taste substantially different than Bryant's but my family likes it's tartness. If you do not have, or like lard, then use vegetable shortening or do as I do and simply omit it.

The hardest part about replicating this sauce for me is: 1) I do not have a sample of the sauce that is made in the store with me to compare side-by-side, 2 ) the label or ingredient list on the bottle makes it very easy to hide individual components of the commercial recipe under the umbrella title of “spices”. The following ingredients are listed on the label of Arthur Bryant's original barbecue sauce.

Arthur Bryant's Original Barbecue Sauce: Water, Seasoning (sugar, mustard, flour, spices, dried garlic, dried onion, soybean oil), Vinegar, Salt, Tomato Paste, Lard, Xanthan Gum, and Sodium Benzoate (preservative).

Conclusion

Many years ago, I started out making this recipe from combining many different ingredients of other recipes and then adding my own components and measurements. Over the years, I have tried adding various ingredients, keeping some, changing the amounts of some, and simply omitting others. This recipe started out as one posted on the 'Smoking Ronnies BBQ Blog' by a user identified as Mark Socha back in 2011. I felt his recipe used way to much paprika and was way to salty, however using his recipe as a base, I made many changes until it evolved into the sauce that I use today. 

So there you have have it, my version of the famous Arthur Bryant's original barbecue sauce. So how close is it to the original. Honestly, I remember it as being pretty close, however, memories fade and it has been many years since I have tasted their sauce and I have been making a version of this sauce for quite some time now. I do not know if the restaurant still makes their sauce from scratch or uses the commercially prepared sauce that they now sell in bottles. As always, we ask that if you find this information interesting that you please share it with your friends on Facebook and Google+. Don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook and Google+. You can also subscribe to our blog so that you do not miss any of our new recipes.

References:

Murphy, Morgan, “Behind The Scenes At Arthur Bryant's Barbecue In Kansas City.” Southern Living, Accessed 2015.

Trillian, Calvin, “NO!, One Of The World's Foremost Authorities On Ribs, Cheeseburgers, French Fries, And Frosty Malts, Takes A Gourmet Tour Of Kansas City.” Playboy, April 1972, 109 -110, 208-209.

Smoking Ronnie's BBQ Blog