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By Derrick Riches, About.com Guide to Barbecues & Grilling since 1997

Arthur Bryant's BBQ Sauce

Wednesday June 21, 2006
Rigil (Rigil5) Writes:

"Does anyone have a copycat recipe for Arthur Bryant's BBQ sauce? Iv been trying for years, the only thing I can say is the base is pickle juice, tomato sauce and some kind of oil/butter/lard. The spices are Paprika, Cayenne pepper and others. Please let me know any other ideas."

Comments

November 22, 2006 at 10:37 pm
(1) Tom McHale says:

Try This

ARTHUR BRYANT’S BARBECUE SAUCE

1/2 CUP CIDER VINEGAR
1/2 CUP RICE VINEGAR
1 CUP WATER
1/2 CUP PAPRIKA
1/3 CUP YELLOW MUSTARD
1/4 CUP BROWN SUGAR
1/8 CUP KOSHER SALT
1/8 CUP WORCHESTER SAUCE
1 TABLESPOON GARLIC POWDER
A LITTLE BLACK PEPPER
1 TABLESPOON HOT SAUCE - CHOWALLA IF AVAILABLE

COOK UNTIL DESIRED THICKNESS. FINE TUNE FLAVORS BY ADJUSTING QUANTITIES.

January 30, 2007 at 6:49 pm
(2) Bill Smith says:

With all respect Tom, Arthur Bryant’s Sauce wouldn’t have rice vinegar in it. I’m not saying it doesn’t taste like it, and I will certainly try it, but the origin of Arthur Bryants Sauce was from an area of Kansas City that would have never even heard of rice vinegar.

March 23, 2007 at 11:33 am
(3) Al Bailey says:

There’s one more ingredient needed - celery powder. When Mr. Bryant’s neice was mixing the seasonings by hand she occasionally would put too much of one thing or another in the blend, and on one occasion she overdid the celery powder.

December 13, 2007 at 10:36 am
(4) KJV says:

What gives the gritty texture?

April 15, 2008 at 3:40 pm
(5) Jack Clark says:

The gritty texture . . . I asked one of the AB’s people about that the last time I was there. He said it was ground-up dried peppers. Gotta work that in to the recipe somehow. Wouldn’t be the same.

May 10, 2008 at 5:38 pm
(6) Patrick says:

Since I eat at AB’s regularly, I decided to make this recipe. While not exactly like the AB classic, isn’t half bad. I modified the ingredients just a bit to cut down on sugar and increase spicyness. My version follows and I think it is a closer match:

1/2 CUP BASAMIC VINEGAR
1/2 CUP RED WINE VINEGAR
1 CUP WATER
3/4 CUP PAPRIKA
1/3 CUP YELLOW MUSTARD
1/8 CUP BROWN SUGAR
1/8 CUP SALT
1/8 CUP WORCHESTIRE SAUCE
1 TABLESPOON ONION POWDER
1 TABLESPOON GARLIC POWDER
1 TEASPOON A LITTLE BLACK PEPPER
1 TABLESPOON HOT SAUCE- BRUCE’s LOUISIANA

June 1, 2008 at 3:39 pm
(7) Frank from St. Paul says:

Last week we got some mexican sauce which was called “achiote”
made with annato seeds. Seemed very similar, might be part of the graininess and taste of the never to be duplicated AB original.

The restaurant is a wonderful experience. Everybody was having a good time.

June 1, 2008 at 3:39 pm
(8) Frank from St. Paul says:

Last week we got some mexican sauce which was called “achiote”
made with annato seeds. Seemed very similar, might be part of the graininess and taste of the never to be duplicated AB original.

The restaurant is a wonderful experience. Everybody was having a good time.

June 30, 2008 at 5:50 pm
(9) Richard says:

When I lived in Chicago, a friend who went to school in KC used to drive to Bryant’s annually to refill a water-cooler bottle full of Bryant’s sauce. He said the secret ingredient was pig’s blood.

July 22, 2008 at 1:04 pm
(10) sherryb says:

Are you kidding?!? really, pig’s blood? if so, it must be the best pig’s blood in the world? Why do so many people want to re-creat this sauce? when they can go to the store and buy it??

December 26, 2008 at 2:57 pm
(11) A says:

With all due respect, I tried both of the recipes and they were quite disappointing, I found them to be quite rancid.

I have been making BBQ sauces for just over 4 years now (Yes, I’m still learning) and I found that there was something missing (tomato sauce?) something of that nature, I have concocted something similar which uses almost the same ingredients but with tomato sauce.

I realize that Bryant’s has been around for(100 years?) but there has to be something missing, until I ever make it to KC I will get the “experience” and maybe then I will be able to put my finger on it…

I appreciate the input that everyone has posted, it was worth a shot trying it out.

December 29, 2008 at 10:47 pm
(12) Shoe says:

I am good friends with Paul Kirk (KC Baron of BBQ) and he has ‘broke’ this recipe before, but would not disclose the whole recipe to me. But he did advise me that one of the main spice ingredients is crab boil spices. Sadly…I am still working on the rest.

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