Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to meeee. Happy birthday to me.
Hey everybody. It’s Norm’s birthday today! Whadja get me? Something good I hope! Didja set a place at the table for me, too? Whatya makin’ for dinner? To celebrate my birthday, every home in America sets a table for me, and even puts a plate of food out in my honor! It doesn’t matter if I’m showing up or not. It’s just to celebrate the holiday! And if I do show up for dinner, you’re all set!
Well, in our house, you get to eat whatever you want on your birthday. For me, the past few years have been fried chicken and hot pastrami sandwiches. For Marge, it’s usually sushi. And this year, I felt like pulled pork with cornbread and coleslaw! There are some good barbeque joints around here, but I’m being honest when I say that no one makes pulled pork as good as mine. This is just an undeniable fact of life. Mine is the best. And you can’t have pulled pork without…
Homemade Barbeque Sauce!
Yes, today I’m taking this opportunity to take Cost Per Serving in a different direction. Today we won’t be looking at a meal, but at something you could make at home instead of buying it in a store, and we’ll see how the cost compares.
If you don’t make your own barbeque sauce, this is going to change your life. If you’re buying barbeque sauce at the store, I feel sad for you. I don’t care how fancy the graphics are on the label, no packaged barbeque sauce will be as perfectly seasoned as the one you make yourself. I’ve been making this recipe for almost ten years, and people always compliment it. Let’s see how the cost stacks up…
The finished product
| Ingredient | Cost | Size of Package | Cost Per Unit | Amount Used | Cost Per Recipe |
| Onions | $3.99 | 5 lb | $0.40 | 2 Onions | $0.80 |
| Garlic | $0.69 | 1 head | $0.08 | 16 Cloves | $1.28 |
| Bourbon Whiskey | $18.49 | 1.75 liters | $2.50 | 3 cups | $7.50 |
| Black Pepper | $1.50 | 2 oz | $0.06 | 2 tsp | $0.12 |
| Salt | $0.65 | 26 oz | $0.01 | 2 tbsp | $0.02 |
| Ketchup | $3.49 | 64 oz | $0.44 | 8 cups | $3.49 |
| Tomato Paste | $0.49 | 6 oz | $0.65 | 3/4 cup | $0.49 |
| Cider Vinegar | $0.99 | 32 oz | $0.25 | 1 1/3 cups | $0.33 |
| Liquid Smoke | $2.49 | 4 oz | $2.49 | 1/2 cup | $2.49 |
| Worcestershire Sauce | $2.49 | 10 oz | $1.00 | 1/2 cup | $1.00 |
| Brown Sugar | $1.99 | 2 lb | $0.44 | 2 cups | $0.88 |
| Frank’s Hot Sauce | $4.19 | 23 oz | $0.09 | a few tbsp | $0.30 |
| Total | $18.70 | ||||
Figuring out a cost per serving proves a little difficult. I can tell you that this recipe filled up my original 64 oz ketchup bottle, a quart Ball jar, and a 3 cup Ziploc container. That means it makes 120 ounces. It looks like most bottles of commercial BBQ sauce are 18 oz. If our homemade sauce were bottled like that, it would be…
$2.80 a bottle
Based on local prices, this puts it right in between the store brand BBQ sauce and Stubb’s, $1.89 and $3.89 respectively. So not as cheap as the cheapest barbeque sauce, but much better than all of them.
The recipe comes from AllRecipes.com. There are a lot of ingredients, but the cooking is pretty simple. Sautee the onions and garlic in the bourbon whiskey for ten minutes, then add everything else and let it simmer. The only changes I make to the AllRecipes version is that I add more hot sauce than they recommend (I use Frank’s) and I also cook it for waaay longer. They say 20 minutes, but I usually let mine simmer for two hours or more so it thickens up more. The end result is thick and tangy, sweet, smoky and spicy. Everything you could want.
You might think that’s a lot of bourbon whiskey. It sure adds a lot of cost, I can tell you that. But the alcohol mostly evaporates and leaves extra umami. For your version, you can taste the sauce as you’re cooking and add or change whatever you want. If you want more tang, add more cider vinegar. More sweet, add more sugar, although I think this recipe is plenty sweet. But remember the spices and such will probably be more pronounced after it’s been sitting for a while.
Deliciousness Rating: 9
The normal Cost Per Serving rankings don’t apply in this case, because no one makes a meal out of barbeque sauce, so I’ll start a separate table here.
| Recipe | Cost | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Barbeque Sauce | $2.80 a bottle | 9 |
Here are the normal Cost Per Serving standings so far:
Have a recipe you think is cheap and delicious? Send it to me and I’ll eat it! – norm@ridinkulous.net –
* The stated deliciousness of each recipe is solely the opinion of the author. Cost is objective, but your tastes may vary.