It’s actually somewhat amazing that we still have products from the Jungle Jim’s Weekend of Fire show back in August that we have yet to try. As we work our way through them, we have run across several that we have regretted waiting so long to re-visit after the show.

This BBQ sauce is one of those.

The Ole Ray’s Sauces booth was directly across from our own at the show, and we sauntered over after making our rounds through the other vendors to sample their wares. With a variety of BBQ sauces, many with stuff in it like apple, blackberry, cinnamon, and bourbon, they didn’t seem to be the sorta stuff that just screamed hot & spicy. After trying the Kentucky Gold Bourbon BBQ Sauce, I found out that we couldn’t have been more off-base.

Just in looking at the ingredient list, it seems a rather mundane list. In fact, I looked at this and said, “Aw heck, even I could make this sauce!”

Ingredients: mustard (distilled vinegar, water, #1 grade mustard seed, salt, contains less than 2% turmeric, paprika, spice, natural flavor, garlic powder), brown sugar, hot chili pepper sauce (aged red chili peppers, vinegar, water, salt, worcestershire sauce[distilled vinegar, molasses, corn syrup, water, salt, caramel color, sugar, spices, anchovies, natural flavor, tamarind], water, apple cider vinegar, bourbon, lemon juice, liquid smoke, red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. It’s not what you put in it, but how much and how well it’s mixed. Ole Ray’s Sauces are not only well-made, but they take mundane kitchen staples and turn it into BBQ magic. The sauce’s description is also fairly straightforward:

Kentucky Gold Bourbon is a spicy mustard based BBQ sauce great on sausages, pork, ribs and makes a great dip for pretzels.

Well, we weren’t going to make ribs or sausage in our current mode of eating, but we had an idea that we thought would be just as good. How about BBQ fish? Low in fat, low in calories, and high in protein, we had a bag of tilapia filets that we just screaming to have this sauce cooked with them. After layering the fish and absorbing any extra liquid, we layered some of this sauce on them and baked it for about 30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. The results:

Taste: It won’t be mistaken for ribs off the grill, but these turned out great. Making them a little crispier would have made the texture better, but the sauce made the whole meal worthwhile. Not as mustard-y as imagined, this BBQ has a mixture of tastes that are simply heavenly. Take a little of the traditional red BBQ and mix it with a little Carolina-style mustard-based sauce, add a little heat for good measure, and voila…a BBQ sauce that you’ll find yourself licking off the plate. We agreed that fish was not the best choice for this sauce, but it suggests that nearly any kind of meat would go well with this BBQ sauce.

Even more so than cooking with it, this sauce is so good right out of the bottle that you could use it as a condiment or dipping sauce as well. I found myself simply eating with a spoon right out of the bottle! Once again, you can taste the mustard base, but it doesn’t have the yellow mustard tartness so noteworthy for those of us who eat a lot of mustard. While the heat comes from a simple chile pepper sauce, it just plain works. Call it a 5/10 on the heat scale, it’s a medium simmer that nearly everyone could enjoy regardless of your heat tolerance.

Overall recommendation: Don’t just take our word for it, but this BBQ sauce is a multi award-winning product that has been winning wherever it has competed. Check out the recent accomplishments for this sauce:

Kentucky Gold Bourbon
1st Place Winner 2007 National BBQ Association Barbecue Sauce: Mustard Spicy
1st Place Winner 2007 Golden Chile/Chile Pepper Magazine/Fiery Food Challenge
1st Place Winner 2006 National BBQ Association
1st Place Gold Medal Winner 2005 Napa Valley Wine and Mustard Festival
2nd Place Winner 2006 Golden Chile/Chile Pepper Magazine/Fiery Food Challenge

From my perspective, it’s tough to argue with the success that this sauce has achieved. Don’t be fooled by the list of ingredients like I was, this BBQ is medium spicy but maximum tasty. Buy a few bottles and use it liberally on anything you choose to BBQ, and we think that you’ll really dig it. Kudos to Ole Ray for a great BBQ experience. Enjoy!

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI