Honey BBQ Sauce

Honey BBQ Sauce. Tomato leads, honey softens.

Honey BBQ Sauce is Easton Reed's mild BBQ sauce, built on double-concentrated tomato paste, honey, and brown sugar. No chili, no smoky note, no dark molasses edge of classic rib sauces.

Honey BBQ Sauce is Easton Reed's honey-sweet BBQ sauce in a 260-milliliter glass bottle, with honey and brown sugar sharing the sweetness in equal measure. The name puts honey first, and that's where the misunderstanding begins.

At seven percent, honey is only in fourth place in the recipe. Eighteen percent double-concentrated tomato paste is clearly ahead. So, when you open the bottle, you first smell cooked tomato.

The honey only appears on the palate, as a soft blanket over a very concentrated fruit. This order is not a detail for label readers. It determines what the sauce pairs well with and what it doesn't.

First tomato, then honey, finally cumin

The first impression is savory, not sweet. The sauce is thick and reddish-brown, falling from the spoon and staying where you put it. The sweetness comes a little later.

On hot grilled food, it tightens in two to three minutes and becomes shiny. It doesn't run into the coals because its water content remains low. This makes it a glaze, not a pourable marinade.

Honey and brown sugar each stand at seven percent. Honey brings floral notes and a round softness, while brown sugar adds a subtle molasses edge. This creates a sweetness with two layers instead of a flat sugary sweetness.

Apple cider vinegar and citric acid counteract from below. Without this acidity, 56 grams of sugar per 100 grams would stick to the mouth. This way, despite its richness, the sauce remains vibrant and keeps you wanting more even after the third wing.

Garlic and onion powder provide the savory foundation underneath. You don't taste either as a distinct ingredient. However, both would be immediately missed if they weren't there, as the sauce would then only taste sweet and sour.

Finally, there's cumin, warm and slightly earthy. It is the only true spice accent in the bottle and cannot be ignored. Those who fundamentally avoid cumin will not warm to this sauce.

It is not spicy at any point; the recipe contains no chili. Those who expect heat directly from the bottle will find it too bland. For spicy eaters, it is not a solution on its own, but a base.

From brush to poultry, from spoon to pan

Its greatest strength is poultry. Light meat carries the sweetness without being overwhelmed by it. Brush chicken thighs at 180 degrees twice in the last twelve minutes.

After cooking, chicken wings are tossed with three tablespoons in a bowl. Corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and roasted cauliflower can handle it as a side dip. For burgers, one spoonful on the still-hot patty is enough.

For a quick dinner, the marinade is worthwhile. Two tablespoons of sauce, one tablespoon of soy sauce, and one teaspoon of water are enough for 500 grams of chicken breast cubes. Let it marinate for an hour, then sear in the pan and deglaze with water.

The sauce also has its place when cold. Two tablespoons stirred into three tablespoons of yogurt make a mild dip for crudités and flatbread. A spoonful in potato salad replaces ketchup and also brings the cumin note.

However, with beef and strong roasted aromas, it recedes into the background. There, the dark sweetness of the classic rib sauce goes much further. Heat directly from the bottle is provided by the Honey Chili BBQ Sauce based on the same recipe.

Good to know: Never put the sauce directly over open coals. With direct heat, the sugar burns in less than two minutes and becomes bitter. This doesn't happen on the indirect side of the grill.

Cumin distinguishes it from ketchup

Cumin is the smallest ingredient here with the biggest impact. It's at the end of the recipe and still determines which category the sauce belongs to.

Its flavor comes from cuminaldehyde, the dominant essential oil of the seeds. The substance is fat-soluble and heat-stable. When cooked down, it therefore distributes throughout the sauce instead of evaporating above the pot.

In American barbecue kitchens, cumin is a standard ingredient, but it is rare in German tomato sauces. Exactly this shift explains the effect on the first spoonful: the sauce starts familiar and ends up foreign.

The second technical question lies in the word "double concentrated." Single tomato paste has about 14 percent dry matter, double concentrated about twice that. So, the same amount contains significantly more tomato and significantly less water.

This concentration provides the savory depth that a ketchup made from thinner paste cannot achieve. It is also the reason why the sauce does not require meat broth or soy sauce. The tomato takes on this role alone.

The recipe was developed at Ryan's Specialties in Augsburg, and it serves as the baseline for the entire range. It is not a toned-down version of a stronger sauce, but rather their common starting point.

It foregoes chili, smoke, and molasses as a distinct ingredient. Everything that defines the stronger sisters is omitted here. What remains is the common base of concentrated tomato, honey, and apple cider vinegar.

The sauce for a table with mixed preferences

Its true value becomes apparent when many people eat at the same grill. Spice divides a table, sweetness does not.

A mild sauce can be made spicier, but a spicy one cannot be made milder. Half a teaspoon of chili paste in your own small dish is enough for those who like it livelier. The reverse does not work.

With 0.41 grams of salt per 100 grams, it is at the lower end of its kind. This makes it a quiet accompaniment when already salted rubs and marinades are involved. Salty sauces quickly add too much when combined with seasoned meat.

Precisely for this reason, it is also the more practical sauce for further processing. Those who use it as a base for their own mixtures still have room to maneuver when re-seasoning. With an already salty sauce, this room is missing.

One limitation remains: as the sole sauce for an entire evening, it quickly becomes monotonous. It lacks the counterpoint that smoke, acidity, or fruit provide in the stronger varieties. It plays better alongside a second bottle.

As a gift for a barbecue invitation, it's a safe choice if you don't know the guests. If you want to give the full range, pair it with two stronger bottles from the Easton Reed assortment.

A barbecue sauce for those who seek sweetness and savoriness, and prefer to adjust the spiciness themselves at the table.