Peppers and More

“That’s Good Mustard”

We are in Charleston, North Carolina today sampling KLB’s BBQ Sauce. Appropriate for this barbeque region, this sauce is a ‘Southern Style Mustard Bar-B- Que Sauce’. Mustard sauce’s origin goes back to 18th century German immigrant influences on pork consumption. Kevin & Latonya Bobo, the sauce creators, want to give us a Carolina mustard base sauce experience. Here on the West Coast mustard flavored BBQ sauce sounds foreign to this ‘Kansas City Style BBQ’ sauce user. That is why we are excited and curious to try this sauce. Sit back, relax and let’s fire up the barbeque.

Ingredients:

Prepared mustard, (distilled vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, tumeric, spices) Worcestershire sauce, (water, distilled vinegar, salt, corn sweetener, hydrolyzed soy protein, citric acid, caramel color, flavorings, black pepper) brown sugar, honey, lemon juice, liquid smoke, flavor (water, natural hickory smoke concentrate) paprika, garlic powder, spices, onion powder are the listed ingredients.

Aroma & Texture

A deep smoky mustard aroma spirals through the opened top. Mustard is the prevalent theme of this barbecue sauce. This is a smooth thick dark yellow sauce. It pours freely out of the bottle.

Label:

The label is pretty straight forward with just lettering stating the contents and a brief company history. It does stand out with its dark yellow contents. Seeing this on the shelf would perk my curiosity because of the color.

Taste:

This will be no surprise when I tell you it has a mustard flavor. It is more than just your ball park mustard flavor. It is creamy, smooth tasting, and a little complex with spices. I taste a nuance of onions & garlic that is freshened with a combination of lemon juice and vinegar. This is all backed with a little kiss of smoke. I like it a lot. I can think of numerous condiment applications for food. We will try it with its intended purpose of barbecue.

Heat:

N/A

Food:

An obvious food choice to us was pulled pork. This is a meal that we crave. When we cook a pork shoulder it is a time commitment of at least 8 to 12 hours. The results are more than worth it. The cooked shoulder was shredded and sauced with “KLB’s BBQ Sauce”. We also made some Cole slaw with our sauce. We added several tablespoons to our normal slaw recipe. This dinner was one for the memorable meal books. Smoky tender shredded pork with a mustard tang. The vinegar and mustard of the sauce complimented and elevated the rich pork love of this sandwich. The Cole slaw was just the icing on the cake. The smoothness made this slaw a crunchy, tangy, mustard treat. We had pulled pork left over and I made a sandwich for breakfast the next morning. The mustard sauce on thus breakfast sandwich had me satisfied and left me with a grin on my egg splattered face.

Grilled chicken was next on the grill. This was another success. I may never go back to Kansas City Style sauce after tonight. I love the mustard tang and flavor on this grilled bird. I was even dipping the grilled asparagus in this sauce.

Overall:

KLB’s Southern Style Mustard Bar-B-Que Sauce has opened our eyes to a new style of barbecue sauce. I have to admit that we normally use a K.C. style sauce. We are now converts and lovers of mustard sauce. The mustard and vinegar of this sauce with pulled pork was a ‘Marriage made in Heaven”. Cole slaw with KLB’s was a unique and tasty treat. We now have a new flavor profile for chicken. KLB’s BBQ Sauce could be used as a condiment for any mustard application. This was a unique mustard bbq sauce treat. We hands down will give KLB’s Southern Style Mustard Bar-B-Que Sauce the Chilebrown seal of approval.

KLB BBQ Sauce

Memorial Day is the unofficial opening of the BBQ season. Our grills and smokers are glowing year round. A smile formed on my face when the mailman delivered this sample of Dimples BBQ sauce. This smile was because I will get to do what I love. That is fire up the grill, cook some chicken and ribs and sample a new BBQ sauce. Dimples origin is from Raleigh North Carolina. It is made in small batches. Dimple’s claims that their sauce; “compliments anything you can grill into a beautiful blend of barbecue harmony”. Despite being made in North Carolina, Dimples is a Kansas City Style sauce. Sweet tomato’s and tangy vinegar is in the mix today. Gentlemen, start your grills.

Ingredients:

Be prepared for this long list of ingredients; Ketchup (tomato concentrate, sugar, salt, vinegar, onion powder), brown sugar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, (Dextrose, salt, sugar, caramel color, silicone dioxide, garlic, spices, citric acid, natural spice extractives, annatto color, vinegar, water, mustard, water), mustard (water, vinegar, mustard seed, salt, tumeric), salt, liquid smoke flavor, paprika. Wow that was a mouthful.

Aroma & Texture:

Tomato ketchup aroma with a faint whiff of smoke will spiral through the open top of this bottle. This is a smell that is familiar and comforting. The smell will tease you about the barbeque to come. A dark thick smooth red sauce pours freely from its container. This thick sauce will spread nicely over our meats on the grill.

Taste:

This sauce has flavors of a Kansas City style sauce. Tomato based with some sweetness. The flavor is well balanced. It is not too sweet, spicy or smoke flavored. In fact it may be a little bland. This is a sauce flavor that I remember as a child. It should pair well with any grilled meat.

Heat;

N/A

Food:

Chicken and ribs on the grill are a welcome meal any day of the week at our household. A medium hot mesquite charcoal fire was built in our kettle bbq. The vents were open half way and we cooked our meats low and slow. Salt & Pepper was the only seasoning. When the meats were done we coasted them with Dimples BBQ sauce. We covered the grill and let the sauce set. (Four minutes). This was a good looking meal. Dimples BBQ sauce did a very decent job of flavoring our grilled/smoked meats. The sweet tomato based sauce was a comforting flavor that we all know and remember. These grilled and sauced meats were very good but they did not have pizzazz or a ‘WOW’ factor.
We also used Dimples as a dipping sauce for some bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers. Once again we were pleased with its mild non assertive flavor. It was comforting but not spectacular.

Overall:

Dimples BBQ sauce is a good bbq sauce with a flavor that we are all familiar with. It will do the trick for all your grilling needs. Dimples BBQ sauce does not have the ‘WOW’ factor that we are searching for. There are a lot of choices in the bbq sauce market today and Dimples is fairly ordinary in our book. We did like Dimples but probably would not re-purchase.. If you are looking for an everyday bbq sauce Dimples is made just for you.

Dimples BBQ Sauce