SB Barbecue Sauce - A happy mistake

For my canning portion of Sunday I was working on a recipe for a clone of Bush's baked beans for a few canners that had asked. Using a recipe from Renee a good friend on FB I started my sauce while my beans were cooking. As I added the ingredients and waited for it to slowly cook I grabbed my small can of Bush's beans that I purchased at the store for comparison. First, I have never had these kind of beans and second, not so tasty. Now I know why I didn't try them in the first place. "Jay" the dog from the commercial can keep the secret recipe, but for the sake of all my FB friends I pressed on.

The flavor of the sauce was sweeter than the one in the can and I had not added the molasses that Renee's recipe called for yet. I realized that the addition of the molasses would make it sweeter. I stopped and decided to leave the beans for some other project and fix the sauce into a bbq sauce by adding a bit more mustard powder and the finishing touch of adding clear jel to thicken the recipe. I didn't want to waste all the ingredients but in the end it was amazing. Good spices, excellent thickness, and has great flavor. Thank you Renee for the inspiration.

SB Barbecue Sauce
2 cups water
3 cups tomato sauce (home canned)*
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 cup + 3 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 T. + 1/2 t. mustard powder
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. pepper
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 cup clear jel + 1/2 cup water
bottled lemon juice

Preparation : Prepare 6 half pint jars, lids, and rings. Sterilize the jars and keep them in the hot water till it’s time for processing.

Cooking:  In an enameled dutch oven or a stainless steel pot add 2 cups water, tomato sauce, onion, brown sugar, mustard powder, salt, pepper, vinegar and garlic powder. Cook the sauce on medium high heat until the recipe boil then lower the heat to a slow simmer, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a separate bowl mix the clear jel with 1/2 cup of water till the clear jel is completely mixed. Bring the sauce up to a low boil again and slowly while stirring add the clear jel to the sauce. Continue to cook at a boil for two minutes. The consistency of the sauce should now be thicker. Turn off the heat and fill your jars.

Filling the jars:  On a dishtowel place your hot jars in a semi circle leaving room for your pot that has your Barbacue recipe.  Using your funnel in each jar ladle the mixture into the jars leaving 1/2” headspace.  Add to each jar 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice. Remove air bubbles using your plastic spatula and refill to the proper headspace if necessary. Taking a clean papertowel wet it with warm water and wipe the rims of the jars removing any food particles that would interfere with a good seal. Using your magic wand to extract the lids from the hot water and place them on the now cleaned rims. Add your rings to the tops of each of the jars and turn to seal just "finger tight". 

Processing: Make sure your rack is on the bottom of the canner and place the jars in the water bath making sure that the water covers each of the jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add hot water to the canner if it doesn't measure up. Cover the pot and turn up the heat under the canner and wait for the water to start boiling. Once the water has come to a boil start your timer for 20 minutes. When complete turn off the heat and remove the cover and let the jars sit for another few minutes. Remove the jars and place them back on the dishtowel in a place that they will sit overnight to cool. Do not touch or move them till the next morning.

Sealing: Some time in the next hour your jars will be making a "pinging" or "popping" noise. That is the glass cooling and the reaction of the lids being sucked into the jar for proper sealing. Some recipes may take overnight to seal. Check your lids and reprocess any jars that did not seal.

*If you don't have home canned store bought will work just make sure that you check the ingredients.  Some brands use corn syrup to thicken and you want to avoid those brands which will make this sauce even sweeter.