BBQ Sauce

Method

1. caramelize10 min
   medium-low, heavy saucepan
   vegetable oil + minced onion, stirred often, past translucent and all the way to deep gold — the onion's own sugars browning here is the only savory-sweet depth in the sauce that does not come from a jar, and it cannot be added later
2. saute2 min
   medium
   + garlic + smoked paprika + chili powder + black pepper, until fragrant; the spices bloom in hot fat rather than water, which is why they go in now and not with the liquids — dumped into a wet pot they stay dusty and raw-tasting
3. caramelize3 min
   medium, stirring constantly
   + tomato paste, spread thin against the pan until it darkens from bright red to brick and starts to stick — that stuck film is concentrated glutamate, and it is what separates a sauce from seasoned ketchup
4. deglaze1 min
   medium-high
   + cider vinegar, scraping the pan hard while it hisses; the acid lifts the browned film into the liquid and the sharpest volatile edge of the vinegar boils off in the same breath, leaving the sourness without the fumes
5. mix2 min
   off heat
   + ketchup + brown sugar + molasses + worcestershire + mustard + water + salt, stirred smooth — the water is not filler, it buys you the twenty-five minutes of reduction during which the flavors actually marry
6. reduce30 min
   bare simmer, partly covered, low
   the whole pot, stirring down to the bottom every few minutes, until it coats a spoon and a dragged spatula leaves a track that closes slowly. Keep it below a real boil: tomato sauce this thick throws scalding spatters, and dissolved sugar plus molasses will catch and turn acrid on the pan bottom in seconds, which taints the entire batch with no way back
7. season2 min
   hot, tasting
   taste on something bland, not off the spoon alone — reduction has concentrated every axis at once. Flat and cloying wants vinegar, thin and sour wants brown sugar, dull across the board wants salt. Adjust one at a time; this is the whole grading of the dish
8. rest10 min
   off heat, cooling
   cool in the pan — it thickens noticeably as the pectin from the tomato sets, so a sauce that looks correct at a simmer will be sludge cold. Judge the final body at serving temperature, and thin with a spoonful of water if it has gone past