The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia barbecue sauces and rubs for your favorite dad
Maybe yours is the dad who’s been tinkering around in the kitchen, tweaking and tweaking to get his barbecue sauce recipe just right. But, for the rest of us, there’s a world of delicious barbecue sauces you just pour and enjoy. We picked three Georgia ba
Joe Kem’s Bar-B-Que Sauce and BBQ Rub
Joe Kem Lacey is a caterer in Moultrie. Years ago, he would get barbecue sauce from a friend, the best he’d ever tasted. When the friend died, he discovered he’d been left quite a legacy, the recipe for that sauce. Lacey now sells the original sauce, as well as a hot version and a barbecue rub. The tomato-based sauce is relatively light, and the gentle heat comes strictly from black pepper. The result is a nicely balanced combination of mustard and tomato that we really liked. And, we loved Lacey’s tip to mix the rub into softened cream cheese for a great spread to enjoy on crackers. Lacey says the sauce is so good you’ll enjoy just licking it off your finger. We prefer it with a spoon, but we definitely agree it’s so good you could appreciate it just on its own.
$4.99 per 12-ounce bottle for the sauce, $3.99 per 5-ounce jar of the rub. Available at Sprouts, Striplings in Perry and online at joekemsbbq.com.
Sorta White barbecue sauce and Q-Nami seasoning from Lane’s BBQ
Ryan Lane likes to say he turned his favorite hobby into his favorite job when he started Lane’s BBQ in the small town of Bethlehem, 9 miles north of Monroe. He makes six kinds of barbecue sauce to cover all tastes — including vinegar-based, mustard-based, tomato-based and the one that just won the 2018 Flavor of Georgia award for barbecue sauces, Sorta White. It’s an Alabama-style sauce based on mayonnaise, best paired with beef or chicken or just used as a dressing. It’d make great potato salad. We also tried a few of the eight rubs he makes. Our favorite? Q-Nami, a mix of traditional barbecue and Asian flavors. It’s got lots of garlic and pepper, but it also includes togarashi, a traditional Japanese spice blend with chili peppers, sesame seeds, orange peel, seaweed and
more. Totally unexpected. Totally delicious.
$8.99 per 13.5-ounce bottle of sauce, $7.99 per 4.6-ounce bottle of rub. Available at Atlanta Grill Co. in Roswell, the Mad Hatter in Alpharetta, Striplings General Store in Bogart, Georgia Spa Co. in Kennesaw and Alpharetta, Patton’s Meat Market in Duluth and Ace Hardware in Johns Creek. lanesbbq.com.
Original BBQ Sauce and Original Pork Rub from GrillMan BBQ Co.
Mike Holland won’t give you the secret recipe for the barbecue sauce his family has been making since the 1940s, but he will sell you a bottle. The Forsyth County resident says he’s been cooking barbecue since he was 10, and these days he travels around the South winning, and helping others win, barbecue competitions. Now, you can see if dad can duplicate Holland’s award-winning ways. The sauce is tomatobased, with a whole long list of ingredients, including molasses, peaches, brown sugar, onion and garlic. It’s sweet, so it’s best used as a basting sauce just as you finish cooking the ribs, chicken or beef on the grill. You wouldn’t want it to burn. It also makes a great dipping sauce. The rub is made for injecting a big hunk of pork. Its ingredients include onion, garlic, three kinds of peppers and some mustard. Inject your meat, put some more rub on the outside, and then let the meat sit at least 30 minutes before grilling. Holland says it’s so good you’ll want to use it with everything you grill. Not to mention, a bottle of it could replace that ketchup in your refrigerator.
$7.99 per 16-ounce bottle of sauce, $4.50 per 6-ounce package of rub. Available at Striplings General Store in Cordele, Farmview Market in Madison and the Buford Highway Farmers Market, or online at thegrillmanbbqcompany.com.