Alabama White Sauce Goes Upscale

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Mar 2nd 2010 @ 12:00PM

Photo: Southern Foodways Alliance, Flickr

A Birmingham restaurateur is putting a gourmet spin on a barbecue tradition that's thus far remained fiercely regional.

Sweet Bones Alabama, a downtown 'cue joint, last week began bottling its version of Alabama white sauce, a mayonnaise-based concoction pioneered in 1925 by Decatur's legendary pitmaster Big Bob Gibson, who liberally slathered the stuff on chicken. The sauce has since become a favorite dressing for just about anything fried or smoked in North Alabama, including pickles, tomatoes and venison.

"It's a very versatile sauce," Sweet Bones' owner John Cowan says.

While many white sauce fans make their own batches of Big Bob's famous sauce – an authorized cookbook published last year revealed the exact proportions of mayonnaise to pepper to vinegar -- Cowan thinks he's improved on the original. Among the first artisanal barbecue sauce makers to tackle white sauce, Cowan's crafted a recipe he describes as "much more complex, with more layered flavors."

In a somewhat incestuous stroke that would likely stun barbecue purists, Cowan's white sauce includes a splash of his North Carolina vinegar sauce.

But Cowan's no stranger to the white sauce game, having introduced the condiment to Nashville back in 1978. A foodie buddy of his had mentioned the sauce in a "have you eaten" one-upmanship contest, so Cowan drove to Alabama to try it. White sauce was soon on the menu at his barbecue restaurant, Hog Heaven.

Still, Cowan concedes white sauce's lingering exoticism might inhibit its sales beyond Birmingham – even if the bottle looks pretty.

"To be honest," he says of the traditional preparation, "it really doesn't sound appealing at all."

Filed Under: New Products, Restaurants
Tags: alabama, barbecue, barbecue sauce, big bob gibson, featured, southern food, sweet bones alabama, white sauce

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-02-2010 @5:01PM Amy said... I've been to Big Bob Gibson's many times. The white sauce is something like a glorified, vinegary ranch, minus the ranch flavor. It really depends on what you are eating if it is actually good or not.
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3-03-2010 @8:51AM LinC said... White sauce is definitely for chicken. It is lost against the more robust flavor of barbecue pork or beef.

The Gibson's restaurant in Huntsville (related to but separate from Big Bob) has sold their white sauce and their red sauce in grocery stores for years. It may be an Alabama thing, but commercial white sauce isn't all that unusual down here.

But I do like their catchy name.
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