Whatever you do, add some crushed red pepper (not too much) to heat it up. Awesome!
I will now be on the prowl looking for theirs to give it a try. I know it’s not available in the stores where I shop, but online, usually, anything is possible.
Found them - isn’t Google wonderful? 
@Creekland SInce we seem on the same hunt for the right and simple tang, will you let us know if Lillie’s works for you?
And @rickle1 Thanks for that tip. I do see the red pepper flakes in a lot of promising recipes, but hadn’t tried it.
Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic. It’s yellowish in color, vinegary, not sweet. I don’t like sweet KC-type BBQ sauce. I’m probably in the minority on this.
We don’t like sweet sauces either. More about Sauer’s- produced in Virginia from an old Southern recipe since 1887. A hybrid vinegar and tomato based sauce. A tangy, vinegary sauce.
Just go light on the crushed rep pepper. Amazing how powerful it is, especially if you slow cook for many hours. Which is why I love it!
We’ve been having a family discussion. We’re thinking of trying a bunch of Lillie’s recipes in Nov when med school lad and his GF are with us. It’ll be a fun family affair almost as if we were traveling together.
I’ll admit I wasn’t even aware that AL had their own type. We’ve been to AL a few times and never came across it or didn’t notice it if we did. It’s now piqued our interest too. I really like that they use the ingredients they do (and don’t use what they don’t).
We most likely won’t try their hot recipe. Only H and med school boy like hot. The others we’ll try. I don’t like sweet, but I’m in the minority there. I’m willing to try it to see if theirs is different or to confirm I don’t like sweet. I’ve no interest in trying Hot if it’s truly hot. A medium heat (like most medium salsas) is my max. Eastern NC BBQ is fine - esp as Bills and now Marty’s has it (quite similar to Parkers in Wilson).
ps H grew up just outside of Wilson, NC - hence much of my NC restaurant experience is from there. We’ve always made it a point in our travels to stop by his old haunts, often meeting with friends, etc.
I had always had tomato based BBQ sauces, like Sweet Baby Rays. After I moved to NoVA, I tried a Carolina vinegar and mustard based sauce at my local BBQ restaurant and became a convert. I found I prefer the tang to the sweet.
The sweet has its time and place. It’s just that when you love ECV sauce, it’s different.
I like tomato based sauces too (hence, Stubbs). I just don’t have a sweet tooth, so adding sweetness to something often ruins it for me.
Around us we have “Amish” recipes for almost everything like potato or macaroni salad. They sell well. In reality what they seem to do is take a normal recipe and add a cup of sugar to it. They’re incredibly sweet and I quickly learned to stay away from all of them. Local folks around us like sweet spaghetti sauces too. One lady takes a jar of Ragu and adds a cup of sugar to it. It’s her “secret recipe” that many people love (confided to us in a small group setting).
There are a lot of desserts I don’t like too - or things like Krispy Kreme donuts - or most donuts for that matter.
If people like/want sweet, I’m not the one to ask for “best.”
I like both vinegary and (somewhat) sugary BBQ sauces. I don’t like those really yellow sauces that just taste like mustard to me. If I remember correctly (and it’s been close to 40 years - can that be?) the original Arthur Bryants of Kansas City- as recommended by Calvin Trillin in Alice Let’s Eat had a sauce that was much less sweet than your standard St. Louis style sauce.
Pork is a sweet meat in general which is why I like the mustardy vinegary sauce on pork ribs, pulled pork, etc. It cuts the richness.
If I am going to have a tomato-based sauce I think the Stubbs Original is very good on chicken and beef.
Not a from scratch and not very sweet, but good for pulled pork, chicken, or dipping french fries.
2 c Krafts Original BBQ sauce
2 tbsp yellow mustard
1 c water
2 tbsp ketchup
1 c hot sauce (something cheap.)
Add the mustard, after mixing all else.
This thread caused us to have pork ribs last night. We already had them frozen in Stubb’s Smokey Mesquite sauce, so it made for an easy meal.
But… while adding extra sauce to mine post cooking I looked at the ingredients. It has a fair bit of sugar and molasses, etc, in it. 9/10s of the sugars in it are added sugar - yet to me it doesn’t taste sweet like some of those I don’t like. Now I’m wondering how much sugar those have or if it’s merely a difference in spices or something?
H and I are contemplating if we want to get a jump on Nov’s Lillie’s BBQ family test. It sounds so scrumptious. Should we wait to have a family affair or try some first for a head’s up? My mind says wait - enjoy the experience together. My stomach says go for it!
This is mine.
1 cup bottled bbq sauce
1 cup honey
1 cup soy sauce
Yum!
another fan of Stubbs. Tastes great to us. If I remember right in a sauce review it was mentioned as one of the BBQ sauces with the lowest amount of added sugar (at least the Original Version sauce)
We used to use Sweet Baby Rays all of the time but switched to Jones when we started trying to reduce HFCs which SBR uses. Jones is tangy sweet.
I liked Jack Daniel’s sauce…for a while. Had it at TGIF, then bought a bottle. Used it maybe once. I think the word for many of these sauces- this is just me, no offense- is cloying. Absolutely, I’d order ribs with any good sauce, though the salt and sugar would do me in.
Lillie’s Q is described somewhere as a tomato base (or influence.) Will be curious for feedback. What I want is closer to that Tabasco or Texas Petes/Franks tang. Taken to an uber tang level.
Like a good buffalo sauce, your brain should reel a bit as your nose gets in range., your taste buds anticipating. Ha. Kinda dramatic. But his has been a very long quest, for me. Just a little, teeny sweet to offer layers.
I do think, @creekland, that I’m after some inexpensive, downhome, discovery.