Butler's Texas Gold
Background
Butler's is one of those rare brands that has little background information that can be found on the web. The small tidbits I located merely let me know that the brand is founded by Mark Butler out of Carrollton, Texas, which is just north of Dallas. Mark decided to bring his Texas Gold sauce to market after numerous friends asked for it. Butler's only has this single barbecue sauce, but also have a couple salsas they sells mainly in local Kroger's in Texas.
Aroma
An extra tart mustardy aroma defines this sauce. Those two pungent players gain extra sharpness from a black pepper component that imparts a little tingle in the nose and hints that there could be some heat in the taste. There's isn't much to the smell beyond those three ingredients, creating a pretty straightforward profile.
Thickness & Texture
This mustard yellow sauce has a glossy sheen and its light hue makes it easy to see lots of spice specs that come in medium and large red and black bits. The sauce has a thin, watery consistency whose smoothness is only broken up by some bits of what could be onion or garlic. From a suspended spoon the sauce releases quickly in a steady pour that only takes a second to change to a few final drips before stopping and leaving a thin layer of sauce coating the silverware.
Out of the Jar
There's a richness that goes along with the expected vinegar and mustard combo in the first taste of this sauce. It only takes a moment though for the harshness of both the mustard and vinegar to dial way up to the point where it tastes overly sour. That sourness intensifies as the sauce leaves the tongue, and its at this point that an extra kick comes in from black pepper, which imparts a mild heat to the tart aftertaste.
Slathered & Cooked
The sauce brushed onto the chicken in a thin layer that baked down very well over indirect heat, giving the chicken leg decent coverage by the second brushing. When moved to direct heat, there was no sauce loss and no caramelization, with the only extra browning happening where the chicken was touching the hot grates. The first bite had a decent balance between mustard, vinegar, and pepper, but by the second bite that sourness experienced out of the jar was in full force, dominating the flavor profile from then on.
Put to Use
Since there's no defining Texas style of barbecue sauce, it's always kind of fun trying out "Texas" sauces because each one is so unique. Butler's Texas Gold may just be one of the most unique out there, but unfortunately that's not a redeeming characteristic in this case. On the surface there shouldn't be anything I don't like about this sauce—it's made of primarily vinegar, mustard, pepper, and liquid margarine. For some reason though, these combine into a sourness that wasn't pleasing to my taste buds. As I ate the chicken, I even wondered if I may have possibly gotten a bottle that went bad because the sauce also separated quite quickly and I had to keep shaking or mixing it to bring it back together. I have to go with what I tasted though and for me, the off flavor was too much to ignore, even though I could give credit to the minimalist approach. It should be noted that this sauce has no sugar, so for those looking for that rare sauce that forgoes sugar altogether, this could be worth a look if you're also into extreme tartness as well.
