Dr. Smoke's White Stallion
Background
As a doctorate holder, Bob Humphrey appropriately named his brand Dr. Smoke. While his field of study of higher education administration isn't food related, Bob honed his barbecue craft through both the competition circuit and running a catering business. Based out of Olathe, Kansas, the Dr. Smoke brand currently has two sauces and a rub that are available to purchase locally in Kansas City area.
Aroma
While mayo with a bump in tang is clearly the base in the aroma, there's a lot more complexity that brings this sauce into the realm of barbecue. The two most prominent contributors to that are horseradish and mustard, which also give the sauce a slightly harsh edge. A deeper whiff brings the spice layer more into the forefront, and while these ingredients meld together pretty well, black pepper and garlic both pop out form the crowd as describable notes.
Thickness & Texture
The light off-white hue renders this glossy sauce semi-opaque, which makes it easy to see a plethora of spices. These little specs are littered throughout in black, orange, and red bits that range from small to medium in size. The sauce's thickness hits right in the middle of the scale, with a medium syrupy consistency that is rightly akin to a thinned mayonnaise. From a suspended spoon, the sauce falls in a lot of large, fast drips before slowing to a few smaller ones and leaving a medium coating of sauce left adhered to the silverware.
Out of the Jar
A lot is happening on the first taste of this sauce. That tangy, creamy mayonnaise flavor immediately combines with a mellow mustard and horseradish in a way that feels more like an identity crisis than a harmonious union. A slight boost in tang quickly happens while the spices also enter and add a garlicky bite to the party, along with a little earthy and sharp pepper. The spices, horseradish, and mustard all persist as the sauce again ramps up the tartness a tad on its exit from the mouth, with the mayo hanging around to create a full-bodied aftertaste.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce clung to the chicken well and set quite nicely over indirect heat. When moved directly over the coals, all the oil in sauce created flare-ups that quickly blackened the skin in spots, but also provided more browning than you might think a white sauce would have. There was also notably no sauce loss and this chicken retained its well spiced and glossy appearance. The flavor continued to be a bit of head scratcher with the ingredients coming together in a manner that tasted off to me. You got all the flavors tasted out of the jar on the surface, but it was noticeable that this sauce didn't penetrate into the meat in way that other white sauces sometimes can do.
Put to Use
As I wrote up this review, I kept eating spoonful after spoonful of this sauce because I wanted to really like it, as I did with Dr. Smoke's Barbecue Butter, but it just wasn't working for me. The sauce tasted like it was made up of quality ingredients, and it wasn't hard to keep going back for more, but each time I got a new taste I was reminded that the ingredients just weren't playing well together. It's hard for me to pinpoint any one thing that's really wrong, but I think it's the harshness of the horseradish, mustard, and garlic being all a bit too much in competition with each other. That being said, the grilling properties of this sauce were pretty great, even with the flare-ups which ended up being more beneficial than an annoyance. However, I still wasn't that fond of the chicken leg when eating it, so when recommending a white sauce, I'd personally send folks to another brand and leave Dr. Smoke as a solid choice when in need of a tomato-based variety.
