Duke's Carolina Vinegar BBQ
Background
Duke's story can be traced back to 1917 when Eugenia Thomas Duke began making sandwiches for soldiers stationed at Camp Sevier in Greenville, SC during WWI. Once the war was over, Eugenia kept at it, working out of a local drug store and then opening her own placed she called Duke's Tea Room. A salesman of Eugenia's, named C.B. Boyd, saw the love for the sandwiches and the opportunity to market the mayo used on them, which was how Duke's mayo was born. The product's popularity took off, leaving Eugenia unable to keep up with demand and leading her to sell the business to the family-run C.F. Sauer Company in 1929. Duke's remained in their ownership all the way until 2019 when the brand was bought by Falfurrias Capital Partners who still produce the flagship mayonnaise, but also expanded the brand to include many other sauces including six barbecue varieties.
Aroma
A strong vinegary tang takes center stage in the aroma, but is backed up by a tomato depth in the first whiff of this sauce. There's additional sharpness though created either by pepper, mustard, or a combo of the two. Sitting behind a faint sweetness are oniony notes that add to the over barbecue profile.
Thickness & Texture
This rusty orange sauce has a glossy sheen and is semi-transparent, which makes it easy to see a lot of spices that come in large black and white specs as well as smaller orange and black ones. There's only a slight texture to this sauce whose thickness runs medium-thin and has a pretty syrupy consistency. From a suspended spoon, the sauce falls in a quick and even pour that ends with a few slow drips and then leaves a medium, spice laden coating left clinging to the silverware.
Out of the Jar
A mildly sweet tomato start quickly turns pungent with a large wave of vinegar that has tastes of mustard in it as well. As the sauce settles on the tongue, layers of spices come out with a sharp black pepper being dominant, but garlic and onion play important minor roles as well. Vinegar takes another upward turn in the aftertaste that continues to hold strong tomato and peppery notes.
Slathered & Cooked
This sauce brushed onto the chicken is a medium-thin layer and set very well over indirect heat. When moved directly over the coals, there was a decent amount of caramelization with no burning along with some spotty sauce loss. A boost in the sweetness after being cooked resulted in the chicken having a well balance sweet and tangy flavor right off the bat. A few more bites in is when the pepper and spices entered the party, having a representation on par with what was tasted out of the jar. Vinegar and pepper both were a little more prominent by the time the leg was finished, but not nearly as much as in the raw state.
Put to Use
The "Carolina" label on a bottle of sauce usually means you're in for a lot of vinegar and Duke's delivers that, but treads a bit closer to standard barbecue territory by keeping good representations of tomato and sugar in tact. Out of the jar I would say this sauce had a decent flavor, but landed around the middle of the road for me with its processed feel being a mild distraction. It had better life in my view after being cooked where that wasn't really noticeable and I got mainly a very well seasoned and well balanced flavor that made the sticky chicken a pleasure to eat. Calling this "Carolina" in the cooked state is a little harder though since it did have a more standard sweet tomato taste with more tang than you might otherwise expect. Being my third sauce in on the Duke's line-up, this was definitely the best of the lot so far and a decent choice if you're pulling a sauce out of the standard supermarket selection, especially if you'll be using it on the grill on things like chicken, pork, ribs, etc. that can handle and benefit from a little extra tang.
