Facts Behind the Fiction: Recipe for Mr. Harris' Barbecue Sauce

In the 1970s and early '80s, I ate at Harris' Bar-B-Cue often enough to believe that Mr. Harris varied the ingredients in his barbecue sauce each time he made a new batch. Here is the recipe he used the day I was there to learn how to make sauce.


Chop and sauté together two onions, 2 carrots, about 1/2 of a bunch of celery, and a handful of garlic cloves.
Dissolve 1 cup of brown sugar in 6 cups of ketchup, 1 12-ounce can of tomato juice, 1 12-ounce can of tomato paste, and 2 quarts of canned whole tomatoes.
Season with 1 teaspoon of cumin and 1 tablespoon each of dry mustard, black pepper, pickling spice, horseradish, paprika, Liquid Smoke, and vinegar. Add one bay leaf.
Bring everything to a boil and then simmer on low heat for one hour.
Remove the bay leaf before bottling the sauce.


Makes about one gallon of sauce.