Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Trader Joe's Korean Style BBQ Sauce



I think calling this barbecue sauce is a misnomer, if not outright fraud.

After water and sugar, the main ingredient is soy sauce. This is followed by something called gochujang sauce, consisting mainly of sugar and miso. Bringing up the rear are sake, garlic, ginger, cornstarch, lemon juice concentrate, and red pepper. There's almost nothing traditionally barbecuish in the bottle.

From the product name, I expected a mainstream BBQ sauce with a soy-sauce accent--which I think would be interesting and potentially a winner--but frankly I found it hard to taste anything here except the soy sauce. A spiced-up soy sauce is really not what I want on my (fake/vegetarian) pulled pork.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

3 comments:

  1. Korean BBQ is a "thing." This sauce is consistent with that, and is just fine for those familiar with Korean BBQ. It's like complaining that Chinese mustard is different than American yellow mustard; they are *supposed* to be different.

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  2. TJs totally labeled this wrong, very confusing. It’s basically bulgolgi marinade- which is a sweet soy sauce base, but used as a marinade before cooking, not so much as a condiment like regular bbq sauce.
    I’ve used bulgolgi marinade for tofu and tempeh before cooking and that’s really tasty if you want to use it that way. Also good on regular rice instead of plain soy sauce.
    Ttrockwood

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