What the Buck-Oh!

What is Buck-Oh! Sauce? Is Buck-Oh! Sauce a barbecue sauce? Is Buck-Oh! Sauce a marinade? Is Buck-Oh! Sauce a steak sauce? Is Buck-Oh! Sauce a salad dressing? Can you use Buck-Oh! Sauce in your stir fry? The answer, of course, is yes to all of the above. In fact, Buck-Oh! Sauce is the Swiss Army Knife of condiments. It has all the characteristics of a Super Condiment – low calorie, gluten-free, low sugars, and full of flavor.

Make no mistake about it. Buck-Oh! Sauce is a hot sauce. But Buck-Oh! Sauce is a hot sauce of a different color. That’s right. It is brown instead of yellow, or red, or green. So what does that mean? It means that it is not just hot. It also has flavor. And it doesn’t take a flamethrower to your mouth.

Buck-Oh! Sauce Origins

The origin of Buck-Oh! Sauce dates back many moons ago, when I was in college. A friend of mine made these dumplings (a.k.a. pot stickers) and served them with this dipping sauce. They immediately got my attention and became my favorite food. I learned how to make them and made them every chance I could. (Finding the wrappers was not easy back then.) Soon I figured out that it wasn’t the dumplings that I loved to eat (They were time consuming to make anyway.) It was the sauce. It was an aromatic blend of ginger and sesame oil that got my taste buds dancing. I tried eating the sauce with as many different foods as possible.

After a while, I got my cooking legs under me and began to play with the recipe. I was at that stage in life where I was trying different foods/spices etc. – basically trying to exercise and refine my taste buds. Perhaps the most important modification that I made was the addition of heat. I tried several different varieties of peppers from Jalapeños (too hot) to Hungarian wax (too not). Then for some reason I still can’t remember, I added some Habanero peppers. (This was way back before they became trendy and were still hard to find.) That is when the flavor really came to life. I tinkered with the recipe for a few years, added a few things, and then settled on a final formula.

Buck-Oh! Sauce on Wings

The first real breakthrough was when I marinated chicken wings in the sauce for two days and then grilled them. The result was amazing. People who weren’t crazy about spicy foods liked it. Those who liked spicy foods loved it. But I still had to wait too long. I needed instant gratification. So I thickened it and used it as a barbecue sauce. This was huge. My daughter liked Buck-Oh! Sauce so much she started putting it on her pizza and her baked potato skins (It was an easy way to get my kids to clean their plates.) Now, I am ready to share it with everyone who shares the same adventure for flavor.

Buck-Oh! Sauce is about one thing and one thing only – FLAVOR! Yes, there are individual ingredients. And individually, each ingredient has its merit. But good food is a team sport and we think we have the best team out there. Yes, it is spicy and hot. But it isn’t so hot that you will regret tasting it. It is just hot enough to give you that sensation on the back of your tongue and leave you wanting…more. You already know how this is going to end.