BBQ Stu’s Clinches No. 1 Sauce in Competition

The judges from The Hot Pepper, a popular Internet forum for “chiliheads,” went hog-wild over BBQ Stu’s line of sauces from Pennsylvania-based saucemaker and Roadfood.com member Stu Wilson. Three of his four sauces won awards at this year’s annual hot sauce competition: Steel City Blast Furnace, 1st place for Smoky Heat BBQ Sauce; Steel City Blast Furnace X-Xtra Hot, 2nd place for Hot BBQ Sauce; and Pennsylvania Gold, 2nd place for Table Condiments Savory, Ketchup/Mustard. Meanwhile, down in Georgia at the National BBQ Festival, BBQ Stu’s brought home another prize triad in the Best of the Best Sauce Competition: Steel City Blast Furnace, 3rd place for Tomato Spicy; Pennsylvania Gold, 3rd place for Mustard Spicy; and Original, 5th place for Tomato Mild.

We sampled all four sauces on chopped pork, and BBQ Stu’s Original most closely resembles Kansas City tomato-based sauces but with sweet molasses overtones. Steel City Blast Furnace is an obvious winner: significant spice sneaks through a base of Original sauce and lingers long on the tongue. The X-Xtra Hot version indeed dwells in said blast furnace and is reserved for the hardiest heatseekers. Pennsylvania Gold is mustard-based and redolent with turmeric and peppers. The sauces are also great for dipping French fries and the like, especially the Pennsylvania Gold. All sauces are fat-free, gluten-free, and available from select Pittsburgh-area vendors and via mailorder directly from Mr. Wilson.