My Own Monster: the Story of Dr. Sauce

It was in my kitchen, two years ago, that I created my own monster. It seemed decent enough of an idea, to make a barbecue sauce using Dr. Pepper, and avoiding the use of ketchup. But what happened in the kitchen that day has, like Frankenstein's monster, continued to haunt me.

I don't understand the nature of this monster. It's not a barbecue sauce, even though it started as an attempt to make one. It's not a steak sauce, as it lacks the tartness of raisins or tamarind. All I know is, it has a unique flavor, and it tastes fantastic on my oven-fried chicken wings. I also put it on burgers and hot dogs, and even after having made many batches, I still keep raiding the fridge with a spoon to taste it straight, as I still can't figure out what it really is. Maybe you, the Instructables community, can help me figure that out.

All dramatics aside, Dr. Sauce gets its name from one of its main ingredients, Dr. Pepper. It's a great way to use up flat DP from a 2-liter bottle, as the soda does not need any fizz to get cooked into this recipe. Let's hop to it, shall we?

The ingredients list:

1/3 cup canola (or other neutral) oil
One-quarter of a good-sized onion, chopped into half-rings
16 ounces canned tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups (otherwise known as one can) of Dr. Pepper
The juice and zest of one lemon
1/2 cup loosely-packed brown sugar (probably 1/3 cup packed or so)
2 tsp powdered or granulated garlic
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp dried basil

Essential tools:

One decent saucepan (I have a saucier-like device)
Wooden spoon
Spatula
Good knife for chopping
Grater for zesting the lemon
Blender

Nice-to-haves:

Splatter guard

First stop: Browning some onion!

Heat up your saucepan over a medium heat. Put in the oil (all 1/3 cup: it's not just for frying up the onions, it's a part of the flavor and mouthfeel of the sauce), then carefully pop in your onions. You want the onions to brown, but not burn, and you don't want it to happen too fast. You also want the onions to go translucent, so keep an eye on that temperature control. You can smell the onions browning, so you can use that as a guide.

Once that's done, we move on to the next step.

Once the onions are brown, add everything else. I start with the liquids, either the Dr. Pepper or the tomato sauce, and I usually add the spices and salt last. Stir it all together, lower the heat to a nice medium low simmer, and let it cook down to about half of its current volume, until thickened. You have to use your judgment here, and gauge about how thick the sauce will end up once it's cooled. It took me a couple of tries to get it down.

After the mixture has simmered and cooled off a bit, though it need not cool off completely, it's time to blend it together. This is how we'll deal with that oil slick that keeps forming on the surface. Emulsification is a wonderful thing.

This step is simple: pour it all into the blender, and hit the go button until it's a nice, thoroughly combined sauce. After the blending is done, pour it out into the container of your choice to cool the rest of the way before refrigerating.

Is it a barbecue sauce? A steak sauce? A hot dog sauce? A wing sauce?

I have no clue. All I know is I like it. Even if I have nothing to use it on, I'll sneak a small spoonful out of the container in the fridge and taste it, again and again, in my quest to understand this mysterious concoction I have dubbed Dr. Sauce.

Perhaps it is you who will help me crack this conundrum.