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This recipe for my Grandma K’s Instant Coffee Barbecue sauce was found while digging through my mom’s old cookbooks and recipe boxes. It was handwritten on a sheet of note paper and tucked neatly between the pages of one of my grandma’s old cookbooks.
My grandma had a habit of keeping her recipes between the pages of her cookbooks – she didn’t have any kind of recipe box that we know of – if she had a recipe it just went into the cookbook.
Here’s what the recipe looks like on the piece of paper as it was originally written:
I loved the texture of the paper so much that I actually made it available as a graphic you can download! The download includes a printable version and a transparent PNG version of the original recipe in case you’d like to use it for digital art!
BBQ Sauce Recipe Notes
This recipe is very simple to make and has an unusual ingredient you wouldn’t expect to find in Barbecue sauce – instant coffee! While I have seen many recipes that call for coffee that is already brewed, that usually causes the sauce to be a lot more watery.
If you want all the flavor of coffee for its boldness in your barbecue sauce but don’t want to sacrifice the thickness, instant coffee is the way to go!
I remember my mom making her own barbecue sauce with this recipe when we were little kids – we didn’t usually have instant coffee so she left out that ingredient, but the sauce is just as good with or without it.
My grandma always had instant coffee at her house though – she kept it right next to her bottle of Tang and a lot of times she would make me a cup of Tang and a cup of instant coffee for my grandpa for breakfast.
We usually used this recipe for ham barbecue and chicken but you could use it for nearly anything – as the directions say at the bottom: “Pour over almost anything”. 🙂
Grandma’s Instant Coffee Barbecue Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup ketchup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
Instructions
- Mix together and pour over almost anything.
Notes
Nutrition
I hope you enjoy this recipe and of course if you try it I would love to hear what you think!
Glad to see this again. Had it for decades and the ex kept my cookbooks. Sure gives the sauce a good flavor. I’ve got some ketchup going out of date soon so I’m gonna make a huge batch…thanks.
Aw Herb, it makes my heart sing that this recipe is what you were looking for! So many people think I’m crazy posting all of these old family recipes but comments like this are exactly why I do it! Enjoy your barbecue! 🙂