Any good barbecue cook worth his or her salt knows that you don’t cook meat using barbecue sauce. Smoking it, along with any herbs and spices you’ve added, provides all the flavor you need. But for those diehard fans, hot or mild barbecue sauce can be added as a glaze at the end of cooking.

Both hot and mild barbecue sauce enhance the flavor of the meat after cooking, but if you try and actually cook using sauce – especially a sugar-based barbecue sauce (which almost all of them are) – it’s almost guaranteed the meat will burn. So instead of a nicely browned appearance and mouthwatering succulence, you’ll get an ugly, bitter-tasting layer of hot or mild barbecue sauce on your meat that’s hard to scrape off even with a knife.

The perfect venue for a sauce, whether it’s a hot or mild barbecue sauce – is in a small bowl set on the table for diners to scoop their own preferred amount onto their already-cooked meat. Now, that’s not to say sauce is unimportant. You still want that good flavoring only the best sauces provide, whether it’s a fiery barbecue sauce or a mild barbecue sauce.

Entire books get written every year – with publishing dates just before the summer barbecue frenzy begins – regaling the benefits of barbecue sauce and justifiably so. It’s the crowning touch to a perfectly smoked or grilled piece of meat, and it no doubt adds moisture as well as complementary flavors. But just don’t mess everything up by putting your spicy or mild barbecue sauce on your meat while it is cooking!

Eschewing the fiery sauces that sometimes get in the way of the meat’s flavor, here’s an easy, but good, recipe for mild barbecue sauce to serve at your next barbecue feast:

1 cup ketchup
1 cup water
1 small onion, finely minced
1/2 cup vinegar
5 teaspoons finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt

Heat oil and add onion and garlic; sauté ‘til translucent. Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes for a versatile, mild barbecue sauce to enjoy with all your smoked or grilled meats. Keep refrigerated.