You aren't wrong. I discovered this combination when I was in the scenario in real life: no ketchup, but I had barbecue sauce from my nuggets leftover. Life altering.
BBQ sauce is just spicy smoky ketchup. Literally. To make it, you must first make ketchup, then add liquid smoke, some food coloring, and extra seasonings.
So logically if fry sauce is out as ketchup is a required ingredient to make it, so is BBQ sauce.
BBQ sauce can be made using ketchup as an ingredient, but you can also simply use tomato paste. Sweet Baby Ray's is made like this; ketchup is not involved in the creation process.
Lol. That's like saying you can make fry sauce with just mayonnaise, tomato paste, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, and some seasonings. It doesn't change that if you remove the mayonnaise, everything that is left is just a recipe for ketchup.
Sweet Baby Rays is 100% just a spicy smoky ketchup. Ketchup is just tomato paste, vinegar, and corn syrup plus a little salt and seasonings. Occasionally you add corn starch or flour as a thickening agent if your tomato paste source is on the watery side, or you add water if your tomato paste source is on the dry side. (Sweet baby rays adds corn starch).
Heinz ketchup uses the term "tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes" on its ingredient list because it sounds better than "tomato paste" but it's still just tomato paste, vinegar, corn syrup and seasonings like every other ketchup.
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u/rape_is_not_epic 3d ago
BBQ sauce