Barbecue Sauce as a Therapeutic Activity

Barbecue sauce as a therapeutic intervention? Who else but a Recreation Therapist could pull off something like this?

Making homemade barbecue sauce is a relatively easy process with countless variations. Just look at all the options next time you’re walking through the grocery store. Consider running a group or activity where your participants cooperate to create their signature barbecue sauce. Not only will the next cookout feature original flavors, your participants will have a sense of pride and accomplishment after tasting their finished product.

What need areas could making homemade barbecue sauce address?

Sense of accomplishment

As mentioned above, tasting the finished product will give your participants pride in working together to create something new.

Team Building

If you are running this activity with a group, participants need to communicate and collaborate their special recipe.

Learning New Skills/Developing Leisure Interests

If your participants have never tried making homemade barbecue sauce, this will give them an opportunity to try a new skill. If they have previous experience cooking, then their input could reignite an old passion.

Sense of Empowerment

Especially in residential facilities, many clients are used to a meal being placed in front of them. By allowing the participants to take an active part in their meals, they feel more empowered in a very important aspect of their lives.

Mindfulness of Ingredients

Too often we eat things without thinking about what is in them. By making homemade barbecue sauce, participants see what goes into cooking it. They could choose healthier ingredients to comply with specific dietary restrictions.

Sensory Stimulation

The smells of the spices, textures and tastes of the specific ingredients, and visual process of making homemade barbecue sauce provides opportunities for sensory stimulation.

Motor Skills

Depending on the recipe you choose to use, participants may be required to chop, stir, and combine ingredients. The cooking process offers opportunities to hone motor skills.

Sounds Good? Let’s Make the Sauce!

As mentioned earlier, the possibilities for making homemade barbecue sauce are endless. Fortunately, there are only a few key components needed. Once you know the components, your participants could choose corresponding ingredients from each category to develop their special sauce.

Components of Barbecue Sauce

The Base

Most barbeque sauces start with a tomato base. Ketchup is a popular option, but if you want a base with less salt and sugar–since these are other components you will be adding later–tomato paste or puree is an option. Depending on your region, a mustard, mayonnaise, or vinegar-heavy base may be preferred.

The Sweet

Sugar is a necessary component in caramelizing the sauce to seal in the flavor. If there are diabetic concerns among your participants, this is where making homemade barbecue sauce comes in handy. Many store bought sauces are loaded with sugar. Though it is necessary to have a sweet component, your participants will have better control of how much sugar is in their sauce. Though granulated sugar works fine, using sweeteners like dark brown sugar, honey, molasses, or even maple sugar give your sauce more depth and flavor.

The Salt

Like sugar, salt is an important seasoning in barbecue sauce. You could limit the salt based on your participants’ dietary restrictions. Kosher salt works well. For more flavor, however, consider trying Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, or liquid aminos. Other Asian sauces like teriyaki or hoisin sauce can be used–some have lower sodium versions.

The Spices

This is where your participants could really let their sauce stand out. The options for spices are only limited by what you bring to group. If they prefer spicy, red chili flakes, chili sauce, or cayenne are options. Even if your participants don’t like spicy food, don’t skimp on the spices. Garlic, onion powder, cumin, oregano, basil, thyme, or anything else you have on hand are possibilities. Try using cinnamon or allspice for an unexpected burst of flavor. This is a great place to incorporate sensory stimulation and set up little cups of the spices for participants to smell or taste.

The Smoke

The smoky flavor from slow cooking food over a fire is hard to replicate. If you can’t use the barbecue sauce in a cookout setting, adding smoked paprika, smoked salt, or liquid smoke helps achieve that smokey taste.

The Acid

Vinegar–typically apple cider vinegar–is a great way to give acidic tones to the richness of the barbeque sauce. If you have access to flavored vinegars, even better. Consider adding a splash or two of lemon or orange juice, especially if you reduced the sweet component due to dietary restrictions.

Those are the basic components, with plenty of options, for making homemade barbecue sauce. In researching this article I hoped to find a perfect ratio of these components to share. As you probably know, the internet is a very big place with lots of opinions. Thoughts on barbecue sauce are no exception.

Though I am no expert on barbecue sauce, I typically make mine homemade when grilling at home. I will say, as long as you have enough of your base, adding the other ingredients are pretty much one’s preference. Most of the time I toss whatever I have on hand into the sauce and see if it works. Some recipes call for simmering the ingredients for an hour, others say it could be done in five minutes. I have tried both ways as well as just mixing the ingredients and putting them on the meat (I typically cook chicken) a few minutes before it is finished cooking. Though you won’t see a bottle with my face in the grocery store anytime soon, I feel I usually do a good job. I haven’t tried doing a barbeque sauce group with my participants yet, but I am pretty inspired after writing this article.

Here are a couple links to basic barbecue sauce recipes for inspiration:

Heinz Ketchup Basic Barbecue Sauce

Basic Double Tomato Barbecue Sauce

Basic Sweet & Tangy BBQ Sauce

Making It A Group

There are a few different ways making homemade barbecue sauce could be transformed into a therapeutic group. How you proceed with this activity depends on your population, facility, and available resources. Here are a few ideas:

The participants make the sauce during group. Have ingredients and cooking tools ready to make the sauce together.
Have a barbeque sauce competition. Divide your group into smaller sections to make a few sauces. Let them taste test at the end to choose the best.
Health education group. Challenge to group to make a healthier barbecue sauce than a store bought product.
Sensory group. As mentioned before, there are so many flavors and scents from the different components. A group requiring more sensory input could benefit from experiencing the different ingredients.
Write out barbecue sauce recipes. If you don’t have the resources available to make the barbecue sauce in a group setting, let them make recipe cards. Have some ingredients on hand, talk about the components, and let their creativity thrive. Have someone make the recipes later if possible.

Good luck with discovering your group’s perfect sauce. Be mindful of dietary restrictions, safe food handling, and any situations that may be dangerous for your participants. Since eating is such a big part of your participants’ lives, and this is the time of year to enjoy cookouts, making homemade barbecue sauce could be the perfect activity you never considered.