The Long Weekend Grill List: Which Canadian BBQ Sauce Goes on What

The last long weekend of summer is a grilling weekend, and the fastest way to make it taste like more than a Tuesday dinner is to stop using one bottle for everything. Ribs, burgers and chicken all want different things. Here is which Merci Mon Ami sauce goes on each, and why.

Everything below is handcrafted in small batches in our Toronto kitchen and ships across Canada.

What Is the Best Sauce for Ribs?

Ribs want a sauce with enough body to cling and enough sugar to caramelize without burning. Our Apple Whiskey & Mesquite BBQ Sauce is built for exactly this. It starts with Ontario-grown apples and Forty Creek Double Barrel Whiskey, which brings vanilla, caramel and oak, then mesquite and honey pull it together. It is thick, sweet and a little tart.

Baste in the last fifteen minutes, not before. Sugar and long heat do not get along, and this sauce has real honey and Ontario maple syrup in it.

What About Burgers and Chicken?

Reach for the Maple Honey BBQ Sauce. Ontario honey and organic Ontario maple syrup make it smooth and candied rather than sharp, which is why it started life as the kid-friendly bottle and then quietly took over the adult table too.

It is not just a family favourite either. In 2022 it placed 38th out of more than 2,000 entries worldwide in the Kansas City BBQ Society rankings.

How Much Heat Can Your Guests Handle?

This is the question that decides your long weekend, so ask it before people arrive.

For a mixed table, put out the Sweet Garlic & Chili Sauce. It is candied, thick and syrupy with just a mild touch of chili, so nobody gets ambushed. It won Grand Champion at the Royal Winter Fair in 2023 and first place the year before. It started as a dip for catering cocktail items and it still works best that way: a bowl on the table, next to everything.

For the friend who brings their own hot sauce to restaurants, the Jalapeno & Habanero Pepper Sauce is the one. It comes from Chef Cindy’s grandma Myrl’s hundred-year-old Trinidadian recipe, with charred peppers, a tangy vinegar base and a floral, citrusy finish. Fair warning: there are ghost peppers in it. A few drops on pan chicken or smoked meat is plenty.

In between, the Smoked Pepper Sauce is the sensible middle. Medium spice, tomato based, herbaceous and smoky, and it took first place for Best Hot Sauce at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. It is very good on grilled fish, which is the thing most people forget you can put on a barbecue.

What Goes on the Grilled Vegetables?

The tray of zucchini and peppers that nobody fights over. Fix it with a vinaigrette instead of a sauce.

Toss grilled vegetables with the Herb Vinaigrette while they are still hot. Fresh dill, oregano, garlic and lemon, and the heat opens it right up. It was invented in our kitchen to get our own kids to eat their greens, and it has the same effect on a long weekend crowd.

The Balsamic Vinaigrette works too, especially over sliced tomatoes and bocconcini while the grill does its thing. It is made with aged balsamic from Modena.

Why Choose a Canadian BBQ Sauce Over the Supermarket Bottle?

Because you can read the label and recognize everything on it. Our sauces are made in small batches in Toronto, without artificial preservatives, using Ontario apples, Ontario honey and Ontario maple syrup from producers close to home.

The supermarket bottle is engineered to taste the same in every province for two years. Ours is not. That is the point. A Canadian BBQ sauce made this close to home tastes like the season it was made in.

What If You Are the Guest, Not the Host?

Bring the Heat Seeker’s Set. It is the Smoked Pepper, Jalapeño Habanero and Sweet Chili sauces together for $26, which is a better host gift than another bottle of wine and it stays in their fridge long after the weekend.

If the host is more of a salad-and-sides person, the Fire & Silk Collection pairs the Sweet Chili Sauce with our Sesame Soy Vinaigrette for $25.

Get the Sauces Before the Weekend

Order by mid-week and you will have them in hand for the long weekend. Shipping is free on orders over $100 across Canada.

Ready to fire up the grill? Shop the full range of Merci Mon Ami sauces and make this the best barbecue of the summer.