When my husband developed diabetes, I began to investigate the ingredients in the foods we ate every day. What I found out horrified me and made me reluctant to feed anything artificial to my family. Unfortunately, it is hard to stay completely away from processed food, especially if you live in a small town as I do.

When you read the list of ingredients for any food, they are listed in order of quantity used. For example, following are the ingredients in a popular brand of barbecue sauce:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Vinegar, Concentrated Tomato Juice (Water, Tomato Paste), Food Starch-Modified, Salt, Molasses, Contains Less than 2% of Paprika, Spice, Mustard Flour, Guar Gum, Natural Smoke Flavor, Celery Seed, Natural Flavor, Red 40.

High fructose corn syrup, since it is listed first, is the main ingredient. High fructose corn syrup is manmade, not even close to natural and not good for you. I don’t know about you, but I’m not familiar with modified food starch, guar gum or red 40. Those ingredients are not kept in my kitchen.

We made a decision to eat more naturally. As a result, I decided to make my own versions of many of the condiments, such as barbecue sauce and mayonnaise that we bought regularly.

A bunch of ingredients is required to make this barbecue sauce, but they are ingredients I am familiar with and keep in my kitchen; therefore, I’m comfortable feeding it to my family.

To make this thick and spicy barbecue sauce you will need the following:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
¼ cup red or white wine, or cooking wine
32 ounces tomato sauce
24 ounces tomato paste
½-cup Worcestershire sauce
¼-cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. molasses
2 Tbsp. hot pepper sauce
2 Tbsp. mustard (I use jalapeño mustard)
¼-cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; sauté for a few minutes.

Add the wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, molasses, hot pepper sauce, mustard, brown sugar, chili powder, and cumin. Taste to see if you need to adjust any of the seasonings. You can add a bit of salt or pepper now, if you want.

If you prefer a thinner sauce, substitute tomato sauce for all or part of the tomato paste. If you want your sauce to be thicker, substitute more tomato paste for some of the tomato sauce.

I normally use jalapeño mustard, my favorite type of mustard, for an even spicier flavor.

Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for a minimum of 2 hours. The longer the sauce is allowed to simmer, the better it will taste.

When done simmering the sauce, allow it to cool and store it in clean glass jars in the refrigerator.

This barbecue sauce does not have any preservatives in it, so you need to date your containers. It will keep in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks, though I doubt it will be around that long.