We rolled up in a van at a non-descript restaurant down in Pullman, Chicago on the far south side after a visit to Gwendolyn Brooks High School. We were a diverse group of students taking an elective class on community engagement in urban planning. We were doing outreach on the Red Line Extension project, which is a mass transit proposal to bring train stations to the farthest reaches of Chicago’s south side. This is a neighborhood that faces not only a lack of transit access, but it also lacks adequate access to food. Despite these systematic challenges, this restaurant we pulled up to was a cultural institution.
The prices were affordable and the options were plentiful. Not printed on the menu and extremely important to the whole meal was the Mild sauce. To those that grew up with this condiment in their neighborhoods, the sauce was of utmost importance in our order. At first I figured this sauce was just a variant of a hot sauce that was slightly less spicy; however, the group members explained that it was special and much different. When I first tasted it with my order of chicken, I was amazed. It blended tangy, spicy and sweet elements with ease.
The sauce is often a crucial component of African American life in Chicago. As I soon learned, many other culinary institutions on the South and West sides served this sauce alongside their offerings. The most famous of these restaurants being Harold’s Chicken. To the group members that introduced the sauce to me on this trip, it tasted like home.
After years of missing the sauce, I went to recreate it at home according to various online recipes. Below are the lineup of ingredients I used. The BBQ sauce I had already included brown sugar; however, I included a little bit extra for good measure. I diluted it slightly with water to get the right consistency and intensity of flavor. Overall, it was finger-licking good. This is the type of sauce you can just eat straight even though that sounds disgusting.
I was delighted to have this condiment on hand and it is fairly stable for long periods of time. It’s certainly a utility player when it comes to complimenting all sorts of foods at home. I tested the sauce on some homemade chicken wings. I hope you get a chance to try this condiment out either at home or at one of the various restaurants serving the sauce up in Chicagoland.
