Whether you’re grilling burgers, deftly flipping chicken over live fire, or slow-smoking ribs to perfection, it seems no summer party is complete without a special sauce. And while you can find a wide variety of barbecue sauces at supermarkets and specialty stores, it’s a carefully-honed sauce that separates the barbecue master from the weekend warrior.

Every day this week, I’ll be sharing the Fourth of July menu I plan on serving to family and friends for the holiday next week. I’ll cover sides, dessert, and a show-stopping main.

This Kentucky bourbon barbecue sauce is a recipe I’ve developed over the years, tweaking ingredients and flavorings to suit my cooking. If you’ve never made a barbecue sauce before, it’s a great place to start. Like many barbecue sauce recipes, it’s tomato-based, with a foundation built on tomato paste and ketchup. The ingredients may seem contradictory at first — at once sweet, sour, spicy and tart — but gentle cooking gives them a balanced harmony that only gets better with time.

Give the sauce a try, tweaking the flavors and ingredients as you like to suit your tastes and make it your own. If you’d like to learn more about making your own barbecue sauces, check out this story I wrote for the Los Angeles Times.

QUICK TIP: When saucing foods over the grill, wait until the last possible minute to brush on the extra flavors. Because barbecue sauces tend to have high sugar contents, they burn easily and will ruin your foods if you add them too soon. Wait until the food is cooked through entirely, then brush a thin layer or two of sauce on the food before removing it to a serving platter, to keep the sauce from burning or catching fire.

KENTUCKY BOURBON BARBECUE SAUCE

1 hour. Makes 1 1/2 quarts sauce.

1 large onion, thinly sliced lengthwise

6 to 8 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cups Kentucky bourbon

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chile powder

2 teaspoons dried mustard

1 tablespoon salt, more to taste

½ cup tomato paste

4 cups ketchup

¾ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup liquid smoke

½ cup Worcestershire sauce

1 cup dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon Tabasco or other vinegar-based hot sauce

1/3 cup maple syrup, if desired

1. In a heavy-bottom 3- to 4-quart pot, combine the onion, garlic and bourbon. Bring the bourbon to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer and continue to cook until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in the pepper, chile powder, dried mustard, salt, tomato paste, ketchup, cider vinegar, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, dark brown sugar, Tabasco and maple syrup, if desired, for a sweeter sauce. Continue to gently simmer for 30 minutes to give the flavors time to marry. Stir frequently, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to prevent burning.

3. Remove from heat and purée the sauce until fairly smooth using an immersion blender or blending in stages using a stand blender. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate, covered, in a non-reactive container for up to 2 weeks. This sauce can also be frozen.

Note: From Noelle Carter. Variations of this sauce have appeared in recipes I’ve written while at the Los Angeles Times.