When Todd “Doomer” Dooms offered to let me review his sauce, Doomer’s Q Sauce, I decided to do a little research. The reoccurring theme I kept seeing over and over and over again was “Maryland style”. What exactly is Maryland style? Let’s find out, shall we…
Doomer's Q Sauce -- Original
Todd developed his original sauce in 2005, and it was an instant hit among family and friends. When one of his friends asked to fill up a squeeze bottle with his sauce, that’s when he knew he had a marketable product on his hands. Soon after, he added a Hot and Spicy flavor as well as a Dark flavor to his line of sauces.
The quality that Dooms talks about the most in his sauces is their versatility. He admits to making his sauces thinner than a normal sauce so that it can be used as an injection, cooking sauce, dipping sauce, and much more.
Okay, enough talking… let’s eat!
Naked Observations
As I poured out the sauce, I definitely noticed that it was a bit thinner than a traditional Kansas City style sauce yet not as thin as a vinegar-based sauce. It has a very nice dark red color to it, and in the photo below you can see there are plenty of spices evenly distributed throughout the sauce.
Sauce Swatch
So I decided to take a test. At this point I find out exactly what he means by “Maryland style”. It’s balance. There is a definite trio of sweet, tangy, and peppery at work here in this sauce. None of the predominant flavor profiles completely overwhelms the others, but I definitely noticed the peppery flavors the most. This is not a bad thing, in my opinion.
To the Meat of the Matter
I decided to put this sauce to test in two scenarios — as a finishing sauce and as a condiment. The first test — burgers. Nice, juicy burgers.
Mmmmm burger...
Burger Porn
Grilled up some burgers using 80/20 ground beef. In the last five minutes, I sauced the burgers very liberally with Doomer’s Q Sauce.
Saucy Burger Porn
The sauce gave the burgers a nice reddish tint to the meat. Upon a taste test, I found that the sauce did not apply a lot of sweetness to the burger, but blended in quite nicely. Juicy and savory, I decided to eat two of them that night. Sorry, no photographic evidence. But I promise I did!
The second test — the condiment test. I had some leftover pulled pork in the freezer, and I decided (and by me, I mean my wife) to make some pulled pork sandwiches.
Pulled Pork with Doomer's Q Sauce
As you can see, the sauce is thin enough to somewhat penetrate the meat, but thick enough to still remain on top. The tangy and sweet worked well with the pork, but it was the peppery flavor profiles that stood out to me the most. Very nice!!
If this is Maryland style BBQ at a glance, I can definitely become a fan!
You can find Doomer’s Q Sauce online at http://www.doomersonline.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.
Big Wayner's BBQ Blog 
Thanks Wayne!
We think Todd and Jo Dooms have a trio of excellent sauces and are happy to see them reviewed here.
We also like the whole “Maryland Style” slant to their marketing and flavors. As fellow Marylanders, we support them fully. 🙂
Looking forward to your thoughts on their other sauces – “Hot & Spicy” and the “Dark”. (The Dark is surprisingly good… never thought I’d care for dark chocolate (with brown sugar) in my BBQ sauce… but it just works!)
Nice review Big Wayne!
Great review Wayne. I’ve heard that Doomers is terrific. Need to check it out.
Absolutely, Cyndi. I think you’ll be happily surprised.
I first heard of Doomer’s from Brian via a guest post he did for our site. Great stuff, and it’s so cool to hear that Maryland produces something other than CRAB! 🙂 LOL. As always, terrific post, Wayne! Keep ’em rolling!
I would love to see a Draper’s – Doomer’s blind throwdown! Anyone got an idea for a 3rd “small batch” sauce to add to the mix? Just a “Fantasy” throwdown at this point.