Mumbo Sauce - D.C.'s Famous Sweet & Sour Sauce

Delicious. Might have use a little less vinegar but I like this version. Reminds me of when I was in school in DC!

The recipe as written is sickly sweet and to me, too hot, but I realize that both are subjective. My biggest gripe is that it is out of balance and has no depth of flavor. I would rate it just ok. It needs help. It was a good base to start with and by the time I got done tweaking it was good. However, it bore very little resemblance to the original recipe. If I was ever to make it again, I would use brown sugar because it adds depth and makes a better barbeque style sauce. I didn't use the entire teaspoon of Cayenne to begin with because we don't like things really hot and that would have been fiery (I used 1/2), but it needed depth so I added cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, ground mustard and garam marsala. I also added some extra white vinegar and fresh lemon peel for some brightness and to balance out all the sweetness. It turned out good in the long run, but it took a bit to get it there. As is the sauce tastes really sweet and hot, but lacks any real depth of flavor and has absolutely no balance. It needs some smokiness that the paprika brings and some balance in acidity and sweetness. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Sorry I didn't care for it much. (P.S. This says I've made it twice -i've only made it once).

Good for BBQ burger and Links

It’s okay, but it needed hot sauce, no way around this ingredient. Cayenne pepper and vinegar ain’t going to cut it.

I followed recipe exactly. Slightly sweet with a little heat. Texture is on the thinner side, over all great!

I can across this version of Mumbo Sauce, opened the link to see if it’s similar to the one I was given by a Chinese restaurant owner before moving to Texas. I became friends with many owners of restaurants working public safety in DC. Everyone pretty much had the same ingredients. Yours by far is NOT the DC Mumbo Sauce that everyone raves about! The original is quite simple not all this sweet mess. Yours is mainly a “sweet & sour sauce”.

If you like spicy this recipe is perfect... if not you could afford to cut down on the cayenne a bit