Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes Carolina BBQ sauce different? ›

Eastern North Carolina Vinegar Sauce

Unlike many modern sauces, the eastern-style uses no tomato, relying instead on a tart combination of vinegar (usually cider vinegar) and added spices like cayenne, black pepper, crushed red pepper, hot sauce (often Texas Pete), salt, and sometimes water.

Take a tip from North Carolina and look to vinegar—white vinegar, apple cider vinegar—as the key to great barbecue sauce, cutting its sweetness and lending a little tang.

For example, Kansas City BBQ typically features a sweet tomato-based sauce with a tangy taste. There are many different barbecue styles, but two of the most popular are Kansas City and Carolina. Carolina BBQ typically is spicier and uses vinegar as a base for their sauces.

Let the sauce sit for 24 hours before using it to allow the flavors to combine. Give it another quick shake before serving. This BBQ sauce will last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Generally, barbecue sauces is categorized into four varieties: tomato-based sauces, vinegar-based sauces, mustard-based sauces, and mayonnaise-based sauces. Each category can have a range of BBQ sauce styles, ranging from sweet and tangy to hot and spicy.

You can use either flour or cornstarch to thicken BBQ sauce. Just mix together 2 tbsp (16 g) of flour and ¼ cup (62.5 mL) of water, or combine 1 tbsp (9 g) of cornstarch with 1 tbsp (15 mL) of water. Continue mixing the thickener until there are no lumps of flour or cornstarch.

Whether you're using your barbecue sauce on pulled pork, ribs, chicken, or meatballs, a little apple cider vinegar can really improve the flavor. If you don't have any ACV on hand, red wine vinegar (made from fermented red wine) will do in a pinch.

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Distilled Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Modified Corn Starch, Contains Less Than 2% Of Salt, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Natural Smoke Flavor, Spice, Caramel Color, Molasses, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Garlic,* Mustard Flour, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Tamarind, Natural Flavor, Celery Seed.

My favourite choice for spritzing meat is a mix of apple cider vinegar and water as it helps balance fatty cuts of meat, add moisture, and inject flavour. Avoid spritzing too often as it will increase your cooking time.

Barbecue in South Carolina is typically prepared by smoking meat over hickory or oak. Barbecue in South Carolina heavily features pork rather than beef. Whole hog barbecue, where an entire pig is cooked over hardwood coals, is particularly common in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

What makes Memphis barbecue sauce different? ›

Memphis, Tennessee

The barbecue in Memphis is tangy and thin, which makes it starkly different from its Kansas City competitors. While the sauce is also tomato-based and contains brown sugar, it includes mustard and vinegar among its ingredients as well.

In Haracz's expert opinion, Open Pit hickory barbecue sauce is the best possible match for what's found at McDonald's. It all comes down to ingredients, explained Haracz. To find a good match, the chef scoured the ingredient listing for the McDonald's version and compared it to other brands.

Lexington-style barbecue is unique because of its preparation. At Lexington Barbecue, pork shoulders cook for nearly half a day over oak and hickory coals. The barbecue sauce and slaw are flavored with tomato ketchup, not mayonnaise or mustard, giving them a sweet flavor.

My Cousin Vinegar is a 16oz special Carolina Style blend of vinegar and our own "The Usual" all-purpose spice. A tangy, flavorful sauce that tastes great on smoked pork shoulder, pulled pork sandwiches, chicken and ribs. This tasty sauce is great as a marinade, basting, condiment or topping for any cut of meat.

Duke's Carolina Vinegar BBQ Sauce originates from the Piedmont region of western North Carolina. Born out of a state-wide barbecue divide, this tangy, vinegar-based sauce adds a touch of tomato paste for sweetness and color.

North Carolina: Home to the “Original” BBQ Recipe

The meat must be barbecued, meaning cooked at a low temperature for a long time with heat and smoke flavoring the meat from a fire of hardwood and/or hardwood coals. The meat must be pork (whole hog, shoulder, or occasionally ham).

South Carolina is home to several distinct styles of barbecue characterized by different cuts of meat, types of barbecue sauce and preparation. It is particularly well known for the heavy emphasis on pork and the popularity of a mustard-based barbecue sauce in the central part of the state.

In the age-old competition between East and West, Eastern-style barbecue has an undeniable tart flavor with a little spice. It's quite different than ketchup-based styles in Western states. Some supporters of the 'cue will say that even Western-style North Carolina barbeque is too saucy and sweet by comparison.

The Western North Carolina BBQ sauce, also known as the Lexington or Piedmont style, is a tomato and vinegar based sauce that has a spicy kick thanks to the addition of either red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, or hot pepper sauce.