Eastern North Carolina-Style BBQ Sauce
Updated June 24, 2023
- Total Time
- 10 minutes, plus 2 months' storage
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ½cup white vinegar
- ½cup cider vinegar
- ½tablespoon sugar
- ½tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½tablespoon Tabasco sauce
- Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Nutritional analysis per serving (2 servings)
39 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 0 grams protein; 295 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Drizzle on barbecued meat. Covered, sauce will keep about 2 months.
Private Notes
Comments
I grew up in Eastern North Carolina and my family raised and cooked whole pigs over coals. Their bbq sause was one gallon of cider vinegar with enough poured out so that the gallon glass jug could also hold one inch of ground red pepper, one inch of ground white pepper, and one inch of ground black pepper left to sit for flavors to blend for a week or more before use.
This recipe is very close to the authentic NC basic one. For what it's worth, in most of Eastern NC we use brown sugar in the same amount instead of table sugar. I've also never seen Tabasco or other hot sauces used, but every pitmaster has his (or her) own variation on the basic recipe, so.....
A very good recipe for Eastern Carolina sauce. I say Eastern Carolina because, as you head West, the amount of tomato that gets added along the way increases, while the vinegar disappears. So, there are really three kinds of Carolina sauce.
Being from Maryland, I get the "it's not true ...", we feel the same about anything made with blue crab. But I love this sauce. The vinegary-ness is right up my alley!
It was excellent. I applied rub and cooked mine in the instant pot. It looked good enough to eat without the sauce!
One clarification re: “pulled pork” when discussing eastern NC style bbq: in eastern NC, we baste the pig with a sauce like this one and then chop the meat, tossing again with sauce and serving more sauce alongside. In western parts of the state, it’s more frequently pulled. Different texture and experience when chopped and most definitely the “authentic” eastern NC style; we don’t historically do “pulled” pork.
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