Tue Aug 3, 2010
That Carolina Tang
Two years ago I went through a truly transcendent experience, one involving the introduction of vinegar to pork. While visiting two of my most favorite people in world in Eastern North Carolina, it was a given we'd be hitting up some local joints like Allen & Son and Ed Mitchell's The Pit. There I learned, without a doubt, just how well dressed up vinegar could enhance the flavor of barbecued pork.
My instant enthusiasm led me to the purchase of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue, a tome of all things North Carolina barbecue. Captured within those pages was an original recipe for North Carolina vinegar sauce, which I made during my next pulled pork cook, and with just a little cut down on the salt, it tasted pretty good to me.
Little did I know that the evolution of the sauce had come such a long way from that dated recipe, and Serious Eaters let me know it in no uncertain terms. With the breadth of comments that post elicited, I've been able to piece together and refine a sauce that I finally feel confident enough is in proper shape to present to the finest smoked swine and the interweb masses at large.
From my original post, where the recipe called for only four ingredients—cider vinegar, crushed red pepper, ground black pepper, and salt—I've added only three additional. First is dark brown sugar, adding a nice molasses sweetness that balances out some tartness and also deepens the overall color of the sauce. Ketchup is next up, which gives a little redness to look and thickens it up ever so slightly. Finally, and most importantly, is Texas Pete's Hot Sauce. The cayenne based sauce was created in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and I don't think I could make anything and label it "North Carolina" without adding at least a little Texas Pete.
With a couple sugars and salt in the mix, I thought it would be best to give the sauce a quick boil to help dissolve the solids. I believe this step ended up being pretty crucial, since the sauces that got the heat treatment ended up tasting a little more vibrant and cohesive in the end.
Finally, the vinegar sauce really needs a nice rest to finish it off. After cooling to room temperature, sauces that were refrigerated at least one day ended up having a stronger flavor that was more distinguishable when doused onto to meat.
Finally comes the pulled pork, the most perfect pairing for this sauce. I fell in love with the magic it imparted onto some smoky pork in North Carolina and I feel it's replicated incredibly well at home now. Although the sauce is quite strong on spice and tang on its own, when added to the meat, it feels like the natural pork flavor is only enhanced rather than getting a mouth full of hot vinegar. That's the beauty of this sauce and why, after posting a seemingly "wrong" recipe, I took a couple years to refine it to what I now consider its proper state. Not being a North Carolinian though, I still have to ask, "How am I doing?"
North Carolina Vinegar Sauce
Ingredients
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon Texas Pete’s
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Procedure
1. Place all of the ingredients in a small, non-reactive sauce pan and bring to a boil. Whisk until the sugar and salt is completely dissolved, remove from heat, and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Pour the sauce into a jar or squeeze bottle and let rest in the refrigerator one day before using.
Comments
I am slowly learning about the different sauces,styles and their roots. this was really interesting to me. I passed this post on to my friend @cyndiallison that lives in NC and knows here sauces.
It will be interesting to get her take on it.
Posted Tue, Aug 3 2010 10:52am
Oh, this looks delicious. I miss pork.
Posted Tue, Aug 3 2010 11:18am
@Wilfred Reinke Thanks! I'd love to get a local expert opinion.
@Bryan Koen I'll have your own pork butt waiting for the day you start eating meat again.
Posted Tue, Aug 3 2010 2:09pm
The fact that you added any ketchup will get you beat up by East NC diehards (ha ha). But my BBQ experience was from Bladen County and theirs is more of a cross with a Piedmont (Western NC) style sauce, including some ketchup. So I'd be fine with your revised sauce.
Posted Tue, Aug 3 2010 11:47pm
Great pics! I love Carolina sauce as a finishing sauce for pulled pork. I'm also growing to love their mustard based sauces for pork and chicken.
Posted Wed, Aug 4 2010 7:45pm
Chris is correct. Typically, Eastern NC sauce only consists of vinegar, sugar, salt and hot sauce/peppers. So the ketchup is a no-no for Eastern NC style, if you want to stay traditional. I live in the piedmont, west of Charlotte, so our sauces normally consist of vinegar and ketchup. I smoke my own pork butts for pulled pork about 14-18 hours, and I think it's better than anything I can get locally. My go to sauce has:
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup ketchup
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup de-fatted pork pan drippings
No cooking, just mix and throw it on. This is still a thin sauce, but not as thin as eastern NC style. Everyone who has tried it has loved it on pulled pork with coleslaw on top and a toasted bun.
Mustard based sauces are typically from SC, and is a whole different ballgame.
I definitely will be giving your sauce a try, as it appears to be a good one. Besides, I'm not a purist. I tend to like stuff that tastes good, irregardless of whether it crosses the line of tradition or not.
Posted Fri, Aug 6 2010 10:31am
What's texas pete sauce and what can I substitute for it in the UK? Franks hot sauce? Tabasco?
Posted Sun, Aug 8 2010 4:26pm
@Ben Cops Texas Pete is a hot sauce born in NC and made from cayenne peppers. You can certainly substitute another hot sauce, like Tabasco, but Texas Pete has a flavor and history unique to NC, which is why I used it here.
Posted Sun, Aug 8 2010 10:07pm
Have you tried the mustard/vinegar sauces from South Carolina? Most famous is Maurice's.
Posted Sun, Aug 22 2010 3:35pm
I just became a big fan of pulled pork about a year ago. Now I love collecting pulled pork recipes. Thanks for posting this! I made Crockpot Old South Pulled Pork on a Bun recently and it was delicious! Keep up the great work here!
Posted Wed, Aug 25 2010 10:50am
I moved to MD from NC last year and MISS BBQ!!! No one here does it right. Had to drive to Hursey's in Burlington NC last month while visiting a friend to bring 5# of it home. It's under lock and key, and won't be casually doled out to just anyone!
Posted Tue, Mar 8 2011 10:48am
I'm from SC, too, where have sort of a sauce schizophrenia, based on region, but I've always been partial to the eastern NC and SC vinegar based or the midlands SC vinegar/mustard base. I think you got it right here except for the addition of the ketchup and the Texas Pete -- ketchup doesn't belong east of Durham at all, and you don't need the premade TP (or tabasco or even crystal, my favorite for flavor) if you steep the crushed reds in the vinegar/sugar/salt. We call it a mop sauce, and then put on the table Crystal or TP or Tabasco for extra heat.
Posted Fri, Sep 2 2011 12:31am
Made the Carolina Tang sauce yesterday. Was a bit hot for me so added another TBL dark brown and 2 TBL white sugar. Mellowed it out some for my taste buds that love hot but can't handle too hot anymore.
Was fabulous, my family enjoyed it immensly even though we usually eat my dad's Tennessee sauce on our pork. Thanks so much-it's a Keeper!
Posted Mon, Oct 24 2011 11:42am
I hate to admit it, but this Dallas-born and raised boy had to modify the original recipe - it was TOO Hot!
I used a different hot sauce, so that might have been the reason, but I doubled (at least) the brown sugar, and tripled the ketchup - was still a little bit too vinegar/spicey, but I thought I'd chalk it up to the experience...
we in the western-most Southern state prefer our bbq sauce sweeter and with more tomato...remember, it's just a preference, not a requirement...
thanks for the recipe to try!
Posted Sun, Jan 8 2012 9:07pm
You forgot the most important thing.. 1 half a stick of butter.. I have been eating carolina sauces all my life and cooking it at firestations all over NC. That's the secret of good sauce for chicken or pork. Try it and tell me what you think...
Posted Fri, Jan 27 2012 1:51pm
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