In the Carolinas, vinegar based barbecue sauce and pulled pork go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.
This vinegar based Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe is easy, cheap, and fast to make. There is NO reason to buy it.
Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe
My husband makes the BEST Pulled Pork!!! I am so spoiled and ruined. I have never been at any other restaurant that can even come close to his beautiful hunks of pork.
I am not just saying this because he is incredibly cute and the father of my child… I am saying this because he really makes the BEST Pulled Pork ever…
And when he makes his beautiful Pulled Pork; I use my homemade Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe.
How to make vinegar-based bbq sauce:
Here are the steps to make spicy, tangy, vinegar-based bbq sauce. I hope you love it as much as we do!
- Place apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper in a sauce pan.
- Cook on stove top at Medium heat.
- Bring to a boil.
- Whisk together until sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
- Cool to room temperature.
- Pour sauce into a jar or bottle. For best results, refrigerate one day before serving.
- Shake well before serving.
Tip: * I put my sauce in a mason jar. Old salad dressing bottles are also great for storing your sauce.
Tips for cooking pulled pork
The secret to my husband’s beautiful Pulled Pork is Time, Patience, Babysitting, Salt and Pepper, and a Green Egg. Here are tips he gives for cooking juicy pulled pork:
- Salt and pepper heavily a Boston Butt Pork Shoulder. It makes a juicy tender cut!
- Heat your Green Egg Grill to 220 to 250 degrees. Cook the pork shoulder real slow until meat temperature gets to 195 to 200 degrees. The grill’s temperature can go up and down, so this requires babysitting.
- When the meat is the temperature your want, wrap it in tinfoil and lets it rest.
Note: Wrapping the pork in tinfoil is very important to keep the moisture and juice to settle in the meat. If you cut it too quickly, the juice will run out of the meat and the pork will not be as juicy and tender.
We know from experience. When you see that beautiful meat, you loose all patience and want to tear into it immediately. But as the saying goes, “The best comes to those who wait!”
If done correctly, you can pull the pork apart easily with a fork, hence “Pulled Pork.”
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Us Southerners are CRAZY over bbq sauce.
Depending what part of the South you are in, you will find a mustard based sauce, sweet and tangy sauce, tomato based sauce, the brown sugar and molasses sauce, the smokey spicy sauce… I could go on and on…
In the Carolinas, you can not have pulled pork without vinegar based barbecue sauce.
However, we also like to have the sweet and tangy sauce on hand!
My Southern friend Karrie Holland (She lives in New Hampshire, but is originally from Florida) makes a really good sweet and tangy sauce for the crock-pot. If you want to create your own Sweet & Tangy sauce, check out her Slow Cooker BBQ Sauce recipe.
If you are going to purchase the sweet and tangy sauce, skip the chain, massed produced stuff.
Our favorite store bought for the sweet tangy sauce is Cackalacky Sweet Cheerwine Sauce 33.8 Oz . It is made locally, here in North Carolina and when we put it out at our cookouts, the jar goes empty.
Other Suggestions
You might want to also try my Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce. Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce is vinegar and mustard based. It’s roots come from South Carolina and has trickled into the homes of some North Carolinians.
Unlike North Carolina bbq sauce, which is vinegar based with ketchup, brown sugar or molasses; the Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce is based with mustard, vinegar sugar and/or honey, and spices.
I like to have multiple sauces at my parties so my friends have a variety to choose from. This is another easy recipe that is whipped up in 10 minutes.
By the way, my Bacon Ranch Potato Salad and Southern Baked Beans Quintet would make awesome side dishes to any pulled pork!!! Both dishes are a favorite at any cookout I have and I never have leftovers.
Add in a couple of vegetables or a salad and you have a wicked good spread!!!! Just saying…..
Please leave me a comment below if you make this bbq recipe, and tell me what you thought about it. I would love to hear back, and so would my readers.
Also post your picture of your Carolina bbq sauce on Instagram or Facebook, and tag @aforkstale with #aforkstale hashtags! I will share with my followers! xoxo!
Carolina Barbecue Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon of ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a pan.
- Cook on stove top at Medium heat.
- Bring to a boil.
- Whisk together until sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
- Cool to room temperature.
- Pour sauce into a jar or bottle. For best results, refrigerate one day before serving.
- Shake well before serving.
Vera Bundy says
Oh, hush my mouth, but this is a GREAT tasting recipe for BBQ sauce ! Just the right balance of sweet and tangy ! Thank you for sharing this !
Peggy Etheridge says
Sauce was very good! I served it on country style pork ribs cooked in a crockpot.
Martha says
Brings me right back home to good ole NC every time! love love love it!
Kristi Taylor says
try the sauce on your greens… OMG…
Carrie says
Outstanding. Holy moly. Best pulled pork bbq ever :). I made the sauce the day before but decided to let my browned pork roast marinate in it while it sat overnight. I browned my pork roast with salt and pepper on all sides. I added 2 additional tsp of salt into the sauce since I wanted the pork to be seasoned throughout. I cooked on high in a crockpot for 4 hours and then turned to low for the last 4. I have never had such delicious bbq! Next time I’ll make two batches of sauce – one with extra salt for marinade and one for adding on after cooking. PS I have used Scott’s before and although I like the flavor, it’s too spicy for me. To be safe, I did omit only the cayenne knowing I could add it later. It was just right to me without the cayenne.
Katie Crenshaw says
Hi Jennifer,
The vinegar preserves everything. The quality life of apple cider vinegar is 2 years. However, even after 2 years, it will be safe to eat indefinitely. I never have enough sauce left for an extended period of time. But it should “keep” fine for several months. Over time, the seasonings will break down and you will loose the quality of flavor. However, there is nothing that should make you sick. I keep mine in the fridge to preserve the flavors longer. I have never canned it, so I can’t be sure how it will change up after pressure cooking it. I am not very experienced in canning. I wish I was, because it would make a great gift!If you do can it, please tell me if it worked out.
Jennifer Jones says
How long can these sit on the shelf if I make a few jars?
Do they need to be pressure canned for long storage?
Rich says
Great Recipe that will make your mouth water long before the pork butt cooks!
Patricia Winter says
When living on the east coast in N Carolina I fell in love with the barbecue it was amazing. Haven’t had anything close to it on the west coast.
This sauce recipe nailed it! It’s deliciously amazing!
Thank you for sharing.
Jeff Moody says
Katie, your vinegar based BBQ sauce is the bomb. I made some to go with my Boston Butt and I absolutely loved it. Here in Tennessee, most people like the sweet sauce but some of us know what’s best. Ha!
Sincerely,
The Cooking Preacher
Douglas H. says
Very good and when I’m cooking pulled pork,this is what I go to..I put this in and on anything that calls for vinegar. I love this stuff..I make up a gallon at a time.
James Radney says
I’ve got to give you a solid on this sauce. I love everything vinegar and this stuff rocks! Especially on pork. Add a bit of Texas Pete and you’re set! (PS the overnight set is crucial…)
Ken C Lanier says
This BBQ makes me miss NC… living in California now, I brag on the bbq from Greensboro North Carolina and nothing comes close to it in California so this recipe will help me bring a taste of North Carolina to the West Coast thank you
SB says
Been searching for a written recipe to give to a friend “Up North” who is now hooked on Eastern Pulled Pork BBQ. Typically sauce is made on the fly and I don’t have a good written version. After searching and rejecting multiple recipes this one has all the parts in the right places. Growing up in Wilmington NC I am picky on my Eastern BBQ recipes.
L.T. says
My boss loves to cook, so when he smoked pork butts for his employees, he made this sauce. I liked it so much that took a bottle of it home. All I can say is that it will keep for months, not weeks, and it only gets better with age. Vinegar never spoils.