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 so 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 meat. And 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.
I remember the first time as a child being told by my grandmother that we were having Barbecue for dinner at her house. I was so excited. I love Barbecue. So when she plated a sandwich with hamburger meat, I was in complete dismay . I did not want to eat it. I said, “This isn’t Barbecue!”
You see, in the South, Barbecue is generally defined as “Pulled Pork.”
We are very, very proud of our Pulled Pork Barbecue, as we should be; because if cooked correctly, it is AMAZING! In Wisconsin, and I assume other northern states, they define Barbecue as what we call a “Sloppy Joe;” consisting of a very tasty mixture of slowly cooked hamburger meat, a tomato based sauce, an assortment of seasonings, and onions.
Now, my grandmother’s Sloppy Joes are fantastic. And I do love them. But they are NOT BARBECUE! Just saying…
The secret to my husband’s beautiful Pulled Pork is Time, Patience, Babysitting, Salt and Pepper, and a Green Egg.
My husband salts and peppers heavily a Boston Butt Pork Shoulder. He heats his Green Egg Grill to 220 to 250 degrees. Then he cooks 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 his babysitting.
When the meat is the temperature he wants, he wraps it in tinfoil and lets it rest. This step 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 the bbq sauce.
There is the mustard based sauce, the sweet and tangy sauce, the tomato based sauce, the brown sugar and molasses sauce, the smokey spicy sauce… I could go on and on… Honestly, we are very serious about our sauces and if you can find one in the store that is local, BUY it! Those are the best. 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 here in North Carolina and when we put it out at our cookouts, the jar goes empty.
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.
But just as much as we like the sweet stuff, we also like the vinegar based bbq sauce.
In the Carolinas, vinegar based barbecue sauce and pulled pork go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. And the homemade stuff is so easy, cheap, and fast to make, there is NO reason to buy it. I am sharing my spicy, tangy, vinegar-based recipe with you. I hope you love it as much as we do!
* I put my sauce in a mason jar. Old salad dressing bottles are also great for storing your sauce.
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 of 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…..
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.
Notes
Nutrition- Nutrition info is based on estimation only.
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.