Thin, tart and full of great flavor – While watching the Pats why not try some local cuisine BBQ shredded Panthers with vinegar based sauces.

Vinegar is the secret ingredient of Carolina Barbecue, particularly apple cider vinegar. Straight cider vinegar is used as a marinade, before cooking, as a baste during cooking and as the primary ingredients of a finishing sauce served on barbecue at the table. The secret of using vinegar with barbecue is to give it time to work it’s way into the meat so that you won’t be left with a strong bitter flavor. You need to balance the sweet flavor of slow cooked meat with the flavor of the vinegar. The advantage to vinegar barbecue sauces is that you can add them in at anytime and the vinegar easily works into the meat. This allows you to add spices and have them sink into the meat giving it plenty of flavor.

Of course there is more to a good vinegar barbecue sauce than vinegar. North Carolina is divided on the issue of sauce. On the eastern side, vinegar is kept pure, particularly of those nasty tomatoes. However on the west side barbecue sauces are put together with a hint of tomato and sugar. Now while the purists will keep to these formulas others have taken to the additions of cayenne, brown sugar, molasses, red pepper, red pepper flakes, etc.. These thin sauces can come in so many different variations that they could challenge the thick, sweet sauces in variety.

The vinegar used is usually apple cider vinegar, but plain white vinegar works as well. The advantage of vinegar in sauces is that it has an additional tenderizing effect that helps make barbecue pull apart perfect. The gentle acid of vinegar tenderizes the meat during the process making it as tender as possible

Now, like any other barbecue sauce it is best made in advance. You want to give the flavors time to mix. The vinegar will literally dissolve most anything you add to it. If you add coarse ingredients like red pepper flakes you really need to give it a day or two to pull the flavors out into the vinegar.

Now these would be good with any of my recipes such as:

• BBQ Oven Baked Rib for Gloria

• Won a contest!!

• Pulled pork sandwiches

• Smoked Wilfork Tender Brisket

• Reign on Brisket Sandwich

Here are some local Carolina recipes I found

Pulled Pork Finishing Sauce

This traditional finishing sauce is a wonderful accompaniment to Carolina Style Pulled Pork. It is served on the side and added by the person doing the eating.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: Makes about 1 1/4 cup

Ingredients:

•1 cup cider vinegar
•2 tablespoons salt
•2 tablespoons brown sugar
•1 teaspoon cayenne
•1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together. Let stand as long as possible, at least 1/2 a day, but the longer the better.

Carolina Red

This recipe is a great table sauce for Pulled Pork. Blending both the vinegar and tomato traditions of North Carolina into one.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne or 1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar. Serve at room temperature or chilled. The sauce keeps indefinitely.

Hog Mop

Want to smoke a whole hog? This mop not only gives it a great flavor but makes enough to get you through.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 12 minutes
Yield: Makes 5 quarts (You can cut it down in amounts when BBQ or smoking a roast. I would mop more often)

Years ago my sister would hold an annual pig roast I remember the ride home with the pig in the passenger’s seat cigarette butt hanging out of its mouth. We would do either an oil, oregano and rosemary or vinegar based slop. The trick was to get someone to wander over and try out turning the pig on the hand rotated spigot, then you would walk away leaving them with this distraught look of abandonment while you grab and down another beer. It was not long until they figured out the game and there were always enough newbies around. Wish I could find some of those old pictures, ahh that crispy pig skin.

Ingredients:

• 3 quarts cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 quarts water
• 3/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup chili powder

Preparation:

Mix ingredients together and mop hog every other hour.

North Carolina Vinegar Sauce

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 5 Minutes
Total Time: 10 Minutes
Yield: 2 cups

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

How

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.