Carolina BBQ Sauce

  Something I like about barbecue is that everyone has their own variation on what is the "best" way to grill, smoke, or barbecue a piece of meat. There is the great slow smoked beef brisket of Texas, pork ribs and whole hogs of Carolina, open oak pit tri tips of California, and of course the variety of slow cooked beef, pork, chicken, and sausages of the self proclaimed "bbq capital of the world", Kansas City. As many different ways as there are to cook a piece of meat, any true barbecue enthusiast will tell you that the true personal touch that makes his/her barbecue superior to the next person lies in the sauce.

  Planning on smoking a pork shoulder, or "butt" as its known in the barbecue world, this weekend I figured I need to make a sauce to accompany the pulled pork. Every restaurant you turn to these days has some sort of pulled pork item, whether its pulled pork sandwiches, sliders, quesadillas, or a bbq pulled pork taco that would make any good Mexican food aficionado want to throw back four shots of tequila to erase the idea from their mind. But real pulled pork isn't made in an oven and then drenched in a tomato based barbecue sauce as many of these restaurants try to pass off. The only way to make the real thing is to slow smoke a pork shoulder for 14 hours to build that crispy black bark on the outside that adds all the flavor to a true Carolina style pulled pork.

 Every good pulled pork has to be accompanied by a good Carolina sauce. For those of you that don't know what Carolina style sauces are like, they are a vinegar based sauce that is thinner than the commercialized barbecue sauces out there that are tomato based and more closely resemble a Texas or Memphis style sauce. I think you'll find that Carolina sauces are easy to make and delicious on anything pork with its perfect mix of tangy, sweet, and spicy. Here is my version of a Carolina sauce that I came up with that matches up perfectly with pulled pork on its own or piled high in a sandwich. Try this one next time you make a barbecue pork dish and it will last for months in the fridge.

My Sweet Carolina Sauce

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of distilled vinegar
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons of light brown sugar
1/4 cup of ketchup
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons of black pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a quart size mason jar.
2. Tightly seal the jar with a lid and shake vigorously for a couple minutes until all of the ingredients are dissolved.
3. Refrigerate the sauce overnight to let the flavors come together.
4. Use sauce over pulled pork or as a mop sauce on ribs or pulled pork during the smoking process.