Western North Carolina Vinegar Barbeque Sauce

I would eliminate brown sugar and ketchup entirely. There's not enough lemon juice to matter, so increase it substantially, or eliminate it as well. Most will say it needs more hot sauce. Instructions for using vinegar sauce are missing. Suggestion: slow cook fresh pork (any way you want), and then pull. Finally, add sauce and toss like a salad.

This is not bad for EASTERN NC BBQ sauce - but as someone who has lived all my life in western NC, I can tell you that the traditional sauce in this part of the state will never have vinegar in it. I used "Texas Pete" hot sauce (another western NC product!)instead of Tabasco, and added a lot more than the recipe called for. I also eliminated the lemon juice. My family is used to the western NC sweet, tomato based sauces, I was afraid that vinegar plus lemon juice would be too, too much! This sauce works well for grilling and marinating - I used it on chicken - but since it is thin, you need to baste often to make sure the flavor is even.

I've been using this recipe for years and it's always been easy to prepare and well liked. The best thing about it is that one can "customize" it by using their favorite "heat" (pepper sauce) so that it is as hot or mild as one wishes. One suggestion is to ALWAYS make enough to have extra for dipping or spreading on the finished meat. Once your guests taste it, they'll crave more!

I used unsalted butter and scaled this up to make a gallon. I needed that much to used as a mop sauce for a 65 pound pig that we roasted for the 4th of July. What a hit! Perfect combination of flavors!

I don't like sweet bbq sauce, so this one is perfect! The first time I left out the sugar, but have added it everytime since. My family is crazy about it, too! We love this on chicken, but will use for pork, too.

My husband went to school in NC and he really enjoyed this recipe. It's a keeper at our house.

This is a basting, serving, dipping sauce. I use it when I do anything on the rotissore because it doesn't burn and can be used from start to finish for poultry or pork. It does not have to be refrigerated for two days but I do it to let the red pepper flakes infuse the sauce before I strain them out. You don't have to strain them out but I like to put the sauce in plastic squeeze bottle so the seeds don't clog up the spout when I baste. Like Grammy Sue stated, You can customize this recipe any way you like to PS If you don't want use the red pepper flakes then use 2 tsp of hot or mild new mexico chile powder. You will not have to strain the sauce if you use the powder

Really made my pulled pork zippy. A flavorful thin vinegar sauce.

My husband LOVED this recipe! I did not use the red pepper flakes because I didn't have any, but otherwise made recipe as stated. Thank you! Will definitely use again!

This is awesome! I've always wanted to try N.Carolina Vinegar style BBQ sauce - I will probably make this at least a couple times a month!!!

I was raised in N. Carolina and this is just like I remembered it!

I failed to notice that it was to be refrigerated for two days so I didn't serve it at my big pulled pork barbecue dinner. When I told my guests they asked for the homemade sauce and then raved about it. One guest even took a pint of the sauce home. No one even opened the bottled sauce on the table.

Since moving to North Carolina my immediate family and I have grown to love the vinegar base bbq. When going to visit family in California I wanted to share the taste with them. They absolutely LOVED this with pulled pork! I used 1 teaspoon ground red pepper and it was great. Not too spicy, but it definitely had some spunk still. Thank you for putting this on here!

Made this for shredded pork and served it on hard rolls with creamy cole slaw. It was phenomenal.

Love this sauce! Great if you like NC vinegar based barbeque. I stick to the recipe and it is always perfect.

I changed a few things, but it was as close to home as I can get in Southern Arizona!

This is the only decent recipe I've found for Carolina BBQ sauce. I followed the recipe exactly. Since I live in a highrise (11 stories up) I can't grill in any way, so I slow cook a pork roast with a can of beer and, when done, use this sauce--heaven!

I make this recipe for whole hogs, butts, chicken,and wings. I omit the mustard powder, use Texas Pete, instead of Tabasco, and use fresh lemon slices instead of the juice. I heat it to infuse the flavors, as directed above. I seldom strain or refrigerate before using, especially when mopping a whole hog. When using on chicken, I make enough so I can dip the chicken rather than basting them, due to the sauce being thin. It creates some waste, but since this is easy to make, I don't worry about it. Since it doesn't burn on the grill, you can dip the chicken/wings as many times as you want depending on the amount of heat you want.

Loved it! Sweet, spicey and sour, just the way I like it! added a touch more lemon and red pepper flakes though. Overall outstanding!

This recipe needs to be renamed to EASTERN NC BBQ! North Carolina has two TOTALLY different types of BBQ-and this one is not Western style! Western NC hates Eastern BBQ and vice versa!

This is always the first sauce to go when we serve bbq with an array of homemade and store-bought sauces. It's best on dry-rubbed ribs , drizzled on right before serving. I always do a little tweaking for personal tastes. That usually means a little more sugar, worcestershire and black pepper. It's important to let it cook down a bit. The vinegar bite dissipates a bit and it thickens up to a good consistency.

It’s perfect NC sauce just like it is.

Loved it. Used green onion instead of regular since I did not have regular.

I made the recipe as directed but left in the red pepper flakes. It’s a great sauce for pulled pork or chicken. There a heat that creaps up in your throat. If you’re smoking meat it’s a great mop sauce as well. Being a KC, Memphis, and TX bbq fan this isn’t all that bad. It has more flavor than the typical eastern NC “bbq sauce”

I like the base sauce but made a second batch with a little less yellow mustard and a touch of liquid smoke. I am not a huge fan of yellow mustard taste so that better suited what I was after. But, the recipe as a whole gave me a great starting place to get to what I was looking for.

I wanted a ketchup based BBQ sauce so I swapped the vinegar proportion for the ketchup and vice versa and it worked out fine. lemon juice is key. baked as the sauce on pork chops layered with onion & lemon. tasty.

My crowd loved this sauce! That's all I needed to know. I believe next time, I will use a little less vinegar.