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