True Southeastern North Carolina BBQ Sauce

Submitted by Leta8076

"True SE NC BBQ Sauce never contains ketchup or syrups. It is purely vinegar and seasonings. This is the Southern Food version."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 10mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Yields: 1 cup

ingredients

• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon peppercorn
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup water

directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly, uncovered for an hour.
3. Strain to remove peppercorns if desired.
4. Serve on pulled pork with coleslaw, on a plate or on a bun.

Reviews

[res8o07f]

I was stationed at Lejeune for five years and fell in love with the BBQ sauce. Since I left I have always been let down with "real carolina bbq sauce" This was like going home, I ran mine through a blender and it turned out fantastic!

 

[chia2160]

wonderfully easy to prepare and is perfect with the pulled pok. i wouldn't change a thing. except to add that there is no need to strain out the black peppers, they tended to remain at the bottom of the pan anyway.

 

[California Fusion F]

Good stuff if you like pickled veggies and vinegar. I have found that a lot of people can't take the strong vinegar though so I found adding 2Tb of sugar and doing 2:1 instead of 1:2 water:vinegar works well for the crowd.

 

[Lucky Clover]

As a sauce, this was just too much vinegar for us. I did add some to the pork roast in the crock pot, and it gave the meat a really nice flavor. It was just too much by itself. I ended up adding a lot more brown sugar to it to tone the acidity down. It was a nice change from traditional bbq, though. Thanks for sharing!

 

[John Caldwell]

This is a review from an amature cook from Texas so take it for what it's worth. I used this sauce with pulled pork (both for basting and to put on it after cooking). As a baste it worked really well giving that perfect amount of spice and sweetness. I personally didn't like using it after the cooking process because it was too vinegary for my taste. My wife loved this recipe; but then again, she used to drink pickle juice. I followed the recipe precisely and tried a few variations. In one of them, I boiled fresh cubed apples with white vinegar and water instead of the cider. This made it a bit sweeter and worked very well with the pork but still retained an overly strong sour taste. Another time, I put a couple tablespoons of lard in my pan and carmelized the onions before adding the other ingredients. This was my favorite. The lard really seemed to tone down the acid. The other variation I used was to put all of the contents into a blender after cooking. Should have removed the peppercorns because it was HOT! Wife loved that one too.