Red Carolina Sauce?

[Count Porcula]

I made myself a sort of vinegar sauce. It may be delusional to call it a sauce, since it was mainly ketchup, cider vinegar, and maple syrup. Anyway, it was fine.

The problem is that I have almost no experience with typical vinegar or Carolina sauces. The only one I am really familiar with is a local restaurant's Carolina sauce. I have no idea whether what I made is anywhere close to the real thing.

It occurs to me that the people on this forum may have a couple of West Carolina sauce recipes everyone thinks are fantastic, so I am here to ask: is this the case, and where are they? Failing that, are there brands I could try?

 

[chopsaw]

brands I could try?

Lillies is a good one .

 

[mr_whipple]

You've opened a can o' worms... I can't speak to a western Carolina style sauce other than there's a touch of tomato or ketchup if you wanna call it that as compared to the north eastern sauce I basically learned on as a damn yankee when I moved here. I buy Lillie's when it's on sale and they do make some tasty sauces. The one pictured above is quite nice.

When you dabble into the regional sauces of the Carolina's and Virginia there's a serious rabbit hole with a hooka smoking caterpillar at the entrance. If you like that, a good Virginia red sauce isn't to be ignored. Two of my favorites are from King's BBQ in Petersburg and Prince George BBQ on 460 in New Bohemia. I like Kings Q, but I prefer PG sauce. Your mileage may vary, but I'm hungry now. Probably gonna hafta make a run out that way and pick up some Wakefield or Hub's peanuts along the way. For the record, I am not a shill for either establishment. It's been at least nine months to a year since I've driven by any of them.

 

[chopsaw]

a good Virginia red sauce isn't to be ignored

I saw an Episode of Life of fire , where Tuffy Stone did a Virginia ham . Basted with a mop sauce of ACV and worcestershire , butter and some hot sauce .
Love to try some Virginia style sauce .

 

[Count Porcula]

I just want to start with the basics.

 

[Count Porcula]

You've opened a can o' worms...

East Carolina or West Carolina?

 

[Hijack73]

Yeah, what @mr_whipple said. Drive 30 miles in the Carolinas and the sauces change. And wars are fought. Feuds amongst the warring clans have made thousands of widders an orphans over what SHOULD go into a mason jar of BBQ sauce.

You might be looking for this

1 cup ACV
2 tsp red chili flake
2 tsp coarse black pepper
1-2 TBSP tomato paste

simmer all together 2 minutes


When I make it, I omit the tomato. Some use ketchup instead of tomato.

 

[mr_whipple]

I saw an Episode of Life of fire , where Tuffy Stone did a Virginia ham . Basted with a mop sauce of ACV and worcestershire , butter and some hot sauce .
Love to try some Virginia style sauce .

I'll mail you a bottle of each next time I head out that way. It's cooling off so metal detector season is approaching.

East Carolina or West Carolina?

Either or both. Again, there is as much similarity as difference. Eastern is straight vinegar and pepper(s), but moving west from there you get the tomato, and head south to mustard land. Any way, @Hijack73 is on point.

 

[Count Porcula]

Either or both. Again, there is as much similarity as difference. Eastern is straight vinegar and pepper(s), but moving west from there you get the tomato, and head south to mustard land. Any way, @Hijack73 is on point.

I was talking about worms.

 

[forktender]

Yeah, what @mr_whipple said. Drive 30 miles in the Carolinas and the sauces change. And wars are fought. Feuds amongst the warring clans have made thousands of widders an orphans over what SHOULD go into a mason jar of BBQ sauce.

You might be looking for this

1 cup ACV
2 tsp red chili flake
2 tsp coarse black pepper
1-2 TBSP tomato paste

simmer all together 2 minutes


When I make it, I omit the tomato. Some use ketchup instead of tomato.

This it what I know about Carolina sauces.
My buddy is born and raise in Beaufort NC, still lives there.
Anyway, he sent me a gallon of their sauce along with the recipe.
They called for ketchup, and a TBSP of salt, I love the stuff, and can hardly eat any type of hog meat without it now. It is KILL'er on carnitas as well, it cuts through the greasy fattiness of it.........it's a must have on pulled pork as well. That an plain'ol pepper vinegar is always on hand. The pepper vinegar, is white or A.C. vinegar, salt sliced peppers with a few whole black peppercorns. It sits on our table at all times.
I use empty Patron bottles with the cork stopper. I like it fish, potato & Mac, Mortadella or Salami sandwiches, even on my eggs, and steamed rice and veggies.

I normally use Jap's, Serrano's, Cayenne peppers and Red Hatch chilies in mine, but use what you like. I don't know if the salt is necessary to make it shelf stable, I'm a saltaholic, so I add a TBSP of rock salt to mine.

Try it, it's addicting, and so freak'in good when you have a fish fry.
Crappy, Catfish, Striped Bass, Ling Cod, Rock fish, and Oysters.

Basically it's great with anything fried or greasy, because it cuts the fattiness down.

 

[voyager 663rd]

For recipes that have NEVER failed me:

You can always downgrade the pepper version

Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce Recipe

This homemade Carolina Reaper hot sauce recipe is incredibly hot, made with roasted Carolina Reaper peppers, garlic, and onion. It doesn’t get any hotter!

www.chilipeppermadness.com

 

[Count Porcula]

The only brand of "Carolina" sauce I could find here was Southern Living Carolina Gold mustard sauce without tomatoes. No ketchup-based brands. It was okay, but on the bland side and too sweet.

Today I Googled around and found some recipes, and I came up with something that is now my favorite sauce:

1/2 cup French's
2 oz. maple syrup
2 oz. cider vinegar
2 tsp. Frank's
3/8 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. chipotle powder
2 tsp. pressed garlic, raw

I would omit the Frank's next time. The chipotle is what it needed. Maybe omit the Frank's and double the chipotle. Not sure yet.

I think I will use some hot Mister Mustard to replace part of the French's next time.

This was better than any sauce I had ever had, so I'm going to hold onto it. Probably won't impress anyone here, but it's a big deal from where I sit.

I made pork belly sandwiches again today because I can't get enough of that stuff. I put slices on a plate and warmed them in the microwave. Arranged them on a toasted potato bun and hit the meat with sauce from above and below. Absolutely excellent. I don't know if I'll ever bother making pulled pork for sandwiches again.

I'm going to throw out the Southern Living sauce.

 

[Count Porcula]

In case anyone cares, I made sandwiches today with sliced smoked pork belly, Mt. Olive dill slabs, fresh yellow onion slices, and this sauce. Best BBQ sandwich I have ever had. Absolutely astonishing.

 

[Fueling Around]

Been lurking along (I call it creepy neighbor)
TV was on for noise. Some food program was on and described the various Carolina sauces. My ears perked up when they talked about the mustard based sauces. The original recipes used the German brown mustard.