East Carolina Vinegar Sauce : America's Original 'Q'

Discover the rich history behind the East Carolina Vinegar Wash and why its key to getting that deep-flavored, authentic barbecue pork.

Given their place in the original 13 colonies, the Carolinas are where American barbeque took root at the hands of enslaved chefs.

The Origins of BBQ

The technique of slow cooking protein – smoked over wood and spiced and basted to enhance its natural flavor – most food scholars say to have its roots in the Caribbean1, where the Taino, an indigenous people, would dig firepits in the ground and cook what they had hunted. As the Spaniards introduced hogs to the South in the 1500s, pork became the protein of choice.

By the 17^th century, slaves who traveled with their owners between the South and unincorporated Florida and the Caribbean, observed and evolved the practice of whole hog cooking. They, in turn, helped spread it throughout the Southeast.

Back then, an acidic wash spiced with peppers was used to cut through the smoke and pork fat during the cooking process to flavor and tenderize deeper layers of the meat.

It’s interesting to note that indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and early Spanish Florida often used lemons and other citrus fruits that were available year-round. Yet, as the basting practice spread north into the colonial U.S., where citrus fruits were not as available, a vinegar wash was created to fill that acidic role.

Vinegar Wash Today

This vinegar wash remains barbeque’s most basic basting liquid and the oldest sauce style in the country. While slow-cooking, apply the vinegar frequently with a small mop. (BBQ sauce regularly applied during cooking is often referred to as a “mopping sauce.” It needs to be thin enough to penetrate more deeply to moisten and tenderize the meat.)

To this day, Eastern Carolinians hold fast to their whole hog cooking. They rely on a vinegar-based barbecue sauce made from apple cider or white vinegar. Its flat spice gets its heat from dried red pepper flakes, black pepper and sometimes cayenne pepper and garlic. The traditional style is decidedly not sweet and has no tomato, not ever.

Easterners remain steadfast in their whole hog tradition, boasting that they cook “every part of the pig except for the squeal.” View and shop Boo and Henry’s Red Hot Vinegar Sauce for an East Carolina vinegar wash for your next barbecue.