Vinegar Based Barbecue Sauce - We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Let's talk only about vinegar based barbecue sauce. How's that?

You might think that this really narrows down the choice of sauces. Yes and no. We have eliminated tomato based sauces, sure, but that still leaves us with everything east of the Mississippi river. Let's get out of Kansas City and head toward the east coast.

Lots of sauces have a combination of vinegar and tomato as a base. If we cut out everything but the vinegar, that takes us all the way to North Carolina (actually eastern North Carolina). This is the home of the vinegar based barbecue sauce. From there, BBQ sauce recipes have less vinegar and more additional ingredients the farther away you travel (all the way to back to Kansas City, where they use very little or no vinegar).

If we tried to create a map of the United States showing the location of all the styles of BBQ sauce, with all of the regional and local variations, it would look like a 1600s map of Indian tribes with all their associated bands. There would be hundreds of them (maybe more).

Down to the Basics

The most pure form of vinegar based barbecue sauce would be straight vinegar (preferably apple cider vinegar), with maybe a touch of salt and pepper. Quite often it is flavored with some red pepper flakes or a little cayenne pepper.

Unlike tomato based sauces, vinegar based BBQ recipes are used at all stages of the cooking process. Tomato based sauces have sugars that can burn. They are normally used as a finishing sauce and added during the last minutes of smoking. Usually those tomato sauces have a few more ingredients and are also thicker.

Vinegar is powerful stuff. It is acidic and will penetrate meat. It aids with tenderization and helps to allow the pork to be pulled apart (vinegar based barbecue sauce is most often used with pulled pork). Because of this characteristic, if the vinegar is flavored, it will also get flavor deep into the meat. By using it early and often during smoking, the flavors will intensify.

A Simple Sample Recipe

Here is a basic vinegar based BBQ sauce recipe. It can be used as a marinade (before smoking), a mop sauce (used during smoking), a finishing sauce (applied at the end of smoking), or a dipping sauce (at the table). This helps the meat stay moist, tenderizes it, and flavors it. It's no wonder people keep using it.

1 1/3 C cider vinegar

2/3 C water

1 Tbl salt

1 tsp chili powder

Something like this, or any other form of vinegar based barbecue sauce, should be made a day in advance, if possible. That gives the vinegar time to break down the seasonings and absorb them.

Remember that you control the flavors. Add your favorite spices, change the type of vinegar, use more or less water... it's entirely up to you. You can even add things like tomato sauce, ketchup or mustard. Just don't go overboard or you will end up back in Kansas City, with no vinegar, looking for a different article.

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