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Favorite BBQ Sauce Style?


peaceloveunderstanding

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I'm really only familiar with mustard based, as that is what is used typically in the area of the state I'm from.

Do you get good variety of mustard and vinegar based BBQ in Charlotte?

From what I remember when living in Charlotte, it's hard to find anything but Western NC style BBQ, which is more of a ketchup based sauce. The best western style I've had is from Stamey's in Greensboro. Otherwise I think Lexington BBQ is just fine. I'm from Salisbury originally, and ANY time there is a family function or something out that way, Lexington BBQ is always on the menu.

Living out here in the Raleigh area, there are a number of places serving up the Eastern NC vinegar based BBQ. I really don't mind it most of the time, but I think I prefer the western NC style better. Smithfield BBQ is pretty good, I wish their chain of restaurants would expand more into Wake County.

I have never tried this famed mustard based SC style BBQ, but it sounds like it would be pretty good. Next time I'm in Charlotte, are there any places near the state line that people recommend?

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From what I remember when living in Charlotte, it's hard to find anything but Western NC style BBQ, which is more of a ketchup based sauce. The best western style I've had is from Stamey's in Greensboro. Otherwise I think Lexington BBQ is just fine. I'm from Salisbury originally, and ANY time there is a family function or something out that way, Lexington BBQ is always on the menu.

I agree with him

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My very minimum requirements for bbq: the meat, slice of bread & slaw. As for sauce, for that combination I would expect tomato or vinegar, either one is fine.

For variations - like mustard based, I expect some hash & rice to go with that.

Otherwise - ribs can go alone, but do go good with beans.

Beef bbq - like briscuit in TX, again, slaw & bread go well.

But otherwise, in most places in the south, I find it very difficult to not eat slaw with bbq. I typically take a bite of slaw with every bit of bbq, or if in a sandwich the slaw gets in the sandwich.

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Indeed. BBQ without coleslaw is like cornflakes without the milk.

Correct about the Western NC BBQ found in CLT. When I moved here from SC (which has better BBQ than either East or West NC) we went to get some BBQ. I was completely surprised when they handed me a plate of meat with nothing on it and I said, where is the sauce? She point to the counter to two plastic bottles. Mild & Hot. haha. I prefer my BBQ to be cooked with the sauce as they do in SC.

The key to cooking pork is to cook it very slow over a hickory fire, or gas fire with hickoy chips in it. And forget these new cuts of pork that you find in the grocery store where all of the pork fat has been engineered out it it. The "other white meat" is dry and tasteless. Good BBQ needs some fat in it. While cooking your pork baste it with a Sauce made from the following ingredients.

Mustard, Vinegar, Texas Pete hot sauce, small amount of soy sauce, minced garlic, very small amount of brown sugar, a little ketchup, and a little oil.

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I have never tried this famed mustard based SC style BBQ, but it sounds like it would be pretty good. Next time I'm in Charlotte, are there any places near the state line that people recommend?

I think you will have to drive further south to get to mustard based territory. Upstate SC is primarily sweet / tomato based sauce, just as north GA & western NC is as well. Mustard based is found more in midland / lowstate parts of SC, around Columbia & Charleston but also in Augusta.

Regarding sauce, I actually prefer to have it seperate, I like smoked meat & adding just a little sauce to it. It's all about the meat, & yes - you can't have good bbq without a consistant amount of fat.

Regarding Memphis ribs, I love the dry rub, when I lived in Nashville I constantly ate at Corky's.

But as I mentioned before - I've come to appreciate all types of bbq, which I swore I would never even respect beef bbq. But TX bbq is fantastic - go to Angelo's in Ft Worth to find out yourself. GA bbq isn't the best, it lacks a central theme, especially in Atlanta where we have several eastern NC bbq places, but Harrold's in south Atlanta is comparable with most bbq in Carolina. What I do know though - some areas of the south have terrible bbq, that would be north Florida. Sorry - of course if anyone can recommend good FL bbq I would appreciate it. All I can remember is how my some of my wife's family bragged about their local bbq eatery - Sonny's! :lol: But Sonny's is indeed based in FL, but that mostly just confirms FL is a bbq culinary wasteland.

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If you think Sonny's represents Florida BBQ then, you're looking in the wrong spots, so let me suggest where to go.

Good BBQ can be found in the NE Florida area, you just have to be willing to cross the tracks to get to it. The local sauce here is mustard based, similar to what one would find in other historical "low country" settings, such as coastal SC & GA. Good local joints I'd recommend include Jenkins, Fred Cotten and Jim Brown BBQ joints. But these are the most modern place with trendy interiors and top notch fixtures and air conditioning, that some might be used too.

Back in Central Florida (Lakeland-Winter Haven), the sauce is also mustard based. There's a broken down decades owned family joint called Peeple's BBQ, this pretty popular.

As for sides, BBQ baked beans and cole saw is a definate must.

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Thanks for the info - it doesn't help of course that my experience of FL is primarily Ocala / Leesburg - again, this is my wife's family. They're swell bunch of people, but their palates have withered away with the FL heat.

Great info - I had no idea mustard based was that prevelant in FL, I'll check it out next time I'm down there.

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Dry Rub is my favorite.

Of the Carolina varieties, I prefer Western over the vinegar-based Eastern. It's simply too tangy for me.

... I had no idea mustard based was that prevelant in FL, I'll check it out next time I'm down there.

If you're in O-Town (Orlando, not my home town of Slowcala), you've gotta check out Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ. Cecil's is pretty good, too!

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