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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Carolina do Norte
Slow-roasted pork over a wood fire, chopped or pulled and seasoned with a vinegar-and-pepper sauce. In the eastern part of the state the whole hog is roasted; in the Piedmont, the shoulder is used, with a sauce that includes a little tomato.
Traditional dish from Carolina do Norte
Also known as: Carolina barbecue, Eastern-style barbecue, Lexington-style barbecue, whole hog barbecue
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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North Carolina barbecue — Carolina do Norte, the United States
In North Carolina, barbecue is pork roasted for hours over a wood fire, then chopped or pulled and seasoned with a thin vinegar-and-pepper sauce. The state has two distinct styles, and the rivalry between them is part of the tradition.
In the east, from the Raleigh area toward the coast, the style is whole hog: the entire animal is put on the fire, and meat from different parts is chopped together, with pieces of crispy skin. The sauce is just vinegar, salt and pepper, with no tomato. The coleslaw served with it usually contains mayonnaise. This way of cooking is considered one of the closest to 19th-century American barbecue.
West of Raleigh, in the Piedmont, the style is named for the city of Lexington. Only the shoulder is roasted, and the sauce, called a dip, adds some ketchup and sugar to the vinegar. The coleslaw is red, dressed with the same sauce. The style became established in the early 20th century, when vendors set up booths for people who came to town for court sessions. To avoid declaring either style official, the Legislature approved in 2007 an agreement that recognized the Lexington barbecue festival as the official food festival of the Piedmont Triad region.
Barbecue appears in roadside restaurants, at church socials, family gatherings and at pig pickin’s, events where the whole hog is served straight from the pit. It comes on a plate or in a sandwich, almost always with coleslaw.
Carolina do Norte
North Carolina pork barbecue, in the eastern (whole hog) and Lexington (shoulder) styles.
Whole hog (east) or shoulder (Lexington), wood fire; vinegar, salt and pepper sauce, with ketchup and sugar in the Lexington style; coleslaw.
Chopped or pulled, on a plate or in a soft roll, with coleslaw; extra sauce served at the table.
Year-round; at church socials, family gatherings and pig pickin’s.
Your questions
In the east, the whole hog is roasted and the sauce is just vinegar, salt and pepper. In the Lexington Piedmont style, the shoulder is roasted and the sauce adds a little ketchup and sugar to the vinegar.
It’s an event where a whole hog is roasted and served straight from the pit, common at family gatherings and church socials in North Carolina.
In the east, no: the sauce is vinegar and pepper. In the Lexington style, the vinegar sauce contains a bit of ketchup.
Flavors of the United States
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Pastrami sandwich: cured, seasoned and smoked beef, hot-sliced on rye bread with mustard. It’s the sandwich of New York’s Jewish delicatessens.
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Beef barbecue seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic and roasted over oak coals, served with pinquito beans, salsa, toasted bread and salad. The Santa Maria Valley chamber of commerce registered the menu in 1978.
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Texas barbecue centers on smoked beef brisket as its main dish: seasoned only with salt and black pepper, cooked for many hours in wood smoke and sliced, served on butcher paper with bread, pickles and onion.
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