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Countdown To New BBQ Pitmasters ~ Carolina Style Pork

Boshizzle said:
NC BBQ isn't on the top of my list, actually. It's too mushy and just not all that great, IMO. That being siad, I still like it. So, this episode is particularly interesting.

I will never forget the first time I enjoyed Eastern NC BBQ. The gal waiting on me asked me if I wanted some "dee-up" (dip). I had no idea what she was talking about and her accent only made it worse. I asked several times "dee-up?" trying to figure out what she was saying. Finally, she shaked the sauce bottle in front of my face exclaiming "Dee-up! Dee-up!"

Great times, there! :laugh:
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Don't make the mistake of thinking that the "official" NC bbq is that mushy chopped up into porridge stuff with straight vinegar soaked on it like they do east of the fall line. Come a little further west and try real NC bbq. :boink: We don't use dee-up, we have a vinegar-based sauce. I was born, raised, and grew up in NC and having been eating NC whole-hog bbq all my life. the only people who like eastern NC bbq are people who live there. The other 3/4 of the state knows how to cook bbq. :biggrin1:
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the "official" NC bbq is that mushy chopped up into porridge stuff with straight vinegar soaked on it like they do east of the fall line. Come a little further west and try real NC bbq. :boink: We don't use dee-up, we have a vinegar-based sauce. I was born, raised, and grew up in NC and having been eating NC whole-hog bbq all my life. the only people who like eastern NC bbq are people who live there. The other 3/4 of the state knows how to cook bbq. :biggrin1:
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Preach it brother!!!
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
Come a little further west and try real NC bbq. :boink: We don't use dee-up, we have a vinegar-based sauce. I was born, raised, and grew up in NC and having been eating NC whole-hog bbq all my life. the only people who like eastern NC bbq are people who live there. The other 3/4 of the state knows how to cook bbq. :biggrin1:
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Funny, I only really encountered the Dip (tomato-vinegar) around the Lexington area. I'd disagree with the ENC BBQ being only a regional favorite. Quite the contrary, ENC whole hog is consistently the most popular line when we cook up here (NYC) at the annual Big Apple BBQ festival 100K+ person in attendance.

By contrast the Lexington style sauce (+tomatoes) and shoulder doesn't really appear anywhere else except western North Carolina. Tragically so I might add. Even when I was talking to the patriarch of Lexingtion BBQ himself, Charles Stamey, he was skeptical of the possibility of Lexington BBQ becoming widespread in popularity.

I'd also disagree with the sentiment that 3/4 of the state knows how to BBQ. A good proportion of state doesn't even eat Carolina BBQ. If you head around the Charlotte area, BBQ comes from a gasser and is drenched in a Kraft-processed 'BBQ sauce'.
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the "official" NC bbq is that mushy chopped up into porridge stuff with straight vinegar soaked on it like they do east of the fall line. Come a little further west and try real NC bbq. :boink: We don't use dee-up, we have a vinegar-based sauce. I was born, raised, and grew up in NC and having been eating NC whole-hog bbq all my life. the only people who like eastern NC bbq are people who live there. The other 3/4 of the state knows how to cook bbq. :biggrin1:
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Whoa! I'm not trying to start a NC civil war here! :laugh:
 
neuyawk said:
Funny, I only really encountered the Dip (tomato-vinegar) around the Lexington area. I'd disagree with the ENC BBQ being only a regional favorite. Quite the contrary, ENC whole hog is consistently the most popular line when we cook up here (NYC) at the annual Big Apple BBQ festival 100K+ person in attendance.

By contrast the Lexington style sauce (+tomatoes) and shoulder doesn't really appear anywhere else except western North Carolina. Tragically so I might add. Even when I was talking to the patriarch of Lexingtion BBQ himself, Charles Stamey, he was skeptical of the possibility of Lexington BBQ becoming widespread in popularity.

I'd also disagree with the sentiment that 3/4 of the state knows how to BBQ. A good proportion of state doesn't even eat Carolina BBQ. If you head around the Charlotte area, BBQ comes from a gasser and is drenched in a Kraft-processed 'BBQ sauce'.
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The whole shoulder/vinegar (+ a tiny bit of tomato) BBQ is cooked in my region of VA. There are no places that still do it well within an hour's drive anymore, but it's cooked here in VA at several places and has been for many decades.
 
neuyawk said:
Funny, I only really encountered the Dip (tomato-vinegar) around the Lexington area. I'd disagree with the ENC BBQ being only a regional favorite. Quite the contrary, ENC whole hog is consistently the most popular line when we cook up here (NYC) at the annual Big Apple BBQ festival 100K+ person in attendance.

By contrast the Lexington style sauce (+tomatoes) and shoulder doesn't really appear anywhere else except western North Carolina. Tragically so I might add. Even when I was talking to the patriarch of Lexingtion BBQ himself, Charles Stamey, he was skeptical of the possibility of Lexington BBQ becoming widespread in popularity.

I'd also disagree with the sentiment that 3/4 of the state knows how to BBQ. A good proportion of state doesn't even eat Carolina BBQ. If you head around the Charlotte area, BBQ comes from a gasser and is drenched in a Kraft-processed 'BBQ sauce'.
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Boshizzle said:
Whoa! I'm not trying to start a NC civil war here! :laugh:
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Hey, I'm just pokin'. I'm from NC so I'm entitled. :laugh: I like eastern and western NC styles, but I'm partial to the "Lexington" style. And most of the people who eat gassed KC-Masterpiece Q are city folk who don't know any better, bless their hearts. Once you feed them some real bbq, they come around, unless they're yankee transplants. :biggrin1: I learned a lot about bbq cooking from my eastern NC FIL, whom I helped for years roasting whole hogs over hickory coals that were burned down in a seperate barrel. It was delicious, tender, succulent bbq, which he then drowned in pure vinegar and red pepper. :biggrin1:
 
You can tell people are passionate about BBQ!! Not all Charlotte people use a gasser. With that said there is very few restaurants in this area that cooks real bbq on real pits. Most of the old places have shut down. That's why I have put so much effort into my home cooking.

It's very easy to start a civil in NC about BBQ. Too many people here don't know their history.
 
From what I understand the original pit style places are family owned and operated. As long as it stays in the family the original pit can stay operational. Once the business is sold to somebody on the outside, the law changes and NSF equipment is required.

That's what I was told.

Either way, Carolina BBQ is awesome from one of the state to the other.
 
kw said:
From what I understand the original pit style places are family owned and operated. As long as it stays in the family the original pit can stay operational. Once the business is sold to somebody on the outside, the law changes and NSF equipment is required.

That's what I was told.

Either way, Carolina BBQ is awesome from one of the state to the other.
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And that is a big part of why VA BBQ disappeared. Safety regulations regarding wood fired pits and HD regulations were a big part of it here in my state. In fact, i know of at least one place that was forced to either switch to an electric cooker in the late 1960's or close down.
 
I do not know the nuances of the region's BBQ.

But I do think that most of the food looked YUMMY and the cooks did a great job. 8)

Great series.

TIM
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
I learned a lot about bbq cooking from my eastern NC FIL, whom I helped for years roasting whole hogs over hickory coals that were burned down in a seperate barrel. It was delicious, tender, succulent bbq, which he then drowned in pure vinegar and red pepper. :biggrin1:
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That's the old time religion right there! Preach on brother!
 
Boshizzle said:
And that is a big part of why VA BBQ disappeared. Safety regulations regarding wood fired pits and HD regulations were a big part of it here in my state. In fact, i know of at least one place that was forced to either switch to an electric cooker in the late 1960's or close down.
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Just to play devil's advocate, and I'm a supporter of open pits, some of these old timers were just setting themselves up to be shut down. Sanitary conditions aside, many people only burn out their pits once a week-and that's pretty frequent!

That's a massive fire hazard with all the accumulated grease. I think they could have saved themselves if there was developed a system of safety checks. Heck just power washing the pits and exhaust systems nightly would solve a lot of problems.
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
Hey, I'm just pokin'. I'm from NC so I'm entitled. :laugh: I like eastern and western NC styles, but I'm partial to the "Lexington" style. And most of the people who eat gassed KC-Masterpiece Q are city folk who don't know any better, bless their hearts. Once you feed them some real bbq, they come around, unless they're yankee transplants. :biggrin1: I learned a lot about bbq cooking from my eastern NC FIL, whom I helped for years roasting whole hogs over hickory coals that were burned down in a seperate barrel. It was delicious, tender, succulent bbq, which he then drowned in pure vinegar and red pepper. :biggrin1:
Click to expand...

Care to share what "Lexington" style bbq is and how one might go about replicating it? Living in KC, I like to try all different bbq styles from different regions.
 
viggysmalls said:
Care to share what "Lexington" style bbq is and how one might go about replicating it? Living in KC, I like to try all different bbq styles from different regions.
Click to expand...

North Carolina is divided into two major styles

West (aka Lexington aka Piedmont) is whole shoulder + a vinegar sauce with a touch of tomato

East (aka Almighty God's BBQ) is whole hog with a vinegar pepper sauce (same thing sans tomato)
 
neuyawk said:
North Carolina is divided into two major styles

West (aka Lexington aka Piedmont) is whole shoulder + a vinegar sauce with a touch of tomato

East (aka Almighty God's BBQ) is whole hog with a vinegar pepper sauce (same thing sans tomato)
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Don't rule out whole hogs for western style, either-there are a lot of western-style cooks who like to roast whole hogs.
 
Gnaws on Pigs said:
Don't rule out whole hogs for western style, either-there are a lot of western-style cooks who like to roast whole hogs.
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NC's just a bad place to be a hog huh?

I'm surprised the local Chick-fil-a doesn't have pigs holding signs saying "Eat Moar Chiken"
 
brownkw said:
It would have definitely been interesting to have seen whole hog on the NC episode, but it probably wasn't in the budget.
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Well, they seem to be handing out wagyu briskets, and plenty of racks of ribs to the cooks.... so 3 hogs shouldn't have been that expensive. Besides, I would like to see them have ONE item to cook and turn in...... Being able to cook 5 racks of ribs, on 3 separate pits, only to turn in 3 singles is a little lopsided.

In a comp, you are competing against 30, 40 or more teams, so cooking several of the same items is insurance... but these guys are cooking against 2 other teams.
 
I'm gonna try tuffy's 250 for 5 hours whole shoulder it should be nice and tender! They mut have cut him off before he was able to say the I wrap and cook for 5 more hours...
 
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