California Girl does Carolina Barbecue

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One of things that we’ve learned since we moved to the southeast is that people in the Carolinas take barbecue VERY seriously. In fact, barbecue is not a verb. One doesn’t “barbecue” meat. It’s practically a proper noun, as in, “Mildred is bringing Barbecue to the potluck so the line will start forming the day before.”

One of the distinctives of Carolina barbecue is that the sauce is always served on the side. The meat (usually pork) is usually smoky and the sauce is vinegar-based. It’s important to check the heat of the sauce before you smother your meat with it because many sauces contain vast quantities of red pepper. The meat might be cooked in a pit for many hours, it might be smoked in a smoker, or it might be slow-cooked on the grill with various types of wood chips for flavor in the smoke.

We’ve found a few local barbecue restaurants that serve amazing barbecue. The meat is moist and tender and the flavors are memorable. I really,  REALLY wanted to recreate some of this delicious carnivorous goodness. I don’t, however, have a pit in my backyard in which to roast a whole pig. I also don’t own a smoker. And I’ll confess that if it’s rainy and cold out, I’m not even inclined to slow-grill a pork butt over wood chips.

This recipe is my California-girl variation of a very traditional Carolina barbecue taste. I KNOW that this isn’t authentic Carolina barbecue, but it was a very popular dinner at my house nonetheless. And more importantly, it works for me! I tried to come up with a clever name by combining California and Carolina and could only  come up with Califina…so I think I’ll stick with:

Carolina Barbecue with a California Interpretation

I started with the assumption that I was going to make this dish in the crockpot. Not only does a crockpot mind itself for long hours at a time INSIDE the house on a rainy day, it also guarantees that even the cheapest cuts of meat will be tender and moist. Recently I’ve used whole pork butt as well as picnic style pork ribs (that oddly enough contained no bones whatsoever.) Both meats were $.89/pound which made this meal a real budget booster.

Start by cramming as much pork into your crockpot as possible. It cooks down so don’t worry if it’s packed in there. I usually try to trim the more obvious fat off, but this type of meat will be pretty fatty throughout. If you make this the day before and refrigerate it, you can pull a lot of the fat right off the top.

Put the following ingredients in a saucepan and heat until boiling:

• 4 cups cider vinegar
• 1  cup sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes (this much pepper gives the sauce a HUGE kick; if this is too spicy for your family, scale the amount of pepper back. To get the flavor, you should probably add at least a teaspoon of pepper flakes.)
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 8 large cloves minced garlic
• 4 oz. bottle liquid smoke (I used the mesquite flavor because that’s my preference. It also comes in hickory flavor–your call)

After this sauce boils, remove from heat and pour over the pork in a large crockpot.

Set the crockpot on high and cook for six hours. Turn the crockpot down to low and cook for another six hours. Shred the meat and serve on sourdough. The flavors are just incredible.

One thing my family noted was that on the first day, the heat of the peppers was greatest. The second or third day after cooking found the heat greatly diminished but the overall melding of flavors significantly richer.

This makes a great summer holiday meal (think Memorial Day picnics) even if the weather isn’t quite up for a grill-fest.

Barb

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Tags: Memorial Day meals