Carolina

You know you’re at a Carolina-style BBQ when the menu features shredded or pulled pork and a vinegar-based barbecue sauce. The pork comes from the shoulder cuts or hams of a pig (or sometimes from a pit-roasted whole hog) and is always slow-roasted for hours to impart a deep smoky flavor.

• Click EasyEdit to weigh in on Carolina barbecue!

Once cooked and tender, the pork is pulled into shreds (never sliced!) then lightly sauced and served, almost always as a sandwich dressed with a big ol’ scoop of Carolina-style Coleslaw. You’ll find pulled pork being prepared in open pits all over rural North Carolina and elsewhere in the South.

Aficionados will also differentiate between Eastern North Carolina and Western North Carolina BBQ. What’s described above is basically the Eastern version, except that in addition to the slaw, true Eastern North Carolina BBQ will always be accompanied by sweet iced tea and a batch of hushpuppies.

Western North Carolina BBQ, in contrast, features the same pulled pork but a more conventional tomato-based or ketchup-based sauce (and thus strongly resembles Kansas City ’cue).

Finally, South Carolina (and Georgia) BBQ again features slow-roasted pork shoulder meat but dressed with a mustard-based sauce. A readily available and highly recommended commercial version of South Carolina BBQ sauce is Sticky Fingers Carolina Classic Barbecue Sauce.