Lexington-Style Bbq Sauce

This sauce is not for everyone. But if you love a North Carolina Style vinegar based barbecue sauce, this is the best. You only use a little to season the meat. I agree with the reviewer that it should be thought of as a dip...you only need a little bit. If you like sweet, thick, ketchup-y sauces, you should make Elizabeth Karmel's Dr. Pepper Barbecue sauce.

• cooking queen

• 2/25/2019

Excellent! Adjust as you like, but this recipe is just the way I remember it growing up. It needs the sweet of the cabbage and the fat from the pork to round things out, but if you put everything together just right, it's the best barbecue there is. Whenever I make this meal, I get moans of ecstasy from around the dinner table, and everyone wants the recipe. Use ciabatta rolls for buns. if you want less tart, decrease the vinegar by half cup and increase ketchup and sugar just a touch. Me, I don't change a thing and EVERYONE loves it.

• claynapp

• San Francisco by way of NC

• 8/6/2016

Tart, tart, tart. This is a very thin sauce. I've been told that it tastes just as it should, but I'm not from the south, so its intended application wasn't for me. However, I soaked cabbage in the sauce for a few hours, sauteed it with hot Italian sausage and it was the bomb. I liked it so much I made it again the next day.

• brblood

• Grand Junction, CO

• 9/7/2015

Barbecue sauce or dip is what you are used too. I have read comments about Lexington style dip being too vinegary. Eastern style is ALL vinegar with some pepper for spice. A porcine version of sauerbraten, so to speak. Whatever your taste, make it and enjoy it. One man said his favorite BBQ was the BBQ he happened to be eating at the time. It's ALL GOOD, except maybe for SC, MUSTARD? LOL

• Dparks49

• Denton, NC

• 6/25/2015

I make really good Texas style BBQ sauce, but I've been looking for a vinegar based BBQ sauce. This was NOT that sauce. It was incredibly thin and seemed to be missing many of the flavors I was looking for. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone

• Kit_R

• 6/23/2014

I was so happy to find this recipe for BBQ sauce that tastes just like home (NC) THis recipe is perfect just as it is - thin, peppery and vinegary, tart with just a hint of tomato. Now that I can also get Cheerwine here in FL, I have cooked some pulled pork. made some BBQ slaw and invited over some "Yankee" friends for a good ole supper. I'm making some onion rings and fried okra, too. I also recommend that anyone unfamiliar with style of pork bbq, refer to the note referenced in the previous review.

• cwmcm54

• St Petersburg, FL via NC Piedmont

• 9/2/2013

To avoid the confusion that I saw in some of these reviews, please note that there is HUGE difference between bbq sauce and bbq DIP. NC Lexington-syle bbq DIP is supposed to be thin and vinegary. I suggest that Elizabeth change the name of this recipe to Lexington-Style BBQ DIP, rather than sauce, since labeling it "sauce" may mislead some readers into thinking it's like one of those sweet, thick sauces you can buy in any grocery store. Also, anyone from the area certering in or around Davidson County, NC, will tell you that Lexington-Style bbq (not to be confused with Eastern NC bbq) must be served with BBQ slaw -- not cole slaw, and washed down with sweet tea or Cheerwine. Read More //m.fonts4kids.com/recipes/foo d/notes/Lexington-Style-Bbq-Sauce- 242264#ixzz28LnjSHle

• melthebelle

• High Point, NC

• 10/4/2012

Funny thing: I made this recipe without reading the reviews -- came back and read the reviews -- and learned that our friend from Alamagordo, N.M. had done exactly what I did: cut the recipe in half, and lowered the heat. (I also replaced the ketchup with good ol' Heinz Chili sauce). Now . . . I love vinegar, and I love hot, but this was just too thin, and too acerbic. NEVERTHELESS -- I agree with the reviewer who wrote "You can go to your local grocer and pick up any thick, ketchup style" (gloppy sauce, I call it). So I added a bit more Chili sauce, just to give it some body -- and it's now great! Sweet, with a lovely underlying tang.

• torontocookie

• 1/17/2012

Make this in smaller portions and only add the heat to taste. I fully agree there is just too much of everything and it overpowers the flavor of what you put it on. I made a half recipe, tried it for the coleslaw and ended up dumping it.

• imcalgal

• 1/4/2012

After reading the reviews on this recipe, I don't believe any one here understands Lexington style. It's supposed to be thin and very tart. You can go to your local grocer and pick up any thick, ketchup style. Yes, it is an acquired taste, but here in the Carolinas, it's best. I am going to try this recipe and hope it's as good what I experience around here.

• cheflongstomach

• Winston Salem NC

• 10/31/2011

Last night I wanted to make a BBQ sauce for my 12 oz. pkg. of Curly's sauceless pulled pork, so I tried this one. Thank goodness I have cooked for over 40 years and looked at the reviews!!! I made 1/2 of the recipe--used 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, a generous sprinkle of table salt, scant 1 tsp. white pepper, 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, 2 Tbs. of both white and dark brown sugars, 3/8 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1/4 cup ketchup. It was so liquid that I cooked it a bit to thicken it. Needless to say it was borderline TOO hot. I live in NM and am used to hot food, but this just wasn't very good, and I'm sure there are better recipes out there. Would NOT make this again!

• Anonymous

• Alamogordo, NM

• 8/10/2011

Perfect compliment to the rich flavor of pork!! Adds very nicely to the cole slaw.

• Anonymous

• Redondo Beach, CA

• 11/12/2010

By far my favorite BBQ sauce.

• chapgage

• 8/14/2010

The sauce is way too tart and acidic - mouth-puckering. Tried adding more brown sugar, but that didn't work - just made it sweeter, but still too much vinegar. I had to dump in a jar of store-bought barbeque sauce to make it edible, but it still doesn't taste right. Might try mixing the pork and sauce with beans to try to lighten up the acid.

• Anonymous

• Los Angeles

• 5/10/2010

This recipe is wrong, but not because of all of the vinegar...there's too much stuff in it and the proportions are incorrect. It should simply be ketchup and cider vinegar in about equal proportions (a couple more tbs of vinegar than ketchup), a touch of granulated sugar (NO brown sugar!), a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes and a whole bunch of black pepper. I have no idea what restaurant in Lexington gave her this recipe, but it sure isn't one of the good ones (maybe it's that awful new one that just opened in Welcome that doesn't even serve Cheerwine). Her slaw recipe is wrong, too. Anyway, if you don't like vinegar, you won't like Lexington style BBQ regardless of what recipe you use. Search the web...there are authentic recipes out there.

• Anonymous

• Durham, NC via Lexington, NC

• 11/24/2009