Carolina Style BBQ Sandwich’s

You can’t go wrong with BBQ sandwich’s anytime of the week! Serve with slaw and hushpuppies and you have a perfect Southern meal! (Grilled Pork Recipe)

There is a somewhat light-hearted feud that exists between the proponents of the two types of barbecue: Western style and Eastern style. What are the differences of the two you ask?

Western Style:

Western style barbecue (occasionally also referred to as Piedmont style) uses a “red” sauce/dip that is seasoned with ketchup, vinegar, and pepper, along with other spices that vary from recipe to recipe. It is most common in the Piedmont (central) and western areas of the state. This style uses only the pork shoulder section of the pig. As with other styles of barbecue, the recipes vary widely, and can include many different ingredients, and range from slightly sweet to hot and spicy. The dip also serves as the seasoning base for “red slaw” (also called “barbecue slaw”), which is coleslaw made by using Lexington-style barbecue sauce (or similar) in place of mayonnaise. Hushpuppies are usually consumed with pork shoulder and slaw.

Eastern Style:

Eastern-style barbecue is a whole-hog style of barbecue, often said to use “every part of the hog except the squeal”. Eastern-style sauce is vinegar- and pepper-based, with no tomato whatsoever. With Eastern Slaws, the ketchup disappears, and the mayonnaise (or whipped salad dressing) is almost universal.

My house is Western Style all the way!

Print Pin

Carolina Style BBQ Sandwich

There is a lifelong debate in Carolina, Eastern vs. Western BBQ! For me it isn't a debate Western is the only way to go! You will use the Grilled Pork Roast recipe for this again unless you have a smoker and can smoke your meat for 9-11 hours! Boston butt is normally what we smoke back home. 

Ingredients

• 1 lb Grilled Pork Roast
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Paprika to taste
• Garlic Powder you get the point by now

Instructions

• A typical smoked pork will have a few more ingredients and they will come through during the pulling process but since we are using previously pulled pork so we will improvise. Combine all of your dry ingredients and toss with shredded pork. 
  
• Place on buns and add BBQ sauce and slaw as you like. 

Western North Carolina Barbecue Slaw
(Shared recipe submitted by Frank Barrett.)
 
Frank writes: “I don’t cook like some people do. I do things until they look right or taste right and don’t measure too many things. There may be some people from North Carolina, or who have passed through North Carolina and have tried NC style barbecue or a NC favorite called Liver Mush (see recipe below). The key to Western NC-style BBQ is the slaw served with the BBQ or on the BBQ sandwich. Just prepare your BBQ meat the same way you normally would and serve the way you normally would but do it with Western NC BBQ slaw.”
 
Here goes. Use your food processor or grater to make a finely chopped cabbage base to begin with. The rest is simple. Add ketchup until it is pink. Add sugar until it is almost sweet. You can use white sugar, brown sugar, honey or molasses, your choice. Add black or red pepper to taste and mix it all together. You can add Tabasco sauce if you want a bit more heat. DON’T put salt on the mixture. Salt draws out the water from the cabbage and makes it watery. Let each person put their own salt on at the time they eat it. Then serve it as a side dish or, if you are eating the BBQ as sandwiches, just scoop it on as a sandwich topping with dill or sweet pickles. A well smoked pork or beef BBQ sandwich with this as a topping is as tasty as the Blue Ridge Mountains are beautiful.
 
About Frank: Frank is a North Carolina transplant to Metro Atlanta, GA. His email address is frank_1@bellsouth.net.