This morning I awoke to the sounds of my husband scraping out the grill-box. It's that time, again, ladies and gentlemen: the Labor Day Barbeque and two days of slow-smoking pork shoulders. There's a subtle and time-honored mystique to a good batch of barbecue: in the South, pulled pork is one of the Holy Grails of food, with its requisite cults of true believers.
In the North Carolina, it's treated with a rub and finished with a vinegar sauce. Now, what this sauce is based on is a subject of heated debate and has probably caused more than a few feuds down through history. Western North Carolina favors a tomato base while Eastern North Carolinians love nothing more than a simple vinegar spiced with red pepper and brown sugar. South Carolinians prefer their sauce made with mustard, no tomatoes, thanks.
In Memphis, your pork can come either "wet" or "dry" (with or without sauce already added), and the sauce is sugar-sweet with brown sugar and molasses.
In Alabama, where I'm from, the meat is smoked super-slow and caramelizes in its own juices over about 14 hours of low heat. It needs no sauce to dress it up, but for those with a taste for excess, our red sauce provides the richness of tomatoes and molasses, the kick of vinegar, and the heat of cayenne pepper. You can choose whether or not ot cool it down with a topping of creamy cole slaw.
Beans and white bread are, of course served on the side, and it's all washed down with a huge glass of syrupy sweet tea. And let's not forget the rich homemade banana pudding and peach cobbler for dessert.
The house is already filled with the rich smells of wood smoke and vinegar, and the hammock awaits as we watch the fire-box. Welcome to the weekend, y'all.
