{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "scotts-barbecue-sauce",
 "type": "sauce",
 "names": {
  "name": "Scott's Barbecue Sauce",
  "aliases": [
   "Scott's Famous Barbecue Sauce",
   "Adam Scott's sauce",
   "Scott's of Goldsboro"
  ],
  "said": "The label says Scott's Barbecue Sauce; in Goldsboro it is Scott's."
 },
 "region": [
  "nc-east",
  "nc"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "base": "vinegar-pepper",
  "styles": [
   "eastern-nc"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A bottled eastern North Carolina sauce — vinegar-based, the recipe kept secret, sold as sugar-free and fat-free — made by the Scott family of Goldsboro since the mid-1940s from a recipe the Rev. Adam Scott, a Black Holiness minister who began selling barbecue there in 1917, said came to him in a dream. His son A. Martel Scott Sr. patented it in 1946. The North Carolina Arts Council's trail page calls it 'believed to be the oldest commercially available barbecue sauce in the country'. It is sold in Harris Teeter and Food Lion and from the family's website, and the label offers it for meats, seafood, poultry and vegetables.",
  "story": "Adam Scott was born in Goldsboro in 1890, the grandson of Charles and Mary Scott, who had been enslaved in Johnston County, and the son of Joseph Scott, born in Oberlin, Ohio. He cooked at an Atlantic City hotel in 1911, married Bessie Bright that September, and by 1917 was in the barbecue business at home — cooking whole pigs in his back yard and, as the Arts Council's page puts it, selling chopped 'cue with his vinegar sauce through the back door to white men who knocked. He catered for the Algonquin Club, a whites-only social club. Between 1931 and 1933 the family home on Brazil Street became a restaurant: two hogs a week at first, then four to seven a day. David Cecelski's account has him catering a barbecue for President Franklin Roosevelt in the White House Rose Garden in 1933. He was a minister of the United Holy Church of America and by 1938 pastored three churches.\n\nThe sauce came, he said, in a dream, and took three years to work out — sugar-free and fat-free because, his grandson A. Martel Scott Jr. recalled, 'Daddy never believed in putting sweet stuff on meat'. It dressed the restaurant's barbecue for nearly thirty years before A. Martel Scott Sr., who had joined the business in the 1930s, adjusted it and took out a patent in 1946; the Arts Council's page dates the bottling to 1945. The restaurant moved from the house to its own building in 1951. Adam Scott died in 1983 at 93. In June 2001 the restaurant cut back to two lunch days a week and later closed; the sauce, run by A. Martel Scott III, sells about 750,000 bottles a year by the Arts Council's count.",
  "how": "It is used as the eastern sauce is used: poured over chopped pork at the block or the table, as a mop on a cooking hog, and — the label's own list — on meats, seafood, poultry and vegetables. It has no sugar to burn, so it can go on early. It is a family recipe, not published; what is known is what it leaves out.",
  "today": "Made and shipped from Goldsboro; on the shelves of Harris Teeter and Food Lion and sold from the family's website. The restaurant on the Arts Council's trail is closed."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "eastern-nc",
   "as": "the style it bottles: the vinegar sauce of the Coastal Plain, from a Goldsboro whole-hog cook.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "vinegar-pepper-sauce",
   "as": "the sauce family it belongs to — in a bottle since the mid-1940s, with no sugar and no fat.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "adam-scott",
   "as": "the minister and cook who said the recipe came to him in a dream, and sold barbecue in Goldsboro from 1917.",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "scotts-famous-barbecue",
   "as": "the family's Goldsboro restaurant, in its own building from 1951, now closed; the sauce outlived it.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "whole-hog",
   "as": "what Adam Scott cooked in his back yard, two a week at first, then four to seven a day.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "texas-pete",
   "as": "the other North Carolina bottle on eastern tables — that one a hot sauce from the Piedmont, this one a barbecue sauce from the east.",
   "rel": "kin"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Scott's Barbecue Sauce — Our History",
   "url": "https://scottsbarbecuesauce.com/our-history/"
  },
  {
   "label": "Remembering a Barbecue Legend: The Rev. Adam Scott — David Cecelski",
   "url": "https://davidcecelski.com/2025/11/21/the-artist-of-barbecue-the-rev-adam-scott-and-a-family-journey-from-slavery-to-the-white-house/"
  },
  {
   "label": "Goldsboro — NC Arts Council, African American Music Trails",
   "url": "https://www.ncarts.org/arts-council-z/cultural-tourism-and-trails/african-american-music-trails/lets-eat/goldsboro"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:web-sauce-harvest-2026-09-16",
  "s:web-scotts-history",
  "s:web-cecelski-adam-scott",
  "s:web-ncarts-goldsboro",
  "s:wp-barbecue-in-north-carolina",
  "s:reed-holy-smoke",
  "s:book-virginia-house-wife",
  "s:book-mrs-hills-new-cook-book",
  "s:wikibooks-eastern-north-carolina-barbecue-sauce"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-scotts-history"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-cecelski-adam-scott",
    "note": "family, church, Brazil Street and the 1933 White House barbecue are Cecelski's account (2025); the 1917 date, the dream and the 1946 patent from the company's history; the back-door sales, the 1945 bottling, 1951 move, 2001 hours and bottle count from the Arts Council page, which is undated"
   },
   "text.how": {
    "tier": "tradition",
    "note": "uses from the company's own page; the rest is how the eastern sauce is used"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-ncarts-goldsboro",
    "note": "the Arts Council page is undated; check the retailers"
   },
   "recipes": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:book-virginia-house-wife",
    "note": "each recipe carries its own source, licence and page"
   }
  }
 },
 "recipes": [
  {
   "title": "Pepper Vinegar",
   "source": "s:book-virginia-house-wife",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "year": 1824,
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/virginiahousewi00rand",
   "author": "Mrs. Mary Randolph",
   "book": "The Virginia House-Wife",
   "text": "Get one dozen pods of pepper when ripe, take out the stems, and cut them in two; put them in a kettle with three pints of vinegar, boil it away to one quart, and strain it through a sieve. A little of this is excellent in gravy of every kind, and gives a flavour greatly superior to black pepper; it is also very fine when added to each of the various catsups for fish sauce.",
   "page": 163,
   "note": "Scott's own formula has never been published; this is the pepper-in-vinegar method a Goldsboro bottle descends from, in print in 1824."
  },
  {
   "title": "Sauce for Barbecues (receipt 335)",
   "source": "s:book-mrs-hills-new-cook-book",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "year": 1867,
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/mrshillsnewcookb00hill",
   "author": "Mrs. A. P. Hill",
   "book": "Mrs. Hill's New Cook-Book",
   "text": "Melt half a pound of butter; stir into it a large tablespoonful of mustard, half a teaspoonful of red pepper, one of black, salt to taste; add vinegar until the sauce has a strong acid taste. The quantity of vinegar will depend upon the strength of it. As soon as the meat becomes hot, begin to baste, and continue basting frequently until it is done; pour over the meat any sauce that remains.",
   "page": 171,
   "note": "A mop of the same era and the same family, written out in full."
  },
  {
   "title": "Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce",
   "source": "s:wikibooks-eastern-north-carolina-barbecue-sauce",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
   "year": "read 16 September 2026",
   "url": "https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook%3AEastern_North_Carolina_Barbecue_Sauce",
   "book": "Wikibooks Cookbook",
   "ingredients": [
    "¾ gallons apple cider vinegar",
    "⅛ cup salt",
    "¼ cup ground black pepper",
    "¼ cup red pepper flakes",
    "1 cup molasses",
    "2 cups honey"
   ],
   "text": "1. Start with apple cider vinegar in saucepan over medium heat.\n2. Add salt, ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, molasses, and honey.\n3. Let mixture heat up, but not quite boil.\n4. Mix well.\n5. Return sauce to the jug that the vinegar came in to cool.",
   "yield": "¾ gallon",
   "note": "A freely licensed sauce of the same kind, for a cook who wants to make a jug rather than buy one.",
   "region": "eastern North Carolina"
  }
 ],
 "profile": {
  "kind": "bottle",
  "base": "vinegar-pepper",
  "maker": "Scott's Sauce Company",
  "town": "Goldsboro",
  "state": "NC",
  "ingredients": [
   "VINEGAR",
   "WATER",
   "SALT",
   "PEPPERS AND SPICES"
  ],
  "tomato_rank": 0,
  "vinegar_rank": 1,
  "mustard_rank": 0,
  "sugar_rank": 0,
  "serving_tbsp": 2,
  "sugar_g_per_tbsp": 0.0,
  "sodium_mg_per_tbsp": 235.5,
  "heat": "hot",
  "source": "s:web-usda-fdc-branded",
  "url": "https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/2271132/nutrients",
  "accessed": "2026-09-16",
  "note": "Four ingredients, the shortest list among the 68 bottles in data/harvest/sauces.json, tied with Texas Pete's Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce. No tomato, no sugar, and 0 g of total sugars declared; the salt does the work the sugar does elsewhere, at 235 mg of sodium to the tablespoon. USDA FoodData Central record 2271132, GTIN 075592101022; the Open Food Facts record for the same barcode reads the same four ingredients and titles the bottle Fat Free Red Hot."
 },
 "images": [],
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A bottled eastern North Carolina sauce — vinegar-based, the recipe kept secret, sold as sugar-free and fat-free — made by the Scott family of Goldsboro since the mid-1940s from a recipe the Rev.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "nc-east",
   "name": "Eastern North Carolina",
   "state": "NC",
   "note": "the Coastal Plain, east of the fall line and roughly east of Raleigh; 'Down East' further out toward the coast"
  },
  {
   "key": "nc",
   "name": "North Carolina",
   "state": "NC"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "eastern-nc",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "Eastern North Carolina barbecue",
   "as": "the style it bottles: the vinegar sauce of the Coastal Plain, from a Goldsboro whole-hog cook.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "vinegar-pepper-sauce",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "vinegar-and-pepper sauce",
   "as": "the sauce family it belongs to — in a bottle since the mid-1940s, with no sugar and no fat.",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "adam-scott",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Adam Scott",
   "as": "the minister and cook who said the recipe came to him in a dream, and sold barbecue in Goldsboro from 1917.",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "scotts-famous-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Scott's Famous Barbecue",
   "as": "the family's Goldsboro restaurant, in its own building from 1951, now closed; the sauce outlived it.",
   "rel": "place"
  },
  {
   "to": "whole-hog",
   "type": "pit",
   "name": "whole hog",
   "as": "what Adam Scott cooked in his back yard, two a week at first, then four to seven a day.",
   "rel": "serves"
  },
  {
   "to": "texas-pete",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Texas Pete",
   "as": "the other North Carolina bottle on eastern tables — that one a hot sauce from the Piedmont, this one a barbecue sauce from the east.",
   "rel": "kin"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:web-sauce-harvest-2026-09-16",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Bottled Carolina barbecue sauce labels, 68 rows",
   "publisher": "This project — data/harvest/sauces.json",
   "url": "https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/",
   "note": "The harvest file itself: every label this project could read on 2026-09-16, with the page each row came from. Cited where a record reports a figure computed across the harvest rather than from one bottle.",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-scotts-history",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Our History",
   "publisher": "Scott's Barbecue Sauce, Goldsboro",
   "url": "https://scottsbarbecuesauce.com/our-history/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-cecelski-adam-scott",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Remembering a Barbecue Legend: The Rev. Adam Scott of Goldsboro, N.C. — David Cecelski (21 Nov 2025)",
   "publisher": "David Cecelski",
   "url": "https://davidcecelski.com/2025/11/21/the-artist-of-barbecue-the-rev-adam-scott-and-a-family-journey-from-slavery-to-the-white-house/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:web-ncarts-goldsboro",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Let's Eat: Goldsboro — African American Music Trails",
   "publisher": "North Carolina Arts Council",
   "url": "https://www.ncarts.org/arts-council-z/cultural-tourism-and-trails/african-american-music-trails/lets-eat/goldsboro",
   "accessed": "2026-09-15"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-barbecue-in-north-carolina",
   "kind": "wikipedia",
   "title": "Barbecue in North Carolina — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue_in_North_Carolina",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:reed-holy-smoke",
   "kind": "book",
   "title": "Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue",
   "author": "John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, with William McKinney",
   "publisher": "University of North Carolina Press",
   "year": 2008,
   "url": "https://uncpress.org/book/9780807832028/holy-smoke/"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:book-virginia-house-wife",
   "kind": "book",
   "title": "The Virginia House-Wife, or Methodical Cook",
   "author": "Mrs. Mary Randolph",
   "publisher": "Plaskitt & Cugle, Baltimore",
   "year": 1824,
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/virginiahousewif00rand",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "note": "First published 1824, the first cookbook of the American South. Read in the stereotype printing scanned by the Internet Archive as virginiahousewif00rand, whose page numbers are used here; the fourth-edition scan (virginiahousewi00rand, printed about 1830) was read alongside it to settle characters each scan loses."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:book-mrs-hills-new-cook-book",
   "kind": "book",
   "title": "Mrs. Hill's New Cook-Book; or, Housekeeping Made Easy. A Practical System for Private Families, in Town and Country, Especially Adapted to the Southern States",
   "author": "Mrs. A. P. Hill (Annabella P. Hill), of Georgia",
   "publisher": "G. W. Dillingham Co., New York",
   "year": 1867,
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/mrshillsnewcookb00hill",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "note": "First published 1867 by Carleton, New York; copyright renewed 1870. Read in the new and enlarged edition of 1898, which is the scan on the Internet Archive. Receipts are numbered; the numbers are given with the page."
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wikibooks-eastern-north-carolina-barbecue-sauce",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Cookbook:Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce — Wikibooks Cookbook",
   "publisher": "Wikibooks",
   "url": "https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook%3AEastern_North_Carolina_Barbecue_Sauce",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
   "note": "Text of the Wikibooks Cookbook is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; copied here with the page named and the licence carried along. Wiki links and the page's own notes are dropped; the wording of the ingredients and the steps is the page's."
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-scotts-history"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-cecelski-adam-scott",
   "note": "family, church, Brazil Street and the 1933 White House barbecue are Cecelski's account (2025); the 1917 date, the dream and the 1946 patent from the company's history; the back-door sales, the 1945 bottling, 1951 move, 2001 hours and bottle count from the Arts Council page, which is undated"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "uses from the company's own page; the rest is how the eastern sauce is used"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-ncarts-goldsboro",
   "note": "the Arts Council page is undated; check the retailers"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "georges-barbecue-sauce",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "George's Barbecue Sauce",
   "as": "the other eastern North Carolina bottle on the same shelves, sixty miles south at Goldsboro, with four ingredients to this one's ten and no sugar at all.",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "texas-pete",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "Texas Pete",
   "as": "the other North Carolina bottle: Scott's is a barbecue sauce from Goldsboro, this a hot sauce from the Piedmont.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "vinegar-pepper-sauce",
   "type": "sauce",
   "name": "vinegar-and-pepper sauce",
   "as": "its bottled form from Goldsboro, sold since the 1940s.",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "scotts-famous-barbecue",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Scott's Famous Barbecue",
   "as": "the product that outlived the restaurant; patented by Martel Scott in 1946.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  },
  {
   "from": "adam-scott",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Adam Scott",
   "as": "the sauce he said came to him in a dream, patented by his son in 1946 and still bottled by the family.",
   "rel": "sauce"
  }
 ]
}