Carolina Barbecue

a dishbarbecue sandwich

also: chopped barbecue sandwich · barbecue with slaw · Lexington barbecue sandwich · pork sandwich · a barbecue

Ordered as 'a barbecue' or 'a chopped sandwich'; the slaw is on it unless you say otherwise.

Slow Roasted Pork Covered with Our B.B.Q. Sauce on a Brioche Bun. Served with Cole Slaw, and French Fries or Green Salad (from the Cheesecake Factory menu)
Slow Roasted Pork Covered with Our B.B.Q. Sauce on a Brioche Bun. Served with Cole Slaw, and French Fries or Green Salad (from the Cheesecake Factory menu) — vagueonthehow, CC BY 2.0

Chopped pork on a soft white bun with slaw laid on the meat. In North Carolina it is the commonest form of the sandwich: whole-hog barbecue dressed with vinegar and pepper in the east, chopped or sliced shoulder with dip and red slaw in the Piedmont. In South Carolina the meat is pulled or chopped and the sauce is mustard, vinegar-pepper or tomato by region, with slaw a common topping. The bun is a plain hamburger roll — at Skylight Inn a white bread roll — and the bread keeps the meat warm and catches the sauce.

The story Cited · wp-whole-hog-barbecue

The whole-hog sandwich is a twentieth-century form: the older barbecue was a plate, or the pig itself, and the bun came with the roadside stand. At Melton's in Rocky Mount a sandwich cost 15 cents in 1929, against 45 cents for a plate with boiled potatoes. Lexington's version has a name of its own, the 'Lexington Barbecue Sandwich', and its mark is the red slaw — cabbage in vinegar and ketchup with no mayonnaise — that sits on the meat. Slaw on the sandwich is a habit the Carolinas share with Memphis, where Leonard Heuberger's restaurant, opened in 1922, put chopped shoulder, tomato sauce and slaw on a bun and other houses followed; the Carolina sandwich is the same idea with its own sauce under the slaw. Inference — the slaw goes on the meat rather than beside it because the sandwich was built to be eaten in one hand at a stand or in a car; the tray, with its slaw in the other half of the boat, is the sandwich opened up for people who sat down.

How it is done Cited · wp-barbecue-sandwich

The meat is chopped on the block and seasoned there; a spoonful of slaw goes on top and the bun closes over it. Eastern pits use white slaw, Lexington pits red slaw; at Keaton's in Cleveland the hot vinegar slaw goes on. Lexington Barbecue sells a chopped and a sliced sandwich, both with slaw, and a pork skin sandwich with slaw besides; the Barbecue Center adds a coarse chopped one. On a South Carolina buffet the pork comes with loaves of white bread, and the eater builds the sandwich at the table.

Today Cited · web-lexbbq-menu

Lexington Barbecue: chopped sandwich with slaw $5.70 cash, $5.85 card; sliced $5.90 cash (September 2026). The Barbecue Center: chopped $6.00, sliced or coarse chopped $6.35 (September 2026). B's Barbecue in Greenville charged $3.75 in January 2016.

Facts

coursemain
meatwhole hog, shoulder
stylesEastern North Carolina barbecue, Lexington-style barbecue, South Carolina mustard barbecue, Pee Dee whole-hog barbecue
regionThe Carolinas, North Carolina, South Carolina
linksBarbecue sandwich — Wikipedia · Lexington Barbecue — menu
confidencehigh · updated 2026-09-15

Recipes you may use

Public-domain cookbooks are printed here in full, spelling and all. Where a recipe is still in copyright, the page gives the ingredients — a list of what goes in is a fact — and links to the rest.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Wikibooks Cookbook · read 16 September 2026 · source · CC BY-SA 4.0
1. Combine water, salt, and honey in a 6-quart cooler. Add pork and refrigerate or place a large bag of ice on top for 8–12 hours. 2. Remove pork from brine and pat dry with paper towels. Combine remaining seasonings and rub on pork. 3. Light a few chunks of apple wood and place in the firebox of a smoker. Keep temperature in smoker around 210°F. 4. Place in a smoker and cook for 8–12 hours, changing wood as needed. The meat should be tender at this point—if not, continue smoking. 5. Let rest 1 hour, then shred with two forks. Serve on hamburger buns.

Slaw on the meat, on a soft bun; the Carolina order.

Eastern North Carolina Barbecued Pig

Wikibooks Cookbook · read 16 September 2026 · source · CC BY-SA 4.0
1. Salt hams, ribs/midsection and shoulders liberally and place skin side up on either a gas or charcoal grill or a BBQ pit. 2. Keep lid closed, and aim for a heat of approximately 275–350°F. 3. Allow 1 hour per 10 pounds cooking time (gas or charcoal). 4. 2 hours before being done, place pig with the skin side down. As soon as it is flipped, pour BBQ sauce on meat side. 5. Close lid and allow skin to crisp. 6. The pig will be done to perfection when the ham bone can be twisted freely. 7. Lift lid and allow guests to pick/pull meat, or the chef can remove meat and chop to their liking on a chopping block.

Makes about 27 lb of meat, serving 30–40.

An 80-pound pig on a home pit or a covered grill, skin up all night and turned at the end; the meat that goes on the bun.

Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce

Wikibooks Cookbook · read 16 September 2026 · source · CC BY-SA 4.0
1. Start with apple cider vinegar in saucepan over medium heat. 2. Add salt, ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, molasses, and honey. 3. Let mixture heat up, but not quite boil. 4. Mix well. 5. Return sauce to the jug that the vinegar came in to cool.

Makes ¾ gallon.

The sauce the chopped meat is dressed with before it reaches the bread.

Not to be confused with

Its kin

stylesEastern North Carolina barbecuethe style whose sandwich is whole hog, vinegar and white slaw on a bun.stylesLexington-style barbecuethe style whose sandwich carries red slaw, its defining mark.and of this page it says: chopped shoulder and red slaw on a bun; the red slaw is what tells a Lexington sandwich.stylesSouth Carolina mustard barbecuethe style whose sandwich is pulled pork under a yellow mustard sauce, slaw optional.and of this page it says: in South Carolina, pulled pork with the yellow sauce and slaw on a bun.dishesbarbecue traythe same meat and slaw without the bun.and of this page it says: the same meat and slaw on a bun; the tray is the sandwich without the bread.dishesred slawwhat goes on the meat in Lexington.and of this page it says: goes on it, under the meat, and defines the Lexington sandwich.disheswhite slawwhat goes on the meat in the east.and of this page it says: goes on the bun over the meat in the east.saucesLexington dipthe sauce under the slaw in the Piedmont.and of this page it says: on the chopped pork and in the red slaw on top of it.saucesvinegar-and-pepper saucethe sauce under the slaw in the east.saucesmustard-based barbecue saucethe sauce on the South Carolina sandwich.and of this page it says: pulled pork with the yellow sauce and slaw on a bun, the South Carolina sandwich.placesSkylight Inn BBQwhere the sandwich comes on a white bread roll.placesLexington Barbecuewhere the sandwich is chopped or sliced, with slaw, and where a pork skin sandwich sits on the same menu.placesBar-B-Q Centerwhere the sandwich comes chopped, sliced or coarse chopped.placesMelton's Barbecuewhere a sandwich cost 15 cents in 1929.placesKeaton's Barbecuewhere the slaw on the bun is a hot vinegar slaw.placesDukes Bar-B-Quewhere the buffet puts out white bread and the eater builds the sandwich.wordslight breadthe white loaf the sandwich is built on when there is no bun.and of this page it says: the dish: barbecue and slaw on light bread.wordspulled porkwhat South Carolina calls the meat in its sandwich; in North Carolina it is chopped.and of this page it says: the sandwich the phrase usually sells; in South Carolina the mustard-sauce version is described as pulled pork.the pitwhole hogthe eastern filling, chopped skin and all.the pitpork shoulderthe Piedmont filling.dishespork skinsthe filling of Lexington Barbecue's other sandwich.

Who points back

styles · says of this pagePee Dee whole-hog barbecuepulled pork on white bread at Scott's.dishes · says of this pageDuke's mayonnaisein the slaw on the meat, everywhere the slaw is white.dishes · says of this pageoutside brownthe other order it modifies.dishes · says of this pagepickleslaid on the meat or eaten alongside, by the house's habit.the pit · says of this pagechopping blockthe chop and slaw on a soft bun.places · says of this pageBackyard BBQ Pitthe sandwich, with ribs and oxtails beside it.places · says of this pageBobbee O's BBQthe plate most of its accounts describe, with the sauce that took four years.places · says of this pageCooper's Country Storesold over the counter with the boiled peanuts.places · says of this pageHome Team BBQthe pulled-pork sandwich is the company's named staple.places · says of this pageKepley's Bar-B-Qthe signature: chopped pork and red slaw on a bun.places · says of this pageThe Fiction Kitchenwhat its pulled barbecue is served as, slaw and all, without the hog.events · says of this pageMallard Creek Barbecue$7 in 2024.words · says of this pageslawin both halves of North Carolina the sandwich comes with slaw on it.stories · says of this pageHow to orderslaw goes on the meat unless you say otherwise.

Pictures

Slow Roasted Pork Covered with Our B.B.Q. Sauce on a Brioche Bun. Served with Cole Slaw, and French Fries or Green Salad (from the Cheesecake Factory menu)
vagueonthehow · CC BY 2.0
JD's Bar-B-Que, Acworth Georgia
John Phelan · CC BY 4.0

Sources

Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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