Carolina Barbecue

a dishred slaw

also: barbecue slaw · Lexington slaw · red coleslaw · BBQ slaw

'Slaw' in Lexington means this one; you ask for white slaw if you want the other.

Lexington style North Carolina barbecue served with hushpuppies, baked beans and red cole slaw. Lexington style North Carolina barbecue uses a vinegar and ketchup type sauce, and uses only the pork sh
Lexington style North Carolina barbecue served with hushpuppies, baked beans and red cole slaw. Lexington style North Carolina barbecue uses a vinegar and ketchup type sauce, and uses only the pork sh — Jeffery Loo, CC BY-SA 2.0

Finely chopped green cabbage dressed with vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt and black pepper — or with the pit's own dip — and no mayonnaise. It is the slaw of Lexington and the Piedmont, red-pink in the boat beside the chopped shoulder, on the sandwich under the meat, and on hot dogs as a relish; it is what the counter means by 'slaw' from Lexington to Shelby. Because it carries no mayonnaise it keeps without refrigeration, which suits an outdoor pit. Across the rest of the state the pale mayonnaise slaw is the default and this one is called barbecue slaw.

Root. Dutch koolsla 'cabbage salad' (kool 'cabbage', from Latin caulis, + sla 'salad') → American English coleslaw, 1794 → slaw, the American clipping; 'red' is the Lexington marker for the ketchup or dip in the dressing, against 'white' for mayonnaise
First seen. coleslaw 1794 in American English (Online Etymology Dictionary); the 1667 Dutch cookbook De Verstandige Kock already has cabbage strips dressed with melted butter, vinegar and oil (Wikipedia, Coleslaw)
Folk: 'cold slaw', a reshaping by ear, was the common spelling until about the 1860s, when cole was restored. Cited · etymonline

The story Cited · wp-lexington-north-carolina

The dressing is the dip. In Lexington the thin sauce of vinegar, ketchup, water, salt and pepper that dresses the shoulder also goes into the cabbage, so the slaw is coloured by the same bottle as the meat; NCpedia records it as red coleslaw, 'barbecue slaw', coloured with ketchup or dip. The Lexington sandwich is defined by it — the town's own account calls red slaw the sandwich's most distinguishing feature — and it goes on hot dogs as a relish, where the Carolina hot dog's chili, slaw and onions are the same three things in a bun. Tradition holds — the slaw went red because the first pits were tents and curb stands without ice, and a vinegar dressing holds where mayonnaise will not; it was also the dressing a pit already had on the block. In the late 1990s Wendy's put red slaw on a 'Carolina Classic' burger with chili, onions and American cheese and trademarked the name, which is as far as the slaw has travelled under its own. At Keaton's in Rowan County the house slaw is the same idea run hot: cabbage in vinegar, tomato, cayenne and celery seed.

How it is done Cited · wp-red-slaw

Green cabbage chopped fine — finer than a Northern slaw, close to minced — and dressed with vinegar, ketchup, sugar, salt and black pepper, or with a ladle of the house dip; some pits add hot sauce, mustard seed or onion. It is made ahead and kept cold, and the vinegar keeps it. Served in the second half of the tray, on the sandwich under the meat, and on a hot dog with chili and onions; the Barbecue Center and Lexington Barbecue both put it on the sandwich unless you ask for none.

Today Cited · web-lexbbq-menu

Every Lexington pit serves it and most keep a mayonnaise white slaw for the asking. It rides in the boat with a chopped tray at $8.00 cash at Lexington Barbecue and on the $5.70 chopped sandwich (September 2026). Outside the Piedmont, red slaw on the tray is the sign of a pit cooking in the Lexington manner.

Facts

courseside
stylesLexington-style barbecue
regionThe North Carolina Piedmont, North Carolina
linksRed slaw — Wikipedia · coleslaw — Online Etymology Dictionary
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.

Cold Slaw

Mrs. Barringer, of North Carolina · Dixie Cookery · 1867 · p. 33 · source · Public domain
Take vinegar and water in equal proportions (unless the vinegar is very strong); add butter, the size of an egg, and a little flour. Pour into a saucepan over the fire, and stir until it is thick; then pour in the beaten yolks of two eggs, and some salt. When it has been on the fire ten minutes more, stir in the cabbage, nicely shreded with a cabbage-cutter. The cabbage must be taken up, as soon as it is hot. You may add a saltspoonful of mustard to the sauce, if you like it. Salt the cabbage.

The word is the old one: before mayonnaise reached the Southern kitchen, 'cold slaw' meant shredded cabbage under a cooked dressing of vinegar, butter and egg. This is the ancestor of the barbecue slaws, not the thing itself. Barringer cooked in Concord, Cabarrus County, thirty miles from Lexington; her dressing is vinegar, butter, egg and mustard, with no mayonnaise in it.

Cold and Hot Slaws

Mrs. M. E. Porter · Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book · 1871 · p. 135–136 · source · Public domain
To make cold-slaw, take a nice, fresh cabbage, wash and strain it (after submitting it to the insect-destroying process); cut off the stalk, shave down the head into very small strips with a cabbage-cutter or very sharp knife. It must be done evenly. Put it into a deep china-dish and prepare for it the following dressing: Melt in a sauce-pan a quarter of a pound of butter, with half pint of water, a large tablespoonful of vinegar, a saltspoonful of salt and a little cayenne. Give this a boil, and pour it hot on the cabbage. Send to the table cold. To prepare warm-slaw, cut the cabbage as for cold-slaw (red cabbage is best); put it in a deep dish, cover closely, and set it on the top of the stove for half an hour or till warm all through; do not let it boil. Then make a dripping as for cold-slaw. Boil this mixture in a sauce-pan, and pour it hot over the warm cabbage; send to table immediately.

The warm slaw is the one that calls for red cabbage; the colour in a Lexington red slaw comes from ketchup instead, and that ingredient is not in this book.

Cold Slaw (receipt 366)

Mrs. A. P. Hill · Mrs. Hill's New Cook-Book · 1867 · p. 182–183 · source · Public domain
Cut a head of hard white cabbage into very fine shavings. It is seldom shaved fine enough. For a quart of the cabbage take the yolks of three eggs, beat them well; stir into a tumbler and a half of vinegar two teaspoonfuls of loaf sugar, a tablespoonful of olive oil, one of thick, sweet cream, or a piece of butter as large as a walnut, a heaped teaspoonful of mustard, salt and pepper to taste; mix with the egg, and put this sauce into a stew-pan; when hot add the cabbage; stew until thoroughly hot, which will only require four or five minutes. Toss it up from the bottom with a silver or wooden fork. Take it up and set where it will become perfectly cold, on ice is best. The quantity of vinegar will depend upon its strength.

The word is the old one: before mayonnaise reached the Southern kitchen, 'cold slaw' meant shredded cabbage under a cooked dressing of vinegar, butter and egg. This is the ancestor of the barbecue slaws, not the thing itself.

Red slaw, as described

source · ingredients-only

Ingredients only: the list is a fact and may be repeated; no house's instructions are copied. Recipes vary and may add onion, sugar, black pepper or mustard seed.

Not to be confused with

Its kin

stylesLexington-style barbecuethe style it marks: the slaw is red because the pit's dip is in it.and of this page it says: its slaw, red because it is dressed with the dip and not mayonnaise; the sign of the Piedmont on any tray.saucesLexington dipits dressing, or the model for it: vinegar, ketchup, salt, pepper, sugar.and of this page it says: dressed with the dip in place of mayonnaise — that is why it is red.disheswhite slawthe other slaw, mayonnaise-dressed and pale, which the east and South Carolina eat.and of this page it says: the Piedmont's slaw, dressed with dip instead of mayonnaise; the word 'white' exists to tell them apart.stylesEastern North Carolina barbecuethe style that dresses its slaw white; the two slaws divide the state with the two sauces.dishesbarbecue sandwichgoes on it, under the meat, and defines the Lexington sandwich.and of this page it says: what goes on the meat in Lexington.dishesbarbecue trayfills the other half of the boat.and of this page it says: the slaw in the other half of a Lexington tray.wordsslawthe word, Dutch koolsla clipped to one syllable.and of this page it says: the Lexington slaw: cabbage, vinegar, ketchup, pepper, no mayonnaise — also called barbecue slaw.placesLexington Barbecuewhere it is on every sandwich and in every tray.and of this page it says: on the plate, dressed with the dip.placesBar-B-Q Centerthe other Lexington counter that puts it on the sandwich by default.and of this page it says: a hundred gallons a week; 'that's a good vegetable.'placesKeaton's Barbecuewhose hot vinegar slaw is red slaw with cayenne.and of this page it says: its slaw is cabbage in a spicy red vinegar-tomato dressing, the Piedmont's red slaw with cayenne.dishesbarbecue chickenat Keaton's the hot slaw sits beside dipped chicken.and of this page it says: Keaton's hot vinegar slaw — cabbage in vinegar, tomato, cayenne and celery seed — is the Piedmont red slaw run hot.

Who points back

dishes · says of this pagebaked beansits partner in a Lexington tray, with the hushpuppies.dishes · says of this pageDuke's mayonnaisethe thing the Piedmont slaw is defined by leaving out.dishes · says of this pagehushpuppiesits partner in a Lexington tray.places · says of this pageAlston Bridges Barbecuethe slaw on its tray, dressed with the dip.places · says of this pageFuzzy's Bar-B-Qthe slaw on its tray, red because the dip dresses it.places · says of this pageKepley's Bar-B-Qon the sandwich, tangy.places · says of this pageRed Bridges Barbecue Lodgeon the plate.places · says of this pageSpeedy's Barbecuethe slaw on its tray, dressed with the dip.places · says of this pageStamey's Barbecueon the tray.events · says of this pageLexington Barbecue Festivalthe slaw of the festival plate.words · says of this pagedipthe slaw is red because it is dressed with the dip instead of mayonnaise.words · says of this pagePiedmontthe Piedmont's slaw, dressed with the dip.stories · says of this pageThe Great Dividethe fastest way to tell which side of the line a plate came from.

Pictures

Lexington style North Carolina barbecue served with hushpuppies, baked beans and red cole slaw. Lexington style North Carolina barbecue uses a vinegar and ketchup type sauce, and uses only the pork sh
Jeffery Loo · CC BY-SA 2.0
Red slaw is different from traditional coleslaw in that it does not use mayonnaise as an ingredient, allowing it to be stored for longer periods without refrigeration and making it more suitable for o
Jeffery Loo · CC BY-SA 2.0

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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