Carolina Barbecue

a sauceLexington dip

also: dip · Lexington-style sauce · Piedmont sauce · Western sauce · red sauce · barbecue dip

'Dip' is the Piedmont's word; a Lexington counter will not correct you for 'sauce', but the menu says dip.

The Piedmont's sauce: the east's vinegar, salt, pepper and red pepper with ketchup or tomato and water added, sometimes sugar, so that it comes out thin and reddish — tangy, a little sweet or hot by the house, and every restaurant's recipe its own. It is the sauce of pork-shoulder barbecue in Lexington, Greensboro, Salisbury, Shelby and the rest of the Piedmont. It is basted on the shoulders as they cook, goes on the chopped meat at the block, stands on the table, and, in place of mayonnaise, dresses the red slaw.

Root. English dip (n.), from the verb dip, Old English dyppan, Proto-Germanic daupejanan, a causative of deup- 'deep'. The noun 'act of dipping' is recorded from the 1590s and the sense 'a liquid into which something is dipped' by 1825.
First seen. the noun sense 'liquid into which something is dipped' by 1825 (etymonline, dip n.1); no dated first use of 'dip' for the Lexington sauce found by this project
Tradition holds — the name is from the use: the chopped meat is dipped in it, and it is thin enough to dip into rather than spread. Etymonline notes that the sense 'thick, savory sauce for dunking pieces of raw vegetables' (by 1962) is a modern re-coinage, so the barbecue dip keeps the older, thinner sense. Cited · etymonline

The story Cited · web-ourstate-lexington-cover-up

The dip came out of the Lexington tents. Sid Weaver sold barbecue by the old courthouse from 1919 and Jess Swicegood beside him; Warner Stamey learned from both and carried the sauce to Shelby and Greensboro, and the men he taught — Wayne Monk at Lexington Barbecue among them — carried it further. Tradition holds — the tomato came in with cheap ketchup after the First World War, the same years Wikipedia's sauce history gives for ketchup and sugar entering barbecue sauces generally; the South Carolina Barbeque Association dates the same vinegar-and-ketchup idea to about 1900 in the Pee Dee and the North Carolina Piedmont.

The ketchup is what the columnists fought over. Jerry Bledsoe of the Greensboro Daily News took the Piedmont's side — 'America loves ketchup' — and Dennis Rogers of the Raleigh News & Observer the east's: 'People who would put ketchup in the sauce they feed to innocent children are capable of most anything.' The joke ran for decades and reached the General Assembly over the Lexington Barbecue Festival's title in 2005–07. In Lexington the sauce is also the slaw dressing: red slaw is cabbage, vinegar, ketchup and black pepper, no mayonnaise, and the Southern Foodways Alliance's note on Bar-B-Q Center says it plainly — in Lexington, barbecue eaters don't squirt sauce, they dip.

How it is done Cited · wp-lexington-north-carolina

Vinegar, ketchup, water, salt, pepper and other spices, in the town's own description; red pepper flakes and sugar in many kitchens; simmered and kept warm. On the pit it is a baste for the shoulders through a ten-hour cook. At the block it is spooned into the chopped meat; at the table it comes in a bottle. For red slaw, chopped cabbage is dressed with it — the same vinegar, ketchup and pepper — instead of mayonnaise, so the slaw matches the meat.

Today Cited · wp-lexington-north-carolina

Every Lexington pit keeps its own recipe; the town's Wikipedia article calls each one 'a closely guarded secret'. Red slaw dressed with it goes on hot dogs across the Piedmont as well as on trays.

Facts

baselexington-dip
stylesLexington-style barbecue
regionThe North Carolina Piedmont, North Carolina
linksLexington, North Carolina — Wikipedia (Barbecue) · dip — Online Etymology Dictionary · North Carolina BBQ — Southern Foodways Alliance
confidencehigh · updated 2026-09-16

On the label

what was readbottle · Lillie's Q, Chicago, other
vinegar#3 on the label
tomato#1 on the label
mustard#4 on the label
sugar#2 on the label
sugar per tablespoon5 g (a tablespoon of table sugar is about 12.6 g)
sodium per tablespoon175 mg
the label, in orderTOMATO SAUCE (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), BROWN SUGAR, APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, MUSTARD (DISTILLED VINEGAR, WATER, MUSTARD SEED, SALT, TURMERIC, PAPRIKA, SPICE, GARLIC POWDER), SUGAR, VINEGAR, SALT, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2%: APPLE JUICE CONCENTRATE, LIME JUICE CONCENTRATE, SPICES, GARLIC, ONION, AND NATURAL FLAVOR

Read from this page, 2026-09-16. No Lexington pit publishes a Nutrition Facts panel for its dip: Lexington Barbecue, the Bar-B-Q Center, Stamey's, Red Bridges, Hursey's, Kepley's, Little Richard's, Cook's and Short Sugar's all sell bottles and none printed a label this search could read on 2026-09-16. What can be measured is the bottle that wears the style's name from outside it. Lillie's Q of Chicago sells No. 40 Western North Carolina Tomato, and it reads tomato first and brown sugar second, at 5 g of sugar per tablespoon — the Kansas City order, under the Piedmont's name. USDA FoodData Central record 2584568. Every bottle we have read is on the sauce page.

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.

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 base the dip is built on: to make a Piedmont dip from it, a house adds ketchup or tomato and water and cuts the pepper back.

The dip, as described

source · ingredients-only

Ingredients only: the parts are a fact and may be repeated; the proportions are each pit's own and are not published. The same mixture dresses the red slaw.

Barbecue Sauce (Sweet)

Wikibooks Cookbook · read 16 September 2026 · source · CC BY-SA 4.0
1. Combine all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, until it thickens slightly. 2. Arrange chicken pieces or pork chops in a greased baking dish. 3. Pour half of sauce over and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes. 4. Pour remaining sauce over before serving.

Thicker and sweeter than a dip — a cup of ketchup to three quarters of a cup of cider vinegar, with brown sugar, mustard and Worcestershire. A dip runs the other way: mostly vinegar, with the ketchup a colouring.

Sauce for Barbecues (receipt 335)

Mrs. A. P. Hill · Mrs. Hill's New Cook-Book · 1867 · p. 171 · source · Public domain
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.

An ancestor rather than the thing: the vinegar-and-pepper mop that the Piedmont later reddened. No tomato in it.

Not to be confused with

Its kin

stylesLexington-style barbecuethe style it names: pork shoulder with dip and red slaw, in the Piedmont.and of this page it says: its sauce — the east's vinegar and pepper with ketchup or tomato added, called dip in the Piedmont — and the dressing of its slaw.dishesred slawdressed with the dip in place of mayonnaise — that is why it is red.and of this page it says: its dressing, or the model for it: vinegar, ketchup, salt, pepper, sugar.saucesvinegar-and-pepper saucethe east's sauce it grew from: vinegar, salt and pepper, before the ketchup went in.and of this page it says: its Piedmont descendant: the same sauce with ketchup or tomato added.sauceslight tomato sauceits South Carolina twin, which the SC Barbeque Association maps with the Piedmont.and of this page it says: the same sauce under the Piedmont's name; the SC Barbeque Association maps the two regions as one.saucesheavy tomato saucethe thick sweet sauce it is not: dip is thin and sour, and soaks in.and of this page it says: the Piedmont's thin red sauce; Wikipedia's sauce history places Kansas City's thick one downstream of it.saucesmustard-based barbecue saucethe other Carolina sauce with a color: yellow to its red.and of this page it says: the Piedmont's red sauce; the two are the Carolinas' colored sauces.the pitpork shoulderwhat it is basted on through a ten-hour cook and chopped into at the block.and of this page it says: the thin vinegar-and-ketchup sauce the Piedmont puts on the chopped shoulder.dishesbarbecue trayon the tray at the block and in the bottle beside it.and of this page it says: what the meat in a Lexington tray is dressed with on the block, with a cup on the side.dishesbarbecue sandwichon the chopped pork and in the red slaw on top of it.and of this page it says: the sauce under the slaw in the Piedmont.wordsdipthe word itself, with its root and its Piedmont sense.and of this page it says: the sauce itself; this page is only its name.placesLexington BarbecueWayne Monk's 'dark, rather thin' dip, neither too mild nor too fiery, in Bob Garner's description.and of this page it says: its sauce, thin and reddened with ketchup, served at the table.placesBar-B-Q Centerwhere, in the Southern Foodways Alliance's line, eaters don't squirt sauce, they dip.and of this page it says: a hundred gallons a week of it, by Sonny Conrad's count in 2011.placesStamey's BarbecueWarner Stamey's Greensboro pit, which carried the dip out of Lexington in 1953.and of this page it says: the sauce, served at the table; 'dip' is the family's word.peopleWarner Stameylearned it in the courthouse tents and taught it to the Piedmont.and of this page it says: the sauce he learned in the courthouse tents and served in Shelby, Lexington and Greensboro.peopleWayne Monkwhose dip went to the 1983 economic summit at Williamsburg.and of this page it says: his sauce, which went to the 1983 economic summit at Williamsburg.peopleSid Weaverthe tent by the courthouse where it starts, 1919.and of this page it says: the sauce came out of his tent and Swicegood's: vinegar and pepper with ketchup.peopleJess Swicegoodthe stand beside Weaver's, bought by Stamey in 1938.and of this page it says: the sauce came out of his stand and Weaver's tent.peopleJerry Bledsoeits defender in print: 'America loves ketchup'.and of this page it says: 'America loves ketchup': his defence of the red sauce, to ABC in 2005.peopleDennis Rogersits accuser: ketchup in sauce fed to children.and of this page it says: ketchup in sauce fed to innocent children — his charge against it.stylesLight tomato barbecuethe South Carolina style built on the same sauce.and of this page it says: the same sauce under the Piedmont's name, north of the line.

Who points back

sauces · says of this pageGeorge's Barbecue Saucethe order its label actually reads in: vinegar first, tomato behind it, sugar behind that.dishes · says of this pagebarbecue chickenwhat the Piedmont chicken is dressed with.dishes · says of this pageoutside browncooked into the crust over the fire and added again on the block.the pit · says of this pagebrick pitnot basted in a closed pit because it flares; served at the table instead, which is why it is called dip.the pit · says of this pagechopping blockgoes on the chopped shoulder before it is trayed.places · says of this pageCook's Barbecueserved for dipping the plate, not pouring.places · says of this pageFuzzy's Bar-B-Qits sauce: thin vinegar reddened with ketchup, on the meat and in the slaw.places · says of this pageShort Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Qwhat its sauce was not: Worcestershire and sugar in place of the ketchup.places · says of this pageSpeedy Lohr's Barbecueits sauce, and the dressing that makes its slaw red.places · says of this pageSpeedy's Barbecueits sauce, and the dressing on its slaw.places · says of this pageTarheel Qits sauce, and the dressing on its slaw.events · says of this pageLexington Barbecue Festivalon every tray on Main Street.words · says of this pagePiedmontthe Piedmont's sauce.words · says of this pageslawthe dressing of the red slaw; the dip's second use.stories · says of this pageThe Great Dividethe tablespoon of ketchup that started a war.

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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