Carolina BarbecueStyles (6)

Eastern-style, Down East barbecue, whole-hog barbecue

The whole pig, split and cooked over coals or on a gas or electric cooker, then chopped — skin, ham, shoulder, loin and belly together, 'every part of the hog except the squeal' — and dressed after cooking with a thin…

Lexington barbecue, Piedmont-style barbecue, Western-style barbecue

Pork shoulders cooked slowly over hardwood coals, usually hickory, then chopped, coarse-chopped or sliced and dressed with a thin red sauce the Piedmont calls dip: vinegar, ketchup or tomato, water, salt, pepper and red…

heavy-tomato style, tomato-and-sugar barbecue, Upstate barbecue

Pork shoulders and butts, ribs and chicken cooked over hickory or on cookers and served with a thick, sweet, red sauce of tomato, brown sugar or molasses, vinegar and spices — the sauce the state tourism office says you…

light-tomato style, vinegar-and-ketchup barbecue, upper Midlands barbecue

Pork — whole hog in the Pee Dee, shoulders and hams in the upper Midlands — cooked over coals or on cookers and served with a thin sauce that is the Carolinas' vinegar-and-pepper with ketchup stirred in.

Pee Dee barbecue, vinegar-and-pepper barbecue, Williamsburg County barbecue

Whole hogs cooked overnight over hardwood coals, pulled or chopped, and dressed with a thin sauce of vinegar, salt, black pepper and red pepper — the same sauce as eastern North Carolina's across the state line.

Midlands barbecue, mustard-based barbecue, Carolina Gold barbecue

Pork — whole hogs at some pits, hams or shoulders at others — cooked over hardwood coals or on cookers, chopped or pulled, and dressed with a yellow sauce of prepared mustard, vinegar, sugar and spices.