A South Carolina barbecue examination is a delicious lesson in geography.
Slowly cooked pork in a smokey haze is a tradition in Palmetto State. This can be broken down into barbecue regions: vinegar-based sauces in northeast Pee Dee, mustard-based sauces for the Midlands and vinegar-based sauces for the Upstate.
Nearly all communities have a favorite local barbecue joint. They are usually closed on weekends and holidays such as Memorial Day.
According to Lake High Jr. (president of the South Carolina Barbeque Association), barbecued pork has a history as old as European settlement.
Spaniards brought the pig to America. They found Native Americans were already slow cooking meat over a smoky flame. America’s popularity was high. “original”Barbecue sauce is vinegar and pepper. It was created by Scottish families who lived along the coasts of Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
“The second, in order of historic evolution, is the one that is distinct to South Carolina and the one that people most think of as South Carolina — mustard sauce. That sauce is the product of the large German heritage found in (central) South Carolina,”High writes in his “A Very Brief History of the Four Types of Barbeque Found in the USA.”
Light tomato sauces, first popularized in Piedmont, are now joined by sweet, heavy tomato sauces that suit modern sweet tooth.
“If one wants to experience all four of America’s styles of barbecue, there is only one state in the nation where that can be done,”High claims. “The true barbecue aficionado cannot say that he has completed his quest without a visit to South Carolina, where the art of barbecue was invented and where it is still practiced in both its purest tradition and its most diverse styles.”
Visit barbecue South Carolina for more information. www.scbarbeque.com. See the full list of food festivals here www.DiscoverSouthCarolina.comRestaurant and other listings www.SavorSouthCarolina.com.
