/ck/ - Food & Cooking

what is the greatest local speciality in the US?

>>9126817
>I'm not from the US so I don't know any truly awesome recipes yet
In that case I'm going to hit you with some links here. You're definitely on the right track with the apple cider vinegar. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/north-carolina-pulled-pork-242247 This recipe is pretty great, but it's mainly for actually making the pulled pork the traditional way by smoking it on a grill. It works just fine in a slow cooker too though, just do the dry rub like the recipe tells you, then sear the meat on a skillet before putting it in the slow cooker with a little cider vinegar and water or stock. A few dashes of liquid smoke can give it that real barbecue taste. Throwing some onions and apples in like you had in your recipe is a great idea actually, I'll have to try it.

Now you have a choice to make, which style of sauce do you want? There are two in North Carolina: Eastern Carolina style and Western Carolina style. Eastern style sauce is a thin vinegar based sauce that is spicy and tangy, owing to the majority of it being cider vinegar. Western style sauce is also vinegar-heavy, but includes ketchup to thicken it slightly and make it a little sweeter. I will leave it up to you, but my preference is for the Eastern style sauce.

Eastern: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/58486/eastern-north-carolina-bbq-sauce/ (just replace the 1 cup of white vinegar with a second cup of cider vinegar though, I don't know why this recipe tells you to use white vinegar.)

Western: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/vinegar-sauce-242391

Finally, you must make your slaw. This dressing of fresh cabbage and carrot adds crisp contrast to the sandwich when spooned on top of the meat before capping it off with the toasted bun. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/214982/red-bbq-slaw/

Good luck my friend, and may good barbecue come to you this 4th of July. God bless America.