Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce

South Carolina's yellow barbecue sauce, a German settler habit that survived two hundred and fifty years in the pines

Origin: The Midlands, South Carolina, United States

From the journey of Mustard.

America is a tomato country when it barbecues, and one belt of one state is not, and the explanation is a migration. The midlands of South Carolina, running roughly from Columbia through Orangeburg, Lexington, and Bamberg, sauce their smoked pork with mustard. Not tomato, not the thin peppered vinegar of the eastern part of the state, not the tomato-vinegar of the west: yellow mustard, cut with vinegar and sugar and pepper, mopped on through a long smoke and served alongside. It is the only region in the country that does it, and the boundary of the mustard belt is startlingly sharp on a map. The usual explanation is settlement, and the surnames support it. This is the country of eighteenth-century German Palatine immigrants, brought in on the colonial township scheme to populate the interior, and the older barbecue houses of the belt carry their descendants' names: Bessinger, Shealy, Sweatman, Zeigler, Hite. A mustard habit came over with them, found a pig-farming region that smoked whole hogs, and stayed put whilst almost every other trace of German food culture in the area disappeared. It is a very long survival for one condiment. The sauce itself is not complicated and is not meant to be. Prepared yellow mustard, made from the mild white species and therefore able to be used by the cupful without setting anybody's sinuses alight, is loosened with cider vinegar, sweetened, and given heat and depth with black and cayenne pepper and a little Worcestershire. Some houses add butter, some a spoonful of ketchup, and arguing about it is part of the local sport. What it does is straightforward. Pork shoulder smoked for twelve hours is rich, fatty, and sweet, and mustard and vinegar together cut all three in one move.

Ingredients

Sauce

300 ml prepared American yellow mustard
120 ml cider vinegar
80 g light brown sugar
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp sweet paprika
0.5 tsp fine sea salt
30 g unsalted butter

Pork

2 kg boneless pork shoulder
2 tbsp yellow mustard, for binding the rub
2 tbsp coarse salt and cracked black pepper, mixed, for the rub

Method

Combine everything for the sauce except the butter in a saucepan and whisk smooth.
Bring to a bare simmer over a low heat and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring often, until slightly thickened and the raw vinegar edge has gone.
Take off the heat, whisk in the butter until melted, and cool. It will thicken further as it cools.
For the pork, rub the shoulder all over with the 2 tbsp of yellow mustard as a binder, then coat generously with the salt and pepper rub.
Smoke at 110°C over hickory or oak for six to eight hours, until the internal temperature reaches 75°C, mopping with a little thinned sauce every hour after the third.
Wrap in foil or butcher paper and continue until the internal temperature reaches 95°C and a probe slides in with no resistance, a further three to four hours. Rest, wrapped, for at least an hour.
Pull the meat apart with two forks, discarding any hard fat, and dress it lightly with the warm sauce. Serve the rest on the table.

Notes

The sauce keeps for a month refrigerated and improves for the first week. It is worth making a double batch. Without a smoker, cook the shoulder in a 140°C oven for five to six hours, covered for the last two, and add a teaspoon of smoked paprika to the rub. It is not the same but it is very good. American yellow mustard is the correct base and is not a compromise. It is made from mild white mustard, which is why it can be used in this quantity; Dijon or English mustard in the same volume would be inedible. Serve with white bread, dill pickles, raw onion, and a vinegary coleslaw. Local practice puts the slaw directly onto the sandwich. The sauce is also excellent on smoked chicken, on sausages, and as a dressing for a potato salad.

The Gastrographer

Name: Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 12 h 30 min
Yield: 16
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 300 ml prepared American yellow mustard; 120 ml cider vinegar; 80 g light brown sugar; 2 tbsp clear honey; 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 1 tsp cayenne pepper; 1 tsp sweet paprika; 0.5 tsp fine sea salt; 30 g unsalted butter; 2 kg boneless pork shoulder; 2 tbsp yellow mustard, for binding the rub; 2 tbsp coarse salt and cracked black pepper, mixed, for the rub

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control