http://ncvisitorcenter.com/Barbecue.html


Real North Carolina barbecue is a dying art. Real North Carolina
barbecue is either pork shoulders or a whole hog cooked very, very
slowly over hardwood coals. The coals come from real wood –
predominately oak and hickory – which are burned down to glowing embers
and shoveled under the pork. It takes about 10 hours of this difficult
physical labor to cook pork shoulders and up to twenty hours to cook a
whole hog. The result is amazingly tender, smoky (but not over smoked),
succulent, salty pork which may be complimented by vinegar based sauce.
Down East, the sauce is only vinegar and spices; the further west you
travel, the more tomato paste or ketchup is added..... continued on
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