When I moved to North Carolina a few decades ago, Man O took me to a company picnic. When it was time to eat, we went up to a huge
horizontal black oil drum. Hmm, I figured out it was the catering company’s
grill. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, bratwurst floated through my mind. With a
lot of hooting and hollering, the lid was opened and I jumped…BACK.
There was half a pig, including hooves, grilling. The
catering guy pulled out two huge knives and started hacking at it, not slicing
it, but creating something called “barbecue.” No way! Up in my neck of suburban DC, barbecue is
what others call sloppy joes. Not this whack attack on Porky the Pig. But I had one taste and was in heaven. Then I
discovered North Carolina’s not so secret civil war.
When you get married, you find it is a series of
compromises. Colgate versus Crest. Jif
versus Peter Pan. Coke vs Pepsi. We navigated those with ease compared to what
we were facing now: Man O’s preference for Western North Carolina barbecue
versus my affinity for Eastern. I
kept
having to remind myself that Man O and I were both raised with relatives
who
went to Piggly Wiggly grocery stores, we both loved chili on our hot
dogs, and this would not tear us apart like it did so many other North
Carolina
couples.
Here is a quick
education in the East vs West, very emotional, knock-down drag-out debate:
Eastern NC barbecue, dating back from colonial times,
involves the whole pig, pit smoked and chopped. Its sauce is simple: Vinegar,
red pepper, black pepper and salt! Western NC barbecue is a youngster, dating from
the 20th century. Smoked pork shoulders are chopped but doused in ketchup based
sauce. Man O is a Western die hard while I am an Eastern total fan. Now, I must admit it is harder for me to eat Western
barbecue because the ingredients in the sauce are a mystery. If there is High
Fructose Corn Syrup in the base, I am done for. But I just like Eastern better.
Recently Man O had been in South Africa for a while and I wanted to fix him a local
meal for his return.
What do Man O and this lion cub have in common? They both like meat!!! And they are really cute. |
I missed him so much I made him Western Style barbecue,
the quick way. I don’t have a smoker or a grill so this is how I did it:
Easy Oven Pork Barbecue:
Western Sauce: Puree one small sweet onion in a food
processor. Add one teaspoon Penzey’s Barbecue of America [Click for more information on Penzeys Spices, the best spice company IMHO] spice mix, ½
teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon brown mustard, one cup or so of organic ketchup and
one half cup water.
Place one package (2-3lbs) pork tenderloin in a small
roasting pan. Pour sauce over pork and seal tightly with aluminum foil. Roast at 250 degrees for 3 and ½ hours, until
you can “pull” the pork apart with two folks.
Mix meat into the juices.
See the two forks? Use them! |
Serve with a slotted spoon to let juices run out and serve
on the side with slaw or on buns.
PS: When I am not as obliging, I make the Eastern style. Quick Eastern Sauce: 1
Cup Apple Cider
vinegar, 1 teaspoon each red pepper, black pepper, salt and sugar.
Follow the same directions or just use a half cup water in with the loin
and drizzle on sauce afterwards.
Man O was happy and I was happy to have him home. So, at least in our house, barbecue peace reigns.
hmm that eastern style might not be so bad with a bottle of stubby's poured over it afterwards! :-) actually it doesn't even sound like bbq should be in the name but I might like it if I tried it - but still probably wouldn't call it bbq! but then a guy at work once told me that he didn't use any sauce on his - it was bbq because he tossed it on the grill. I think my sweet tooth has been developed since the womb
ReplyDeleteSusanna
I have heard that people call anything barbeque if it is on the grill. The regional differences boggle the mind.
DeleteI thnk it'd be a huge taste difference- I grew up with Kraft which is basically high fructose corn syrup with a little flavoring called 'barbecue'. I was also surprised ot read that Texas is the only bbq with beef - a friend said her father in law couldnt' get over bbq'ing beef instead of pork - though we have pork too...and sausage and chicken...grill it all!
DeleteSusanna
Yay! There's no need to fight! All of the que is good!
ReplyDeleteDelicious recipe!!!!!
ReplyDelete