Piedmont Barbecue Sauce

This is a classic central North Carolina style barbecue sauce. Typically, served on smoked pork (at the table), this thin, tomato and vinegar based sauce has tons of flavor.

Starting around the Piedmont region of central North Carolina, barbecue sauce is made with ketchup or tomato paste to add tanginess and color. The split runs roughly along a line through the Raleigh-Durham area, vinegar-based to the east, tomato-based "Piedmont" or "Lexington" style to the west. Fans of the tomato-based style don't understand how someone could ruin a piece of meat with vinegar, believing a little ketchup makes the barbecue sweeter, prettier, taste better. Save the vinegar for cleaning, they say.

Other than a band of mustard-based sauce around central South Carolina and northern Georgia, the sauces generally get sweeter the farther west you go, places like Memphis and Texas adding molasses or brown sugar to give it a little twang.

1 1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix thoroughly. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for several days, allowing the flavors to blend.