North Carolina barbecue is one of the most famous and beloved regional cuisines in all the fifty states. NC BBQ, as locals call it, cooks pig meat at quite low temperatures for up to 18 hours at a time. The barbecue style, which evolved over generations of tradition, uses little sauce and flavoring and instead brings out the flavor of the meat and fire.
Buy and clean between 6 and 10 pounds of high quality pork shoulder roast. Use an ice pick, skewer or knife (if the other two instruments are unavailable) to poke holes in the meat as deeply as possible, approximately 1.5 inches apart from each other.
Fire up your oven to 350 degrees F. Cook the meat in the oven for between 16 and 18 hours. Near the end of the cooking period check the meat to see if it breaks up and falls off the bone easily. If it does, remove the meat from the oven.
Make a North Carolina BBQ sauce by mixing one cup of vinegar, a sprinkling of lemon juice, crushed red peppers, a sprinkling of pepper. Salt the sauce to taste. Alternatively, you can buy North Carolina BBQ sauces from the North Carolina BBQ Society.
Chop the meat with a large knife or cleaver until you get it sized to the kinds of pieces you want. Spread the sauce over the chopped meat and mix it together. Garnish the dish with some parsley and serve the barbecue hot with a cold North Carolina microbrew or a glass of white wine.
