Every BBQ region has its own sauce tradition. Here's how Charleston fits into the broader American picture.
What unites Charleston's sauces is a commitment to the sauce as a complement to the smoke, not a substitute for it.
The most familiar BBQ sauce style to visitors from outside the South — thick, sweet, and tomato-forward. While not native to the Lowcountry tradition, heavy tomato sauces are found at most Charleston BBQ restaurants as an accommodation for visitors. The best versions use local ingredients and a touch of SC vinegar to distinguish them from generic national brands.
A transitional sauce style that bridges the vinegar-pepper tradition and the heavier tomato sauces of other regions. Thin, tangy, and lightly sweet, the light tomato sauce uses a ketchup or tomato paste base but keeps the vinegar and pepper of the older tradition prominent. Common in the SC Midlands and found at many Charleston restaurants as a middle-ground option.
The most distinctive and celebrated of South Carolina's four sauce styles — a tangy, golden sauce built on a yellow mustard base. Traces its roots to German immigrant settlers who arrived in the SC Midlands in the 18th century and brought their mustard-making traditions with them. In Charleston, the Bessinger family has been the primary custodian of this tradition since 1939.
The oldest BBQ sauce tradition in the Carolinas — a thin, tart, fiery sauce built on cider vinegar and red pepper. This is the sauce that predates all others, used by the earliest European settlers and adopted from Native American and African cooking traditions. Rodney Scott's version — applied to whole hog during the cook and served on the side — is the most celebrated modern expression of this ancient tradition.
