Last Updated on August 16, 2024 by Carne Diem
Protein: 
Origin: Southeast America, North America
Method: Smoker
Jump to RecipeWhen it comes to Eastern North Carolina BBQ, it is all about pork BBQ. This slow-smoked pork recipe is basted and served with a thin homemade vinegar-based sauce, and hits with the soul of Southern barbecue. Thankfully making good BBQ at home is as easy as it is delicious.
Living in Kansas City and competing on the KCBS BBQ circuit I am very appreciative of the competitive nature of BBQ. No doubt the battle lines have been drawn and pitmasters from around the U.S. have all thrown in their hat as claiming that their region produces the best Que in America. Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, the Carolinas, all want a stake at the crown.
Table of contents
After travelling around the United States eating the best BBQ, I feel like I finally have an answer to the age-old question of who has the best smoked meats. All of the heavyweights have certain things that they do exceptionally well. Want the best brisket in the U.S.? Texas has hands down the best that I have tried. Ribs? As a KC boy I still believe that Joe's KC has the best ribs in America (and I have the late Anthony Bourdain on my side). Memphis is a close second. When it comes to burnt ends, in my opinion, there is KC and no one else even close.
Finally, we come to pork. Honestly, I feel that while Texans and KC claim to smoke the best pork in America, it feels like almost an afterthought to their staples. The pork I have had in the Carolinas actually feels like it was made with love. Of the 3 styles of pork cooked in the Carolinas, East North Carolina smoked pork is my favorite. Thankfully, making the vinegary Eastern North Carolina style pork is easy to do at home on your smoker.
Background: Eastern North Carolina Style Pork
There are 3 main styles of Carolina BBQ, Eastern North Carolina, Lexington (Piedmont) style, and South Carolina style. Pork is the king of proteins in all 3 styles, with variations in sauces and cooking techniques. When it comes to the best pork in America, it is ENC style that has stolen my heart. Typically, Eastern North Carolina Style Pork involves cooking a whole hog. Guests then gather around the whole pig for a classic Southern pig pickin, where the shredded or chopped pork is served with a vinegar based, tangy sauce and southern sides. Thankfully, you can get the same great taste at home smoking a pork butt. If you have the desire and means to cook a whole hog, go for it, it is a lot of fun. Or you can start small with our Spanish Cochinillo Asado: Roast Suckling Pig.
The sauce used in ENC style pork is a tangy-peppery combination of vinegar and spices. There is no tomato sauce used here, and it is a polar opposite to the sweet sauces used in Kansas City. In my opinion, the tangy flavor of this ENC barbecue sauce really allows the wonderful flavor of the smoked pork to shine through.
Making Smoked Eastern North Carolina Style Pork
To make ENC style smoked pork at home, you just need a great cut of pork, smoke, a homemade Eastern North Carolina Style BBQ sauce, and time.
Best cut of pork for Pulled Pork
As mentioned above, traditionally smoked pork in the Eastern part of the Carolinas involved cooked a whole pig. When cooking at home, however, you can smoke just a pork shoulder or pork butt. Pork butt has nothing to do with the pig's hind quarters and is actually the top section of the pork shoulder. You may also hear it referred to as a blade roast, shoulder butt, or Boston butt, named after the wooden "butts" that the pork was stored in. Combined with the lower section, or picnic, they make up an entire pork shoulder. This cut is very well marbled and so makes the perfect cut for juicy smoked BBQ pulled pork.
Trim and prep the pork butt
The first step is trimming your pork butt. These days, most pork butts come pretty well pre trimmed. There will likely be a side that still contains a layer of fat. Based on personal preference you can decide how much of this to remove. Pork butts already have a lot of intramuscular fat so I tend to remove all of it so I have more surface area to apply rub to. Some people prefer to leave it on or score it. Choice is yours.
Once trimmed, coat the meat in a layer of yellow mustard. This helps act as a binder for the rub and helps build a better bark. It does not effect the taste at all. My wife HATES mustard, and has not once mentioned a mustard flavor.
Next, apply a generous layer of rub. Carolina pork is not sweet like you may find in Kansas City, so try not to use a rub with a lot of sugar. For this butt, I used Carolina Style Rub Some Butt seasoning and was pretty happy with the results.
At this point I like to wrap the pork butt in plastic wrap or cover it and place back in the refrigerator overnight. This allows the salt in the rub to "sweat" the meat a bit, which helps the smoke stick to the meat for maximum smoke flavor.
Make the Eastern North Carolina Mop Sauce
The mop sauce is pretty simple to make but is a key to making fantastic Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork. Gather your ingredients. We really like using smoked black pepper in this sauce, but if you can't find it, regular black pepper will work as well.
Other spices you will need for the thin vinegar sauce include salt, cayenne pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. You will also need a little brown sugar for a tough a sweetness to balance out the acidity. Either dark or light brown sugar can be used.
Seeing how this is a vinegar-based sauce, it is important to use a high-quality apple cider vinegar. This mop should have a little heat to it, and we find that about 1 tablespoon of hot sauce gives it a nice warming heat. If you want it spicier, feel free to increase the amount of hot sauce or increase the cayenne or pepper flakes.
Combine all of the mop ingredients in a mason jar or other airtight container with a lid. Shake well to combine.
You will want to divide the Eastern NC BBQ sauce into 2 containers. One for mopping, and one for serving with the pork.
Smoking the Pork Butt
Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. This ENC pulled pork recipe works well on any smoker including pellet smokers like a Traeger, offsets, or drum smokers.
There is a lot of variation in how long it will take to cook a pork butt, so we strongly recommend using a temp probe to monitor the cook. You can read more about these meat probes HERE.
The overall cook time will vary but typically will take about 8-10 hours with an 8-pound pork butt. Again, this is just a very rough estimate as we have had them done in 5 or take as long as 12. Every piece of meat is different, and different smokers cook differently, so please do yourself a favor and monitor the temperature.
When to start mopping
When the bark has set and the pork has a nice crust on it, it is time to start mopping with the vinegar mop sauce. Again, depending on the rub you used this may vary, but typically occurs at an internal temperature of between 165 and 185 degrees. This is also about the point in time that you will hit "the stall" where you may go several hours with very minimal increase in the temperature of the pork. Don't panic, this is normal. This is due to evaporative cooling of the meat, that cools the meat at about the same rate that you are trying to warm it up.
We typically start by mopping the pork butt about every hour while it is still in the stall. Once the meat reaches about 185 degrees, we increase the frequency of the mopping to about every 30 minutes until the pork is finished. Be sure to shake/mix your mop sauce each time before you use it.
When is the pork butt done?
The pork is done when the bone pulls freely our of the meat or when it is "probe tender". For appropriately probe tender it should feel like you are going though warm butter when probing the meat with an instant read thermometer. Pulled pork is much more forgiving than cuts of meat like a brisket, so it is ok if you do not have an instant read thermometer. If you are using an indwelling meat thermometer, pulling the pork butt off the smoker at about 203-205 degrees will get you pretty close.
Serving the Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork
Large cuts of meat like pork butt and brisket benefit from a "rest" before eating. Wrap the meat tightly in aluminum foil and place in a cooler with towels. You can also put it in the oven at the lowest setting possible. If possible, let the meat rest for at least 2 hours. This well help some of the juice to reabsorb back into the meat.
When you are ready to eat, pull the pork apart with 2 forks or use your hands if you have some insulated gloves. Mix the shredded pork with any of the juices left in the foil wrap
Serve with some additional ENC mop sauce and enjoy!
Sides to go with Pulled Pork
This pulled pork pairs well with some of our Southern sides such as Lexington Red Slaw, Cheesy Jalapeno Grits, and Smoked Mac and Cheese. Don't forget to wash it down with a cold glass of Southern Comfort Blackberry Bramble Style Arnold Palmer and save room for dessert because you are going to want to try our Fresh Blackberry Slump.
What to do with left over pulled pork
Leftover barbeque pulled pork can be refrigerated and consumed within 3 days. Leftovers can be frozen and rewarmed at a later time. If freezing pork it is best to vacuum seal the meat to prevent freezer burn. This also make it easier to reheat the BBQ pork using a sous vide, which is by far the best method for reheating leftover BBQ.
Left over pulled pork can also be used to make great dishes like tacos, Grilled Cubano sandwiches or Pulled Pork Lumpia.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fatty cuts like pork shoulder, Boston butt, or picnic roast work best for making pulled pork. Avoid lean cuts like pork loin as they will tend to dry out due to their lack of fat.
In North and South Carolina there are 3 main styles of BBQ. South Carolina style which leans towards mustard-based sauce, Eastern North Carolina Style BBQ which uses a spicy vinegar-based sauce and tends to involve whole hog cooking, and Western North Carolina or Piedmont style which tends to add ketchup to their vinegar based barbecue sauce.
Eastern North Carolina Style BBQ sauce is spicy and tangy. The thin sauce consists primarily of vinegar, pepper and spices. Its Western counterpart, known as Lexington style or Piedmont dip tends to be sweeter with the addition of ketchup and sugar, though it is also primarily vinegar based and not as thick or sweet as a Kansas City style sauce.
The single best way to reheat leftover barbeque pork is with a sous vide. Other options include wrapping the pork in foil with a little apple juice and reheating in the oven. Microwaving the pulled pork is not a good method to reheat barbeque and should be avoided.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog. If you tried and enjoyed our recipe, please share with others and please leave us a comment and review. We also love to see your pics so don’t forget to tag us @Carne_Diem_Culinary or #CarneDiemBlog. To be notified of future recipes please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, or sign up for our e-mail notifications. Until next time, Carne Diem!
📖 Recipe
Eastern North Carolina Pulled Pork
Equipment
- Smoker
- Foil
- Meat temperature probe
Ingredients
- 1 8-10 Pound Pork Butt bone-in
- Yellow Mustard
- Your Favorite BBQ Rub Preferably not a sweet rub
ENC Mop Sauce
- 2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoons Tabasco or your favorite hot pepper sauce
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper smokehouse (smoked) if you can find it
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
- ½ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
- Trim the excess fat from the pork butt.
- Slather the pork butt with yellow mustard, then apply a generous coating of rub.
- Wrap the pork butt in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.
- Prepare the mopping sauce by combining all of the mop sauce ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to combine.
- When ready to cook, heat your smoker to 250 degrees. Smoke the pork butt until the bark is set. This typically occurs at roughly an internal temperature of 165-185 degrees, but will depend on the rub.
- Once the bark is set, begin mopping the pork butt with the mopping sauce each hour. Increase the mopping frequency to every 30 minutes once you reach 185 degrees.
- If using an instant read thermometer, remove the pork butt from the smoker when it is probe tender. If only using an indwelling meat thermometer this is typically between 203-205 degrees. The bone should pull out cleanly from the pork butt at this point. Total cook time is typically 8-10 hours but can vary greatly, so monitor the meat temp.
- Wrap the pork but in foil and rest for at least to hours in a cooler filled with towels, a Cambro, or an oven set to about 150-160 degrees.
- At the end of the rest, pull the pork apart with forks or with insulated gloves. Combine with any juices left in the foil.
- Serve with a side of the vinegar (mopping) sauce and enjoy.
Alex
Made this ENC style pork with your Jalapeno twice baked potatoes. Both were an absolute hit. I grew up in the Carolinas and miss that tangy vinegar taste with my pork, which a lot of the country does not seem to appreciate. This recipe reminded me of growing up in the low country. Thanks for sharing. We will definitely be making this again.
Carne Diem
Fantastic! Glad it is Carolina approved!
Paul Taylor Conte
Welll ... close. I'm from the region, and to really understand East North Carolina pulled bork (aka "Barbecue"), you have to understand that there are lots of "religious" debates, but one some things are clear -- most of all -- DON"T MESS WITH THE MEAT!
So .. easy on the rub, and for gods sake leave mustard to the South Carolinian apostates!
Low-and-slow.
Debate: Just the butt, whole shouder, whole pig. (I'm for whole shoulder)
No "smoke pellets." Real wood. Just Hickory and/or oak
Debate: What mix of wood. (I'm for anywher in the range: 33% Hickory and 67% oak to 50% each).
"Sauce", which is a misnomer. Vinegar and red pepper. (Not Tabasco!) Added after the meat is on the bun.
Bun: Plain white bread, no fancy-schmancy sesame seed or onion buns.
Adds: Plan, traditional minced coleslaw of a creamy variety. No vinegar, that comes from the "sauce".
Dessert? 'Naner puddin', of course.
Carne Diem
Thank you for the insight. Always appreciate tips and recommendations from locals. I think one of the things I like most about Eastern North Carolina Pork is the simplicity and the fact that the meat is the star. Agree with a lot of what you said. Rub for Carolina pork should be minimal if used, typically I only use it on a pork butt, and agree that there is no need if using something like a skin on picnic or whole shoulder, or whole hog. The mustard was used only as a binder (which I agree can debated if a binder is necessary for meat) and not for flavor. The last thing I want is to end up in Eastern North Carolina BBQ hell by using mustard, or God forbid Ketchup in the "sauce." The Tabasco was included in the mop sauce recipe as I found it the easiest way to control the spice level of the mop sauce and, when you get down to it, Tabasco is basically just pepper, vinegar and salt. I enjoy making this pork on a variety of smokers, including our drum, offset, and BGE and love the taste of smoking over real wood, but I also think it is important that people with any type of smoker have access to these regional delights. I will definitely have to give Naner pudding a try, sounds great! Thanks again for taking the time to share your expertise.