[1] Ingredients vary, but most include vinegar or tomato paste (or a combination) as a base, as well as liquid smoke, onion powder, spices such as mustard and black pepper, and sweeteners such as sugar or molasses.

[2] References to the sauce start occurring in both English and French literature over the next two hundred years.

[4] Kraft also started making cooking oils with bags of spice attached, supplying another market entrance of barbecue sauce.

"Thin, spicy, and vinegar based," it penetrates the meat and cuts the fats in the mouth, with a noticeably tarter flavor than most other barbecue sauces.

[7] In Lexington and the Piedmont areas of western North Carolina, the sauce is often called a dip.

It evolved from the Western Carolina– and Memphis-style sauces but is thicker and sweeter and does not penetrate the meat as much as it sits on the surface.