Barbecue in South Carolina

[1][2] It is particularly well known for the heavy emphasis on pork and the popularity of a mustard-based barbecue sauce in the central part of the state.

Barbecue has its origins in the barbacoa style of cooking roasted meats that was enjoyed by indigenous peoples and Spanish colonists in the Caribbean, who settled the Carolinas.

[10][2] This division of the state's barbecue regions was first coined by Charles F. Kovacik and John J. Winberry in their book South Carolina: A Geography (1987).

[11] Food historian Robert F. Moss has claimed that South Carolina really has only two regional barbecue sauces, sweet mustard and spicy vinegar.

[14] Whole hog barbecue, where an entire pig is cooked over hardwood coals, is particularly common in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

He had the largest barbecue business in the United States by 1999,[28] until his insistence on using the Confederate flag on packaging and distributing racist literature in his restaurants caused his sales to decline.

It often includes molasses and brown sugar, making it sweeter than other types of South Carolina barbecue.