The birthplace of BBQ: It all started about 500 years ago, along the SC coast, when the Native Americans who were cooking meat over a pit filled with burning wood met up with some Spaniards who were raising hogs… Most likely, the favored sauce back then was made from vinegar and pepper. South Carolina now boasts four types of sauce: mustard, vinegar, light tomato, and heavy tomato. The Pee Dee region has BBQ joints that serve all types.
South Carolina’s BBQ Trail Guide
If your goal in life is to sample every style of barbecue in America, you don’t have to travel across the country to do it. Just visit South Carolina, the only state in the nation where you’ll find all four of the basic types of barbecue sauce, sometimes on the same menu
It’s the sauce that determines what kind of barbecue you are eating in the Palmetto State.
Beef, chicken and other critters can be grilled or cooked with or without sauce, but only pork – most often pulled pork cooked in a smoky pit – is barbecue! Enjoy these four flavors on your SC BBQ Trail tour – mustard, vinegar and pepper, light tomato and heavy tomato.