Skip to main content

Carolina BBQ Sauce

"A friend gave me this recipe some years ago for a vinegar-based sauce with mustard seed. You can use smoked pork neck bones in place of ham hocks if available."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cider match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,042 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

The recipe

5 cups
Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Whisk the apple cider vinegar, apple cider, dark brown sugar, yellow mustard seed, Dijon mustard, tomato paste, salt and black pepper together in a large saucepan until smooth.

  2. Add the smoked pork neck bones to the pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes.

  3. Reduce the heat to low, partly cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the bones reach 145°F (63°C) and the sauce has thickened slightly.

  4. Lift out the neck bones with tongs and let them cool for a few minutes. Simmer the sauce uncovered for 5 minutes more.

  5. Pull any meat off the bones and stir it back into the sauce, then discard the bones and fat.

  6. Taste the sauce and adjust the salt and pepper. Serve warm, or cool and refrigerate in a sealed container.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Apple + cidertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + porktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,828 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Apple cider vinegar + cidertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Mustard + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,440 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple cider vinegar, apple, cider, sugar, tomato, pepper, pork):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple cider vinegar, apple, cider, sugar, tomato, pepper, pork. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).