Jeff's Western N. Carolina BBQ Sauce

[John Carter]

This looks tasty, but bears little resemblance to an authentic western NC sauce. Meatheads Lexington Dip is a lot closer to what I remember eating at Lexington BBQ.

[abscam]

Thanks for the recipe

[JeffJ]

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• 2 cups smoked pureed canned tomatoes
• 1/8 Cup vinegar
• 1/8 cup cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon hot sauce*
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 25 turns cracked pepper

Add all ingredients into a sauce pot, bring to a gentle boil and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes stirring during simmer to fully incorporate the tomato paste.

• I use my homemade hot sauce which is very tangy and has a little less heat than Tabasco.

A couple of notes regarding this recipe:

I put a combination of canned whole tomatoes and canned diced tomatoes (including the juice) into a loaf pan and smoked it in my Bradley electric for 2.5 hours at 170 degrees and used hickory. The sugar and tomato paste tamed the extremely assertive acidity of the sauce with the paste also adding some much needed viscosity.