In a swath of mid-South Carolina, from around Columbia to the coast around Charleston, barbecue sauce is yellow, thanks to its main ingredient: mustard. Here’s how to make it, a quick and easy South Carolina BBQ sauce recipe.
If all you know about BBQ sauce is sticky, sweet and red, open your eyes to the wide world of barbecue sauce recipes beyond the familiar tomato-based sauces. Carolina BBQ sauce’s golden color is a byproduct of the region’s German heritage. In Germany, pork and mustard go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Recipe Overview: Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce Success Formula
- Mix: in a saucepan, combine yellow mustard, cider vinegar, tomato paste, hot sauce, sugar, mustard powder, chicken bouillon granules, crushed dried rosemary, celery seed, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Simmer: the sauce for 10 minutes to pasteurize it.
- Pour: into a clean jar and cover. Use as you would any BBQ sauce.
- Store: the covered sauce in the fridge. Leftovers will keep for months.
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The science behind our Carolina Gold BBQ sauce recipe
It is a bit of a jolt to an outsider wandering into BBQ joints in the area like Maurice’s Piggie Park and being served a pulled pork sammie mixed with a yellow sauce. Until you bite down. Yes, the flavor profile is similar to conventional red BBQ sauce, sweet and tart, but the base flavor is mustard, not ketchup, and the sweetness is cane sugar, not molasses. But it works! In fact, I prefer it to red sauce on pulled pork. It’s tangy and delicious. So, try it on hot dogs or brats or anywhere that you might use bottled mustard. You can thank a generous amount of yellow mustard and apple cider vinegar for the tang. For more on that, check out my article on the Science of Vinegars.
Ingredients and substitutions for Carolina Gold BBQ sauce
- Prepared yellow mustard is a must. It’s the base. So, use the authentic ballpark style mustard, not Dijon or a spicy mustard.
- Apple cider vinegar contributes some brightness and acidity that is essential to this Carolina BBQ sauce. It’s more flavorful than other vinegars.
- Tomato paste is necessary for a combination of acidity and sweetness, but you can substitute ketchup if you wish.
- Chipotle Tabasco sauce brings some heat and a bit of smokiness to the sauce. But you can also use your favorite hot sauce or make my Controlled Burn Hot Sauce.
- Sugar contributes some sweetness that helps to balance out the acidity, pungency, and heat.
- Mustard powder dissolves in water and works with the prepared mustard and vinegar to provide a sharpness to the sauce.
- Chicken bouillon acts like a chicken concentrate. Look for bouillon cubes, jarred bouillon granules, jars of bouillon paste, all of which will do the job. Crush the cube before adding it to the sauce.
- Dried rosemary leaves add a piney undercurrent to this BBQ sauce. I like to grind them in a coffee grinder for a smoother sauce.
- Celery seed is savory, warm, earthy, and a bit bitter. Don’t substitute celery salt; they’re totally different.
- Onion powder adds its mildly pungent taste. If you want, you can replace it with granulated onion, but you’ll need to use up to twice as much to account for the difference in volume. Granulated onion is more coarse than the powder.
- Garlic powder brings garlic to the mix without overwhelming the sauce. As with onion powder, if you want to swap it out and use granulated garlic use up to twice as much.
- Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt is always my preferred salt. However, if you use table salt, remember to use half as much. Otherwise, it will be too salty.
- Black pepper: Make sure it’s freshly ground black pepper. Trust me, there’s a big difference!
Carolina Gold BBQ sauce, step by step
- Combine. Mix together everything in a small saucepan. Crush a bouillon cube, if using, with a spoon in a separate bowl or use a mortar and pestle. Add it to the bowl with wet ingredients. Mix together the wet ingredients in a bowl.
- Cook. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes to pasteurize the sauce.
- Pour into a clean jar and use as you would any BBQ sauce.
- Store remaining sauce in the fridge. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for months.
Your Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce questions, answered
BBQ sauces in the Carolinas are different for a few reasons. First off, they’re thinner—not as thick as Kansas City BBQ sauce. Plus, in South Carolina, it gets its sharp, tangy taste and yellow color from yellow ballpark mustard and apple cider vinegar.
Barbecue sauce history is pretty fascinating stuff. For starters, the earliest evidence of BBQ sauce is an Eastern-Carolina vinegar based sauce, which combined cider or white vinegar, black or red pepper, and salt. There were no tomatoes or ketchup.
That’s easy! It’s hog-centric! It focuses pretty much entirely on pork, whether whole hog or pork shoulder. And of course we already know that the vinegar and mustard base of Carolina BBQ sauce makes it distinct, too.
If you like Carolina Gold BBQ sauce, you’ll love . . .
- Grownup Mustard Sauce, or the Best Darn Mustard Sauce Ever
- Danny Gaulden’s Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze
- Board Sauce Recipe for Finishing Grilled Meats
- Red Kansas City BBQ Sauce Has a Secret Ingredient
- The Perfect Texas BBQ Sauce for Beef Barbecue
Our Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce recipe
Want a printed recipe? Just hit the print recipe button.
Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce Recipe
Makes
3 cupsIngredients
Method
- Prep. Mix everything together in a small saucepan.
- Cook. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes to pasteurize it.
- Serve. Pour into a clean jar and use as you would any BBQ sauce. Store remaining sauce in the fridge. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for months.
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