We found some great Whole Hog BBQ, but there’s a twist.
It’s in South Carolina.
Now, before you throw down your sweet tea in righteous indignation, hear me out. I know what you’re thinking—South Carolina barbecue?
Everyone knows it’s famous for mustard-based BBQ, right? We don’t do mustard, and frankly, a lot of folks think that’s all South Carolina has to offer. We do whole hog, cooked low and slow, chopped, and doused in nothing but vinegar, red pepper, a little salt, and black pepper. No frills, no gimmicks—just tradition on a plate. And for most folks back home in Eastern North Carolina, that’s the only way barbecue should be done.
But here’s the thing—while we spend plenty of time shaking our heads at Lexington-style barbecue (which, let’s be honest, is just pork shoulder in a ketchup-based detour), there’s a stretch of South Carolina that’s been quietly carrying on a tradition that looks a whole lot like our own.
The Pee Dee region, tucked up against our southeast border, doesn’t mess with just shoulders. They cook whole hogs too, and their sauce? It’s a close cousin to ours—thin, tangy, and heavy on the vinegar with just a little something extra. Some spots throw in a hint of tomato, but it’s nothing like the thick, sticky sauces folks associate with South Carolina. If you didn’t know better, you might just think you were eating a plate of barbecue straight out of a smokehouse in Pitt or Wayne County.
One such place is Scott’s Barbecue in Hemingway, South Carolina, which has been doing it this way since 1972.
So where does that leave us? Maybe, just maybe, there’s more barbecue kinship between Eastern North Carolina and the Pee Dee than there ever was with those Lexington folks. The whole hog tradition still reigns in both places, and while we might like to think we have the market cornered on vinegar-based barbecue, the truth is, some of our neighbors to the south have been quietly doing it right all along.
And that’s a truth worth tasting.
