msommer said:
Having grown up in Georgia and gone to school in North Carolina, I've always enjoyed a thinner, vinegar-based barbecue sauce with pulled pork. As Myron Mixon says, "you gotta have that tang!" This "Western Carolina"-style sauce retains the heavy vinegary character of traditional Carolina vinegar-based sauces, but adds a bit of ketchup to provide a little more balance, color, and viscosity. I decided to infuse the base sauce with some grilled honey-glazed peaches to add some natural sweetness and fruit character. I think the sauce has a nice balance of tanginess, spiciness, and sweetness. Here's the recipe:
3 cups of apple cider vinegar
1.5 cups of ketchup
0.5 cup of apple juice
1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes
1 cayenne pepper (diced)
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of black pepper
A few pinches of barbecue rub
A couple cloves of garlic (pressed/diced)
3 peaches
Honey
Combine all of the ingredients, except for the peaches and honey, in a pot over low heat. Cut the peaches up, glaze them with honey, and then grill them until the honey caramelizes and they get some nice grill marks on them. Then I just put the peaches right into the sauce, crushed them with a wooden spoon, and then let everything simmer together for about an hour. Then, I strained the peaches out of the sauce and added a couple more pinches of red pepper flakes to replace those that got strained out.