Guy Fieri Carolina Mop & Slop Sauce (4/5)
Like an artichoke, some foods need a little bit of training to go with them. For example, Eastern NC Sauce is watery and super thin and sometimes called “Mop Sauce”…
So how does a guy from Boston cook with this stuff?
Mop sauces can be used for roasting a pig, or for putting in a crock-pot – you can let the meat sit in the vinegar-pepper mixture overnight, and then grill it or smoke it. Mop sauces are different because unlike most classic tomato-based “KC Style” BBQ sauces,you can put as much as you want on the meat without fear of the sugars burning off and caramelizing too early (leaving that blackened char that some people actually love).
Because I typically grill my foods, I was looking for the best way to cook this up… I settled on marinating a piece of pork overnight and then basted on more and more as I grilled it at a fairly high temp.
Of course, excellent copywriting here but maybe Mop Sauces aren’t as versatile as the bottle says.
Nutrition – Mop/Carolina sauces are very low in sugar for you lo-carb dieters out there. Some artificial color in there, but no HFCS! Good stuff.
The color/texture is what you’d expect: a brown-red rusty watery slosh with nice chunks of pepper and other spices.
Bottom line:
If you’re going to be pulling some pork or doing a slow-cooked crockpot dish, you should check it out. It’s great sauce for it’s intention. The flavor is great. It’s just not a grilling sauce. It is peppery, and thin, and not too hot – but had a good dose of heat. It had a good, simple flavor, and a bite that kept me going back for more. It’s not necessarily as easy sauce to cook with – you have to think about your meal before cooking with a mop sauce (for best results) – but for an Eastern North Carolina style BBQ sauce, I think it did a damn good job.
I’d like to hear from “true Eastern NC” folks on this one, because I’m not a huge fan of the category in general and probably because I grew up with the sugary sauces, and not the NC styles.
I’d love to get a hold of this to try! Cyndi Allison, who is quite the expert in Carolina-style BBQ, did a very good review on this sauce. Check out what she has to say.
http://barbequemaster.blogspot.com/2011/06/guy-fieri-has-barbecue-sauces-on-market.html
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Mop and go.. You gotto love this sauce on a smoked pork butt..Thin and full of specks, the vinegar keeps the spices in check.. Softens the bark, flavors the fat and is very forgiving to the smoking novice. Mop and go straight to the table if you make it that far..
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This is the perfect type of Eastern NC sauce that adds to the taste, not overpower it. We have many down in this area with the same theme.
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