Kindling
Hey Reader
Father's Day is coming this Sunday, yet another of the great grilling days of the summer. Do you have plans to get out the grill, and if so, what do you plan to cook?
With the holiday come the annual gift guides. While I don't generally make such lists each year, I have long maintained a list of SC BBQ products available online and a list of products we have recommended in previous newsletters. That said, if you'd like to see a curated list of some of this year's recommendations for products and recipes, check out these:
Hope that you and/or yours have a great day!
In this edition, we'll hit the sauce, check out a smokin' gringo, step back in time to a place that is a step back in time, and spotlight this place that's a dream come true.
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Cheers,
Jim Roller
Destination BBQ
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PS: The Perfect Gift for Fathers...and those who have one: Going Whole Hog! Still time to get it there. Order today.
Smoke Signals
—Gettin' Saucy
Want to start an argument among South Carolinians? Bring up the topic of which sauce is best on BBQ and stand back...
While the intent was not to create consternation, BBQ sauce was second only to meat questions on our 2025 SC BBQ Survey. The results were interesting, if not surprising.
When making the survey, I decided to have each person rank sauces in order from favorite to least. While that's a great way to get a true sense of the overall popularity of the different styles of sauce, it sure does make it hard to calculate. Whew...won't make that mistake again!
Regardless, the data shows that folks in SC rank mustard sauce with the highest average rank of 2.2 and that nearly half of all survey takers (43%) ranked mustard in first place.
Not surprisingly, vinegar-based sauces came in second with an average ranking of 2.5. with about a third of respondents rating it in first place.
Here is the breakdown statewide:
As I shared with you a couple of weeks ago, the most defining change we discovered in this section of the survey was the spread of mustard sauce into what, historically, was seen as tomato-based counties.
You may have seen the classic SC BBQ sauce map that was created in the late 1980s by two USC professors. Based on their visits to BBQ joints across the state, they envisioned this:
Well, that's okay and has served us well for all these years, but when I took a look at the data I had for each county based on what sauces were served in the BBQ restaurants in each county, here's what it showed:
While accurate per the data available, that doesn't feel right...and folks were quick to call me out on it.
As Hardy points out above, just because there are restaurants in a given county offering a set of sauces, it doesn't reflect what the people of that county actually prefer.
That's what led to the following question on the survey: Check the sauce you think is most often used in restaurants and/or homes in your selected COUNTY.
As you may have already seen, this is what the people representing each county had to say:
Give the people a voice and they will tell you what they think. While the survey isn't without its flaws, this is what the popular vote for each county revealed.
When it comes to sauce in SC, there is more to the story than county preference. I dug a bit deeper into other aspects.
Where do people typically get their BBQ sauces?
- 34.4% typically purchase their BBQ sauce at a store
- 33.7% say they make their own
- 25.2% usually buy sauce from a South Carolina BBQ restaurant or vendor
You see that the lion's share of all BBQ sauce is purchased either from the store or an SCBBQ restaurant or business. Plus, just over a third of people typically make their own sauce. Actually, nearly half of the respondents from the Pee Dee said they make their own, the highest in the state.
Favorites?
- From stores, Sweet Baby Ray's was the runaway winner with almost 20% of all votes.
- From restaurants or other SC BBQ vendors, Maurice's and Shealy's lead the way.
- While those who make their own generally were making mustard sauce (43%) or vinegar sauce (23%).
In conclusion, diving into the sauce pot splashed up some salient stats that stained the state map with some new colors. And while it's kind of what we thought we already knew, it was good to see the evidence to support it.
Next time, hash and sides....
