Lexington-Style Pulled Pork

Lexington-style barbecue grew out of the early 20th-century Piedmont, where pitmasters of German descent began cooking pork shoulder over hickory and adding ketchup to the older vinegar base. Barbecue historian John Shelton Reed dates the first commercial joints to around 1919 in Lexington and nearby Salisbury, with Sid Weaver and George Ridenhour and, separately, Jess Swicegood among the earliest. The style was carried forward by Warner Stamey, considered the father of Lexington barbecue, and by his protege Wayne Monk, whose Lexington Barbecue (opened 1962) became the tradition's most celebrated restaurant. Lexington has billed itself the Barbecue Capital of the world and holds an annual October festival.

The chopped pork is moist and a little chewy from the shoulder's worked muscle, threaded with darker, smoke-edged bark from the outside of the roast — locals can order it 'outside brown' to get more of that crusty chopped bark. The red dip reads sour and lightly sweet at once, sharper than a sauced rib and far thinner, just coating the meat rather than drowning it. The red slaw on top is cold, crunchy, and tangy, echoing the dip. It eats as a sandwich on a soft bun or off a tray with hush puppies, the vinegar cutting the pork fat at every bite.

Pork shoulder is rich in collagen and intramuscular fat; smoked low at 225-250°F (107-121°C) for roughly eight to ten hours, the collagen converts to gelatine at internal temperatures above about 195°F (90°C), which is what lets a tough shoulder pull or chop tender and moist. Hickory smoke supplies a heavier, sweeter woodsmoke than the post oak of Texas. The vinegar dip works as a finishing seasoning rather than a glaze: its acetic acid cuts the rendered pork fat and brightens the smoked, savory amino-acid notes, while the ketchup adds just enough body and sweetness to mark the Piedmont style apart from the clear vinegar-pepper sauce of the east.