You’ll need to know these words when ordering Lexington-style barbecue

There’s a different language to Lexington-style barbecue, and you’ll need to know the words to make the most of this famed North Carolina creation.

Here is a glossary of Lexington lingo that might help you eat like a local.

Lexington-style: As one of North Carolina’s two barbecue styles, Lexington style must be three things: made from pork shoulders, smoked over wood coals and sauced with a “tomato-based” barbecue sauce.

Chopped, coarse chopped and sliced: These are the three different ways you can order your barbecue in Lexington.

• Chopped is the most familiar and locals will say this is the one most ordered by tourists. The level of chopped depends on the restaurant and can range from very fine to as thick as pulled pork.
• Coarse chopped is a local delicacy in Lexington, served as kind of chunky cubes of smoked pork. You wont find it on any barbecue menu that’s not Lexington style.
• Sliced comes from specific muscles in the pork shoulder that have been separated and sliced almost like tender medallions from a pork tenderloin.

Dip: In Lexington, this is the word for barbecue sauce. “Dip” is often kept warm in coffee pots and served in small styrofoam cups and is one of the great differences between Eastern and Piedmont style barbecue. “Tomato-based” is a bit of an exaggeration, because Lexington-style sauce is still mostly vinegar, but will be a rosy red from the added ketchup. The sauce is also a bit sweeter from added sugar, but with plenty of bite.

Red slaw: Also called barbecue slaw, this version of coleslaw is sauced with the same tomato-based “dip” as a restaurant’s barbecue, giving it a red or pinkish tint and a flavor dominated by vinegar with a ketchup tang. There’s no mayonnaise in this slaw.

Whole pork shoulders: Most restaurants make their barbecue from whole pork shoulders, a large cut of meat that combines the fatty butt and leaner picnic roast of the pork shoulder. If Lexington-style restaurants use a smaller part of the shoulder it’s usually the picnic over the butt. Boston Butt is the best known piece of the shoulder and is almost always used for pulled pork, which Lexington-style is not.

Outside brown: This is the darkened outside part of a smoked pork shoulder. Most of the smoky flavor in Lexington-style barbecue comes from these outside parts of the meat, so if you prefer a smokier bite ask for some outside brown.

Tray: This is the order for someone looking to cut right to the chase. Like other parts of the state, a tray in Lexington is just smoked pork and slaw and either finger-like hushpuppies or rolls.

Plate: A plate is a larger barbecue order, usually about two sandwiches worth of pork and a restaurant’s sides.

Barbecue Alley: This corridor in downtown Lexington is memorialized as the earliest known place in town where barbecue was sold. More than a century ago, Sid Weaver and Jesse Swicegood sold smoked pork shoulders and red slaw out of tents on days when court was in session across the street. Today, there’s a plaque marking this hallowed ground and a Wall of Fame listing the founders and champions of Lexington-style barbecue.

This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "You’ll need to know these words when ordering Lexington-style barbecue."

Drew Jackson

The News & Observer

919-829-4707

Drew Jackson writes about restaurants and dining for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun, covering the food scene in the Triangle and North Carolina.