You simply can’t talk about South Carolina cuisine without mentioning barbecue. It’s known as the birthplace of barbecue, which is a big claim in a country with such strong regional barbecue traditions (it’s arguably one of the most debated and talked about foods in the US). Pork is the meat of choice, usually cooked ‘whole hog’ over oak or hickory wood and then pulled, but what makes South Carolina barbecue unique is the four different sauces used to baste and dress it.

The most famous is mustard sauce, which is made with lots of vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seeds and spices, and is only served in the South Carolina Midlands. Head towards the coast and barbecued pork comes dressed in plenty of vinegar sauce, which is full of acidity and heat. Barbecue masters in the north east Pee Dee region combine vinegar, peppers and ketchup to create a light tomato sauce. And in the western parts of the state you’ll find a heavier, ketchup-like sauce that’s most like the standard barbecue sauces found in UK shops.

Each sauce has a fiercely loyal following in South Carolina (although mustard sauce is the only one you can't find anywhere else in the US), so it’s a good idea to try them all and find out which is your favourite. The state has its own South Carolina Barbecue Trail with over 200 restaurants to choose from, many of which will serve all four sauces.

Barbecue tends to dominate in the Midlands and Blue Ridge Mountain areas of South Carolina, but the coastal areas of the state are where you’ll find Lowcountry cuisine – something different altogether. Being near South Carolina’s 187 miles of coastline means fish and seafood plays a major role, as does rice, a crop that brought a lot of money to the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

There’s also Gullah Geechee cuisine, the name given to the traditional dishes cooked and eaten by the descendants of South Carolina’s freed African slaves. Many of the southern US’s most famous dishes have roots in Gullah Geechee cooking, including shrimp and grits (a combination of local fried prawns and coarsely ground corn which is then boiled into a porridge-like consistency) and Frogmore stew, which sees spicy sausages, potatoes, large prawns and corn on the cob boiled in water flavoured with Old Bay seasoning and lemon juice.

Other foods common in the Lowcountry are She-crab soup, a creamy bisque that’s rich in crabmeat and orange crab roe (hence the name). Oysters are grown in the creeks and saltmarshes along the state’s coast and served up from September to April, famous for their briny, crisp, distinct taste. They’re usually eaten raw, battered or baked, and ‘oyster roasts’ are held throughout the season. This sees huge numbers of oysters roasted in pits before being taken straight to large communal tables and shucked by hungry locals.

While fish, seafood and barbecued pork are among South Carolina’s most famous culinary creations, there’s plenty more to choose from. Peaches and pecans are grown across the state and make their way into pies, cobblers and crumbles, while collard greens (a leafy vegetable similar to kale or cabbage) is the most popular side dish in the state. You’ll find plenty of cornbread, which is the staple bread of the region, and sweetened iced tea is everywhere (particularly in Summerville, which is where the first tea plants in America were planted).

As well as incredible barbecue shacks and beachside restaurants serving fresh local seafood, there are a number of places all over South Carolina that specialise in farm-to-table cooking, where you can experience the state’s finest produce at its seasonal best.