Why can't we just call it all barbecue?


 
MikeLucky said:
Calling it all BBQ! What the? What am I, Canadian?

BBQ is low and slow, anything else is grilling. Don't try to make this complicated.
Click to expand...

Says who? Long before I joined this group I did my research and found that most cook butts and whole hogs closer to 300 then 225 and that's called higher heat.
Check out the HH threads on brisket ( a fairly looong one) , Ribs and butts.
The only thing about L&S is it takes longer, but that doesn't guarantee better BBQ .

Tim
 
Last lines from a Serious Eats article on the subject:

"The low and slow development of American barbecue's geographic variation confirms that its meaning remains in the eye of the engorger. The more recent adoption of barbecue to describe the simple act of grilling in one's backyard is a testament to the word's ongoing evolution. Even in North Carolina, where calling a backyard burger "barbecue" could earn you a free lecture at whole hog university, new waves of immigration are expanding the boundaries of the word and its edible manifestations.
When it comes to food, tradition moves. And on the terms of barbecue, that movement comes down to the wide-ranging roots of the American story."
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/barbecue-a-word-with-many-roots.html
 
I love the Amazing Ribs articles on Barbecue and the etymology of the word.

https://amazingribs.com/barbecue-history-and-culture/barbecue-history

https://amazingribs.com/barbecue-history-and-culture/what-barbecue

We've called inviting people over for stuff on the grill a cookout my whole life, but we might call the event a barbecue and I've never batted an eye. I've made my concession to folks who are bound and determined to make ribs, pork butt and brisket special by referring to that as "American barbecue" or "Southern barbecue", but if you want to call whole hog, grilled fish, or just 4 hot dogs barbecue that's fine by me. Language is prescriptive.
 
I was mostly being a doofus. Lol. Although my personal preference is that the term BBQ is for low and slow/smoking and grilling is for grilling.

But, hey, you do you y'all. I just happen to feel like there is a huge difference between throwing burgers and dogs on the heat versus smoking cuts of meat that should be uneatable otherwise and making them so good it makes women swoon. Just saying.
 
One of my pet peeves is when people call a grill a barbecue. It seems mainly to be a European and sometimes Canadian thing. If you are cooking burgers and hotdogs, that's a cookout. If you say you are having a barbecue I expect barbecue. We can say that it's low and slow vs. hot and fast, but clearly that definition doesn't work. You can say it's the event vs. the food, but I don't think that works either. I feel a little more lenient on the event definition, than I would be on the food definition. All I know is that I know it when I see it.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
One of my pet peeves is when people call a grill a barbecue. It seems mainly to be a European and sometimes Canadian thing. If you are cooking burgers and hotdogs, that's a cookout. If you say you are having a barbecue I expect barbecue. We can say that it's low and slow vs. hot and fast, but clearly that definition doesn't work. You can say it's the event vs. the food, but I don't think that works either. I feel a little more lenient on the event definition, than I would be on the food definition. All I know is that I know it when I see it.
Click to expand...

It's also a Midwestern thing. "Barbecue" covers both hot & fast and low & slow cooking methods.
 
I grill beef steaks and other things on my kettle, I also grill pork steaks on my kettle, sometimes I "barbecue" pork steaks on my kettle.
Sometimes I "barbecue" butts, ribs, etc. on my kettle.

Kind of my point for my original post, if folks want to call grilling hot dogs and burgers a barbecue, I'm fine with that.
 
Another question, is smoking cured pork belly for bacon, low and slow for hours, called barbecued bacon? :)
 
Last edited:
Dustin Dorsey said:
It can be used to barbecue but i'ts not a barbecue.
Click to expand...
Please provide a pic of just what a barbecue apparatus looks like.
It'surely not a WSM, because you can also grill on one.
Must be only stick burners??

Hope everyone knows this is all in good humor, for discussion about our passion.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
It can be used to barbecue but i'ts not a barbecue.
Click to expand...

Ok, so besides a pit or some other beastly apparatus, most backyard folks use a Weber kettle for BBQ, or at least starting off.

I know I bought a three wheel daisy one in the 80's and it turned out pretty good Q.

Tim
 
Did anyone notice that Chris has not posted a word here on the subject? lol Smart man!!!
 
I'm referring to people saying "I bought a new barbecue. It's a weber kettle" or whatever. I wouldn't call an offset smoke "a barbecue," either.
 
Joan said:
Did anyone notice that Chris has not posted a word here on the subject? lol Smart man!!!
Click to expand...

I'm laying low. Whatever you guys decide is fine with me, just as long as we don't lump the "Barbecuing" and "Grilling" forums together and rename it "Sous Vide". :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top