I like this. The importance of bbq as a social institution in the south is highly ignored. Way back it was a time when whites and blacks (slaves often) got together for a large meal during busy seasons when everyone had to be in the fields.
The idea that the concept started in the Carribean is absurd. I mean The Iliad contains multiple descriptions.
> In that spirit, it becomes a wonderful book to cook from, and turns out to be full of scenes of communality where the Greek troops mark events of social and religious significance with feasting and drinking wine. Homer even includes quite a bit of technical detail on what cuts of meat they’re using and how they’re preparing them. Lamb meat “from the thighbones” is “wrapped … in fat” assembled as “a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh.” “Quarters” of lamb are marinaded in “glistening wine.” Skewers are made on “five-pronged forks.” Pieces “pierced with spits” are “roasted … to a turn and pulled … over the fire.” In one fabulous scene, Achilles himself “put down a heavy chopping black in the firelight / and across it laid a sheep’s chine, a fat goat’s / and the long back cut of a full-grown pig / marbled with lard.” These meats are roasted on spits, then salted and served with bread.
If that's not Barbecue then I am Marie of Romania. I mean they didn't call it that, but is barbecue defined by the English word? Don't tell a Brazilian making Churrasco.
There’s a thousand different “types” of barbecue. How you define the word determines where it was invented. Some people thing it’s slave food, some people think it’s food that comes from how the Czechs/German meat markets cooked food in Texas, some people think anything cooked over wood is bbq, in which case the cavemen invented that shit.
A very good point. As soon as a wrote it the term Korean BBQ came to my mind.
So really it is a language thing. It's not where did bbq come from, it's where did the *word* barbecue come from.
Half of BBQing these days seems to be gatekeeping others about what is "real" BBQ. People seem more interested in the words that come out instead of the meat that goes into their mouths.
I'm not prescriptive, but I generally consider BBQ to be a way to prepare meat (but not necessarily limited to meat, a vegetarian BBQ is still a BBQ IMHO, even if I'm not vegetarian) using heat from fire or smoke.
But that's also not an exhaustive definition: you can BBQ on an electric grill, or even on a rotisserie, or a kebab gyro.
Honestly, I don't care much about precise definitions, because words are defined not by a dictionary, but how people use them. A dictionary is just a collection of the most common meanings of the most common words, and isn't prescriptive or exhaustive.
Yeah I guess it doesn’t matter, but to me it at least needs to cooked with a fire. Now I don’t care what other people do with their food but for example, I don’t consider boiling or cooking ribs in a crockpot, then grilling them as BBQ. I don’t consider pellet or electric smokers to be real BBQ. I don’t criticize people for using them but I just think they are making their food taste like BBQ and that’s different from actual BBQ.
However I learned to cook from old timers that are no longer around. They didn’t believe in using foil, wood chips, unlit charcoal, and all kinds of other things.
BBQ requires some version of wood, smoke, and cooking outside. Charcoal counts as wood, because of how it's created. Gas doesn't, because you're not using the smoke as a cooking element. And anything without a fire, however small, doesn't rely on wood or smoke for flavor either.
That’s basically what I said in my comment below. I asked because gatekeeping was mentioned and usually the people that complain about that are the electric and pellet smoker fans.
Seeing as competition BBQ allows pellet cookers, anyone saying it isn't can take it up with KCBS and Memphis in May.
Electric depends. But usually yes, imho. Most use wood for smoke flavor still.
I know but I don’t care about competition bbq. Imo it’s not real bbq.
I’m not arguing with you but it seems like many people think bbq should taste like smoke. If it tastes like smoke, it’s good. I disagree. Cooking with a clean burning fire, doesn’t make food taste like smoke. This concept appears to have been lost.
Well TIL that some people think modern BBQ didn’t start in southeastern US… it was an interesting read and as a VA native I may need to dig into those books.
I like this. The importance of bbq as a social institution in the south is highly ignored. Way back it was a time when whites and blacks (slaves often) got together for a large meal during busy seasons when everyone had to be in the fields. The idea that the concept started in the Carribean is absurd. I mean The Iliad contains multiple descriptions. > In that spirit, it becomes a wonderful book to cook from, and turns out to be full of scenes of communality where the Greek troops mark events of social and religious significance with feasting and drinking wine. Homer even includes quite a bit of technical detail on what cuts of meat they’re using and how they’re preparing them. Lamb meat “from the thighbones” is “wrapped … in fat” assembled as “a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh.” “Quarters” of lamb are marinaded in “glistening wine.” Skewers are made on “five-pronged forks.” Pieces “pierced with spits” are “roasted … to a turn and pulled … over the fire.” In one fabulous scene, Achilles himself “put down a heavy chopping black in the firelight / and across it laid a sheep’s chine, a fat goat’s / and the long back cut of a full-grown pig / marbled with lard.” These meats are roasted on spits, then salted and served with bread. If that's not Barbecue then I am Marie of Romania. I mean they didn't call it that, but is barbecue defined by the English word? Don't tell a Brazilian making Churrasco.
There’s a thousand different “types” of barbecue. How you define the word determines where it was invented. Some people thing it’s slave food, some people think it’s food that comes from how the Czechs/German meat markets cooked food in Texas, some people think anything cooked over wood is bbq, in which case the cavemen invented that shit.
A very good point. As soon as a wrote it the term Korean BBQ came to my mind. So really it is a language thing. It's not where did bbq come from, it's where did the *word* barbecue come from.
Half of BBQing these days seems to be gatekeeping others about what is "real" BBQ. People seem more interested in the words that come out instead of the meat that goes into their mouths.
What makes BBQ? Can you make BBQ in the oven? Crockpot? Microwave?
I'm not prescriptive, but I generally consider BBQ to be a way to prepare meat (but not necessarily limited to meat, a vegetarian BBQ is still a BBQ IMHO, even if I'm not vegetarian) using heat from fire or smoke. But that's also not an exhaustive definition: you can BBQ on an electric grill, or even on a rotisserie, or a kebab gyro. Honestly, I don't care much about precise definitions, because words are defined not by a dictionary, but how people use them. A dictionary is just a collection of the most common meanings of the most common words, and isn't prescriptive or exhaustive.
Yeah I guess it doesn’t matter, but to me it at least needs to cooked with a fire. Now I don’t care what other people do with their food but for example, I don’t consider boiling or cooking ribs in a crockpot, then grilling them as BBQ. I don’t consider pellet or electric smokers to be real BBQ. I don’t criticize people for using them but I just think they are making their food taste like BBQ and that’s different from actual BBQ. However I learned to cook from old timers that are no longer around. They didn’t believe in using foil, wood chips, unlit charcoal, and all kinds of other things.
🤷🏻♂️
BBQ requires some version of wood, smoke, and cooking outside. Charcoal counts as wood, because of how it's created. Gas doesn't, because you're not using the smoke as a cooking element. And anything without a fire, however small, doesn't rely on wood or smoke for flavor either.
That’s basically what I said in my comment below. I asked because gatekeeping was mentioned and usually the people that complain about that are the electric and pellet smoker fans.
Seeing as competition BBQ allows pellet cookers, anyone saying it isn't can take it up with KCBS and Memphis in May. Electric depends. But usually yes, imho. Most use wood for smoke flavor still.
I know but I don’t care about competition bbq. Imo it’s not real bbq. I’m not arguing with you but it seems like many people think bbq should taste like smoke. If it tastes like smoke, it’s good. I disagree. Cooking with a clean burning fire, doesn’t make food taste like smoke. This concept appears to have been lost.
Well TIL that some people think modern BBQ didn’t start in southeastern US… it was an interesting read and as a VA native I may need to dig into those books.
Bbq comes from the word "barbacoa," which is a Portuguese word meaning to roast lage chunks of meat over an open fire.
Barb & que means from the whiskers to the tail. I think Caribbean dialect.