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jdbower

How important is BBQ?

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Jeff, now tell us what exactly is BBQ?

Coming from the West; cooking on a outdoor grill was called BBQing. We barbecued everything from hot dogs to burgers to steaks. There was no pork butt or anything...... Ha!!! Then I learned in the midwest it's called grilling! My first couple years in the mid west everyone thought I was putting BBQ sauce on everything, because I always said I was BBQing!!! Ha!! Kinda funny...

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That's actually quite the interesting question. I'm sure there are regional differences, but there may also be differences depending on what part of speech "BBQ" is. For me (growing up in NJ with parents from PA farmland and the greater Cleveland area):

"A BBQ" was any family get together that happens outdoors. I think it's assumed that something will also be cooked outdoors but I think a few exceptions were made.

"BBQ" the food group was seldom used but often relegated to the pulled meat variety with sauce. At a BBQ, ironically, BBQ was rarely served at my house.

"BBQ" as a verb wasn't used much either. One grilled. And it's what I still call grilling, high temperature cooking over a flame. I suppose the open pit cooking of chicken including a BBQ sauce baste that we did on the farm could have been called BBQing.

Now I consider BBQing to be cooking anything from about 250-350F over charcoal (usually with smoke, but the sauce is definitely optional). Grilling is 400F and above and should be charcoal, but I'll allow gas in a pinch (350-400F is ambiguous and can go either way). Anything less than 250F or so is smoking. Not really hard and fast definitions, but they work for me :)

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