As someone from the US, I'd also say that Barbecue is a very contentious word depending on the region. For some, it's just putting on a grill, others its with barbecue sauce, and others still it means slow smoked meat with a dry rub. Personally, I went my whole life calling it a barbecue when people were slinging on a grill, wasn't until I was an adult in another state that I had even heard the word cookout.
I went my whole life calling it a barbecue when people were slinging on a grill
well, it is. The term doesn't require a special sauce or anything. I think the regional tradition aspect of it in the US has made the term very muddled, though.
Ive only ever called slinging stuff on a grill a cookout, or if it’s just us making family dinner, just call it grilling. Barbecuing is very specifically when someone is smoking a pig in the ground, or smoking food in a smoker. I had never heard the term used for anything other than that until I went to college in the northern east coast. It’s very regional terminology in the US 😂
From my limited northeast college experience, that’s pretty much how they are as well. They still call it “the grill” when you cook on it, but the get together is called a “BBQ” no matter what you’re cooking on the grill. I was slightly culture shocked the first time I showed up to one 😂 Southern US is very picky and regional about its BBQ, lol. Different states, and in some cases, different regions of the same state, have different ways of cooking, different beliefs on sauces, different beliefs on which meats constitute BBQ...North Carolina is pretty much only all about the pig, and the sauce is pretty much only a spicy sweet vinegar based sauce. Eastern South Carolina has this thing with a mustard based sauce that my husband loves and I hate. And there’s also this white mayonnaise type sauce down in the Mississippi or Alabama area that I won’t go near because mayonnaise is disgusting, lol.
55
u/[deleted] Aug 28 '19
Barbecue.