What does "Barbecue" or "BBQ" mean to you?

[PeterB123]

Depending upon dictionary, barbecue is roughly defined as cooking meat on a rack or revolving spit over a heat source outdoors.

Living in Texas all my life, with the vast majority of time in Houston, BBQ has always meant to me slow smoking meat. Although grilling burgers outside on a gas grill is barbecuing (by most dictionary standards), I've always distinguished it as "grilling" and NOT BBQ.

What do you consider BBQing, and do you consider food cooked on a grill as BBQ?

Please include where you grew up, so we can see how it might change with geographic location.

When thinking about your answer, consider things like burgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, brisket, ribs, etc, because my neighbor is inline with me with the exception of chicken. In his opinion, when you cook pieces of chicken on the grill and finish it off with BBQ sauce, that is also BBQ, but he doesn't consider steaks, burgers, hot dogs, etc on the grill as BBQ.

[OldUsedParts]

Born just off of Route 66 in the Panhandle town of Shamrock, Texas.
Grew up in East Texas
I consider BBQ and Grilling two separate things.
BBQ must be done with Charcoal, Wood or Wood Pellets,
however, any heat source works for Grilling but it must be done outside.

[PeterB123]

Born just off of Route 66 in the Panhandle town of Shamrock, Texas.
Grew up in East Texas
I consider BBQ and Grilling two separate things.
BBQ must be done with Charcoal, Wood or Wood Pellets,
however, any heat source works for Grilling but it must be done outside.

So, just to get a clarification, would burgers or steaks on a Weber kettle with charcoal be considered BBQing, grilling or both for you?

[OldUsedParts]

I would consider it Grilling

[Sailor Kenshin]

Born just off of Route 66 in the Panhandle town of Shamrock, Texas.
Grew up in East Texas
I consider BBQ and Grilling two separate things.
BBQ must be done with Charcoal, Wood or Wood Pellets,
however, any heat source works for Grilling but it must be done outside.

I'm with Parts here. And I grew up in the East...but not Texas. As a kid, I knew the word 'barbecuing' as what you did when you squirted your briquettes with lighter fluid, tossed in a match, and jumped back.

I have since learned differently.

[Okie Sawbones]

BBQ is a method of cooking involving roasting food, in a closed oven (pit) or in open air, indoors or out, in the presence of smoke, usually created by the combustion of hardwood, but other sources of smoke are occasionally used. Most often applied to meat (including poultry or seafood), but occasionally applied to vegetables and other foods. Heat is transferred mostly by convection (indirect) and temperatures of the oven are usually in the 200-300F range.

Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat and vegetables quickly.

Raised in OK and TX.

[Russ]

BBQ always been on the grill but I also rotisserie over charcoal, two different tastes.

Russ

[spacetrucker]

grew up southwest Texas (Del Rio area) BBQ and Grilling are just a couple words loosely used to indicate meat cooked over wood or wood products, pellets, charcoal or wood chunks in an electric smoker which then produces smoked food.... So me being my usual self; Accept a lot of folks colloquialisms and render understanding to what ever they are trying to allude to.... in Spanish barbacoa usually refers to a beef head cooked in a hole in the ground so that style of cooking comes into the discussion as well and is explained in Spanish as "de cabeza" which translates to "of the head" so in answer to your question it is definitely variable depending on how rigid or soft one would want to be...

[GrillGuru]

Ideally direct wood embers, It all boils down to heat + meat + smoke=BBQ However there is a big chunk of the uneducated population that get it from a Gas grill or a crock pot and a Bottle of Kraft original.

[GRailsback]

Whats wrong with grilling on a gas grill? I have grilled/cooked hundreds and hundreds of pounds of quality meat on a gas grill. Although I do not have the formal education that Boots and Egghead and I suspect many others on here have, I am far from uneducated. Perhaps you would like to go back and edit that post with a little bettter choice of words.

[Sailor Kenshin]

We do beer can chicken on gas! Because, crunchy skin.

[GRailsback]

And I bet it is good to Sailor. Sailor when I was younger I was one of those guys that swore I would only light some sort of a fire to cook on. When I had my outdoor kitchen built, I put in a higher end built in gas grill, I have cooked for big and small parties alike on that thing. With great results. I can actually get a rack of baby back ribs to turn out pretty decent on that thing, as it has an upper rack and the narrow baby backs fit on it. Now they are not as good as the ones coming off my pit, but pretty good. I still light fires, but for just the 2 of us its on the gasser with the steaks, chops, chicken, brats, fish, taters, and the list goes on and on.

[daBertl]

Born just off of Route 66 in the Panhandle town of Shamrock, Texas.
Grew up in East Texas
I consider BBQ and Grilling two separate things.
BBQ must be done with Charcoal, Wood or Wood Pellets,
however, any heat source works for Grilling but it must be done outside.

So, just to get a clarification, would burgers or steaks on a Weber kettle with charcoal be considered BBQing, grilling or both for you?

For me it depends on the time of preparing and if you do it indirekt or over direkt heat
So if you do the steak longtime in indirekt heat, I would call it BBQ. If you prepare it shorttime over direct heat, this would be grilling.

So grilling means to make the goods outside so black, that they are inside just eatable
BBQing is to prepare the goods as they should be prepared.

I grew up in Munich, Germany, lived my life there for 52 years, travelled over the whole world and maybe we´ll see us in Texas some day
And I´m grilling and bbqing since my Dad let me go near the Grill. I think since 45 years

p.s. Charcoal or Gas is not so important for me, but I´m a charcoal fan.

[PeterB123]

Whats wrong with grilling on a gas grill? I have grilled/cooked hundreds and hundreds of pounds of quality meat on a gas grill. Although I do not have the formal education that Boots and Egghead and I suspect many others on here have, I am far from uneducated. Perhaps you would like to go back and edit that post with a little bettter choice of words.

Where did I say there was anything "wrong with grilling on a gas grill"?

[GRailsback]

Whats wrong with grilling on a gas grill? I have grilled/cooked hundreds and hundreds of pounds of quality meat on a gas grill. Although I do not have the formal education that Boots and Egghead and I suspect many others on here have, I am far from uneducated. Perhaps you would like to go back and edit that post with a little bettter choice of words.

Where did I say there was anything "wrong with grilling on a gas grill"?

Peter, if you were to follow the thread you started, I think you will clearly see that my reply had nothing to do with you, or your original post.