What does BBQ mean to you?

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Now that Lent is almost over, this topic might be fun.

**In your part of the world, what is BBQ? **

In our section of the U.S., (Northern Illinois), BBQ generally refers to a tomato-based sauce with meat. Often when people say “BBQ,” they mean a “sloppy joe”, which is ground beef and some kind of tomato sauce.

The sauce often has a slightly-sweet flavor. Midwesterners like me really like “honey BBQ” or “brown sugar BBQ.”

(Chili in Northern Illinois is often the same way–somewhat sweet. I read this in Midwestern Magazine several years back, in case you wonder about my source of information for this statement.)

When my husband and I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, we discovered that our Midwest BBQ wasn’t BBQ to them–they called our stuff “meat with sauce.” To THEM, BBQ was shredded pork, marinated with vinegar and red pepper. You either love it or hate it. (I hated it.)

I’ve heard other people say that in their locale, BBQ merely refers to grilling meat, often in a pit. To some people, BBQ refers to some kind of “smoke,” like hickory or mesquite.

So how about YOU? What does BBQ mean to you? Feel free to share any good recipes, and we’ll all look forward to trying them after Lent!

Here’s my favorite. We served it at my daughter’s bridal shower last year

BBQ Meatballs

1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup evap. milk
1 cup regular or quick-cooking rolled oats
1 medium onion chopped (1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 and 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

Prepare BBQ Meatball sauce, keep warm while shaping the meatballs–In a medium saucepan, stir together 1 cup ketchup, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup finely chopped onion and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Bring mixture to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Makes about 1 and 1/2 cups sauce. (You can also add 1 tablespoon liquid smoke to the mixture before boiling, but I really don’t like that stuff. Gives me heartburn!)

To make meatballs, use large mixing bowl (I use one of the big Tupperware bowls). Stir together egg and evap. milk. Stir in oats, onion, chili powder, salt garlic powder, and pepper. Let the seasoning mixture stand for 10 minutes. Add the ground beef and mix well. Shape into thirty 1 and 3/4 inch meatballs. Place meatballs in a lightly greased 15X10X1 inch baking pan. Carefully pour the hot BBQ Meatball sauce over the meatballs. Bake, uncovered, in 350 Deg. oven 30 minutes, or until meatballs are done. (Instant read thermometer inserted into meatballs should register 160 deg.)

I put these into a crock pot and keep warm for hours once they are baked. GREAT potluck dish!

Tastes good with rice or noodles, too.

You see–SWEET sauce (1 cup of brown sugar–yummy!). This recipe came from the magazine Midwestern Living, and apparently is on the menu at the Sante Fe Depot Diner in Leavenworth, Kansas.
 
Here, if I invite you over for a BBQ, it means we are going to smoke meat (usually pork or chicken, brisket is a distant third choice). Slow and low, over fire, the meat will be seasoned with a dry rub and by the aromatics in the smoke. There will be a sauce served with the meat, it will be a tomato based sauce.

If you go to a BBQ restaurant and order a pulled pork sandwich, it will come with meat, slaw and sauce on the bun unless you specify “no slaw” or “dry”.
 
kage_ar said:
Here, if I invite you over for a BBQ, it means we are going to smoke meat (usually pork or chicken, brisket is a distant third choice). Slow and low, over fire, the meat will be seasoned with a dry rub and by the aromatics in the smoke. There will be a sauce served with the meat, it will be a tomato based sauce.

If you go to a BBQ restaurant and order a pulled pork sandwich, it will come with meat, slaw and sauce on the bun unless you specify “no slaw” or “dry”.
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I’m from Mississippi and this is what barbecue is to me, too…I think this is referred to as “Memphis style” BBQ. The meat is slow-smoked until falling-off-the-bone tender, and the sauce is both sweet and spicy, but not vinegary. My favorite barbecue place had both mild and spicy versions of their barbecue sauce.

Man, I would kill for some GOOD pulled pork right about now. 😦 I’ve never been served slaw on the actual sandwich though, only on the side.
 
Well, if we are going to barbecue, DH fires up the charcoal grill, we prepare hot dogs, hamburgers, steak and sausages. We serve salad, chips, pickles and corn on the cob.

Afterwards we toast marshmallows.

I live in the North East. 🙂
 
Barbecue here means a pig, or select portions thereof, cooked slowly over hickory coals for 12-24 hours. Sauce varies by region. East of here, pepper and vinegar is preferred; north and west, it’s tomato based; Columbia and Charleston cooks usually use a mustard based sauce. Unfortunately, most BBQ joints cook over oak or whatever hardwood they can get cheaper and I’ll slam on brakes at any sign that says “hickory smoked.”
 
Here in Australia BBQ refers to the way I’ts cooked (ie; on a barbeque!) You can barbeque anything really but most people barbeque steak, sausages, chicken or seafood it just has to be grillled/flame grilled on a barbeque. Also this is pretty much outdoors only! Grilled inside in an oven or grill not a barbeque doesnt count and wouldnt be called BBQ. Would then be served with any salads, coleslaw, poltato salad etc.

🙂
 
Arrrrrrgh. Now I’m hungry again. 😃

For me, “BBQ” brings to mind… happy childhood memories. The food, being only a part of it.

During the summer… on warm Sunday afternoon’s (in Torrance, California)… my dad would get the BBQ grill out. He would also fill our little plastic pool with water… and give us bubble gum cigars (remember those? :rotfl: ).

My sisters and I would then have a “water ballet” in our little pool… while Mom and Dad, BBQ’d the BEST hamburgers in the world! I can remember the delicious aroma… while splashing in the water! Then, we’d all sit outside at the cedar picnic bench, with beach towels wrapped around us… and eat hamburgers, baked beans and BBQ potato chips. For dessert… my Dad always made killer rootbeer floats!

Ah… those were the days! :o
 
I’ve already started grilling. Any nice day in late winter/early spring here in Wisconsin gives you the "right " to fire up the grill. We’ve already done brats, chicken, steaks. I am patiently waiting for a little warmer weather (and time), I want to attempt smoking a turkey. I found a recipe and it sounds delish! I am a huge fan of Steven Reichlen. He does BBQ University and Primal Grill on PBS, and also has several bbq books out with recipes that are to die for! I need to stop talking about this, it is making me hungry 😃

Charcoal over gas any day!! 👍

:manvspc:
 
hehehe I’m from NC, and currently living in IL, and to me, BBQ means pretty much everything everyone else said, EXCEPT what you said, Cat! Funny, huh? 🙂

And YUM NC style BBQ! The vinegarier, the better! :love:
 
Ya’ll don’t seem to get it. Unless you are smokin them burgers and dogs, you are NOT BBQing them, you are grilling them. That is called a cookout 😃
 
I LOOOOOOVE me some good Carolina barbecue!!! Mmmmmm!!! 😃

But to this midwestern Michigan girl, since I can’t get Carolina style unless I visit my mom in NC, barbecue to me is just cooking out on the grill. I don’t like saucy stuff all over everything - that just covers up the food. 😛

~Liza
 
BBQ to me is any grilled or smoked meats cooked on either Charcoal or Gas Grill(you can smoke on either). Meats would be Chicken, Ribs, Beef or Pork Roasts and Brisket. The meat can be rubbed down with a combination of spices, then sauced or just sauced or just rubbed. The sauce can be either Mustard or Ketchup based. Here’s the usual rub for our Ribs: Brown Sugar, Chili Powder, Paprika, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Cayenne Pepper, Salt & Black Pepper. My Husband make the absolute-best- melt-in-your-mouth-Ribs!
 
Southern Missouri Ozarks meaning:

Usually a whole hog or half or a side of beef, slow cooked over coals and smoked with hickory wood. For a small group, a pork butt will do just fine. Fall-apart tender, then, crackling crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside. Can be sliced, but pulled is good, maybe better. Endlessly slathered with sauce that can have different things in it, including honey, pepper, tomato paste, touch of garlic. Might have vinegar, might not, but better if it does. Really ought to have bourbon in it, and usually does. Has a bite to it, but is sweet at the same time. Everybody pretty much has his own recipe for sauce and won’t share it, or will share it but lies about the most important thing. If you don’t make your own, “Silver Dollar City” BBQ sauce from Branson will certainly do, but you need to add the bourbon.

Best eaten outside in warm weather, especially right before dusk. Corn on the cob and beer are not required, but are nearly so. Same with homemade cole slaw. (NEVER the store kind) Watermelon afterward, kept cold in the creek. Watch the kids catch fireflies at dusk and walk along the creek as the mist from the cool evening air flowing off the hilltops rolls downstream over the water. Watch the minnows in the dark pools flashing in the moonlight. Somebody starts singing and those who can, make harmony to it. Somebody brought a mandolin, it turns out, and is persuaded to go get it out of the car. Somebody brought a guitar. Somebody brought a banjo.

Now, THAT’s barbecue!
 
kage_ar said:
Ya’ll don’t seem to get it. Unless you are smokin them burgers and dogs, you are NOT BBQing them, you are grilling them. That is called a cookout 😃
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: !!! “kage_ar”… I can’t speak for everyone else… but just be glad that this Cali-girl didn’t say we “BBQ’d” tofu. 😉 😃
 
Ever notice how every BBQ joint in the Carolinas has a sign out front that says, “Voted best BBQ in yourtownhere”?

As one cook told me once, “you cain’t cook BBQ and follow health department regulations at the same time!” :eek:
 
I refuse to live in a town that doesn’t have as many BBQ joints as gas stations myself 😃

Im from Rock Hill, SC (about 35 miles south of Charlotte, NC). BBQ is usually pork, sometimes beef (and I mean sometimes). It it cooked in a pit all day long it seems until good and smokey. The sauce is tomato based, but has a vinegary twang to it that kind of makes your eyes water a wee bit on the first bite, with some pepper in it but not enough to kill you. Serve with a nice side of BBQ Baked Beans (the chunky kind with bacon. Use that pig!)

If you put mustard on or near my BBQ I WILL be forced to attack you.
 
In England it just refers to the method of cooking the food outside on a charcoal grill.
Having seen those photos though - I might have to get back onto the ‘marriage list’ thread and add ‘Texan’ to my list:)
 
xsuasox said:
Serve with a nice side of BBQ Baked Beans (the chunky kind with bacon. Use that pig!)

If you put mustard on or near my BBQ I WILL be forced to attack you.
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Forgot about the baked beans! (What’s the matter with me?) Yes, with little bits of onion all over in it, lots of brown sugar in it, some vinegar for a little tang, and bacon all over the top, baked CRISP, so all the bacon grease runs down into the beans and gets absorbed. (If low-fat is what a person wants, he ought not to go within 50 miles of real barbecue. The smell alone will make you gain 10 pounds.)

Oh, and that’s FRESH hickory for the smoke. Now, if there’s an old apple or peach tree around that has some dead wood, chipping it and soaking it in water to put on the coals is a good idea. Adds sweetness and depth to the smoke.
 
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