A Beef About Bar-B-Que
We are thick in the middle of our first full summer in our new home. We moved last year in the middle of July and so may have missed some crucial outdoor cooking opportunities. That may be why it took me nearly a year to realize that these people don't know what bar-b-que is!
When people invite us over for 'bar-b-que', my mouth has stopped watering at the sound of the word. For my tongue and my brain have learned that these people use 'bar-b-que' to mean any form of cooking outdoors, primarily cooking upon a grill.
Yes, I'm a great lover of words so you may think I'm taking the semantics too far, but it's not just words we're talking about here. Bar-b-que is a whole genre of food. It involves slow-cooking and basting. Lots of basting, for sauce is the key to bar-b-que. No marinated chicken breast should dare to be called 'bar-b-que', nor should a shish-kebab feign to wear that name. Marinade is not sauce and if it is not sauced, it is not bar-b-que!
What do I mean by sauce? If you have to ask, you might not understand, but I'll try. It does not involve any form of salad dressing, for starters. It can, if you are from North Carolina and don't know any better, involve vinegar, but it must, yes must, involve tomatoes and spices. No, see, I see what you're thinking, ketchup does not qualify. Ketchup on a burger is just ketchup on a burger. It is not bar-b-que. Now, if you wanted to put a flavorful sauce of tomato and spice upon that burger, and slow cook it so that the sauce and burger meld into one incredible meal, then, and only then can a burger be called 'bar-b-qued'.
So please, America, stop misusing 'bar-b-que'. Say you are going to 'grill' or 'cook-out' or 'cook and dine al fresco', but don't call it 'bar-b-que' if you don't have the sauce!