The Toy Box, June 30 - July 06, 2004

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An Explosion of Flavors and Colors

This week, The U.S. celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, otherwise known as the 4th of July. First, we would like to explore a cuisine, for which we have great passion...Barbecue!
Then we enthusiastically ready our cameras for the firey blooms of another tradition, fireworks!

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Barbecue

Barbecue, barbeque, BBQ, Bar-B-Q, Bar-B-QUE, Bar-B-Cue however you spell it brings to mind tender roasted meat with a nice smoky flavor and a tangy sauce. It is a truly unique American cultural tradition. Welcome to our BBQ pit. If you have some extra time, you may want to review Barbecue'n On The Internet's Glossary for many commonly used terms of outdoor cooking.

Did you know? The most popular holiday weekend for barbecuing is July 4th, followed by Labor Day and Memorial Day.

Come on grab a beer or wine, sit over here by the smoker and let's talk 'Que.

What is Barbecue?

The etymology of the word barbecue is as varied as the very act itself: barbacoa or BAR-BEER-CUE-PIG and et al. However, we feel, the identification of barbecue with the grill goes back to the original meaning of barbecue, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a crude wooden frame work, used in America, for supporting above a fire, meat that is to be smoked or dried.".

The two basic types of outdoor cooking utilized by most backyard chefs consist of grilling and barbecuing. Each has its place and each is useful for cooking different types of food. For some people, a barbecue is a piece of equipment-the barbecue grill or pitt:

On the East and West Coasts barbecue is a catchall term for grilling-the process of quickly cooking thin pieces of food directly over a hot fire;
In the South, Midwest and Texas, to barbecue means to roast or smoke in a pit;
Elsewhere, descriptions of barbecue refer not to a cooking method but to the traditional condiment-barbecue sauce or rub. For people who think of barbecue this way, the soul of barbecue is the sauce, much to the chagrin of the pit master; and
For others, a barbecue is a cookout and, by extension, a festive or communal meal prepared and served outdoors and by extension, a festive or communal meal prepared and served by others.

In his book, "BBQ USA", author Steven Raichlen begs the question "...of what you are barbecuing...?" Raichlen suggests:

Ask someone from the Carolinas, and it will be pulled or chopped pork. Just which cut it's made with (a pork shoulder or a whole hog), how its cooked (over a pit or in a smoker), and how its served (with the thin, fiery, vinegar-based sauce favored in eastern North Carolina; with the tomato-based vinegar sauce preferred in the western part of the state; or with the mustard barbecue sauce popular in South Carolina) depends on the location.

If you live in Memphis, ask for barbecue and you'll get a plateful of ribs-either with a crust of dry spices or wet. That is, if you're not offered some barbecued pork shoulder (either sliced or chopped), most likely served on a hamburger bun with a big mound of mustardy coleslaw, maybe a mahogany hued barbecued game hen or perhaps barbecued baloney, barbecued pizza, or barbecue spaghetti.

In the Lone Star State BBQ is synonymous with beef and that means a brisket, right? If you think that barbecue in Texas begins and ends with beef, you haven't tried the cabrito (roast goat), the barbecued duck, crusty smoked-roasted beef shoulder or the "hot guts" (spicy smoked beef sausage).

In California, one might enjoy a plate of grilled oysters bubbling with butter, wine and garlic, a heaping plate of tri-tip-spit roasted bottom sirloin, crusty on the outside, rare and juicy inside, thinly sliced and dished up with garlic bread, pinquito beans and a Mexican-style salsa by way of a sauce. Perhaps one might enjoy sipping their favorite California wine while dining on grilled artichokes with a Worcestershire-flavored cream sauce. In Los Angeles' Koreatown, restaurants have charcoal-burning braziers built right into the tables for grilling bool kogi (sweet soy and sesame marinated shell steaks).

Connecticut, barbecue means planked shad (fillets nailed to a board and roasted in front of a campfire), while in Washington State and British Columbia, the ultimate outdoor cooking experience is a salmon bake or, more precisely, split whole fish roasted on cedar stakes in front of a blazing alder fire. Rhode Island's contribution to the world of barbecue is grilled pizza, which got its start at a restaurant called Al Forno

In upstate New York, Cornell chicken is grilled with a mixture of eggs, oil, cider vinegar and poultry seasoning. In Miami, the sauce of choice for grilled chicken (not to mention such popular Cuban American barbecue fare as palomilla, cumin-scented top round steak and lechon asado, pit roasted pork) is mojo, a thin, pungent condiment made with garlic, cumin and sour orange juice.

Every autumn, the streets of Santa Fe, New Mexico, fill with the perfume of green chiles roasting over flaming heavy metal drums. For almost two centuries, once a year the streets of Owensboro, Kentucky, have been lined with barbecue pits cooking the local specialty, barbecued mutton. Markets in Vancouver sell ready-to-grill Filipino Tocino, pork marinated in a pungent blend of paprika, pepper, garlic and sugar.

So what is barbecue? Well, its all these things and then some. We agree with Raichlen when he exclaims, "...barbecue is expansive enough to include a grill, a pit, a meal, a party and every possible food I can imagine being cooked by live fire...'

Nice links:

About Barbecue