British BBQ Society Forums

Having read these forums and others for quite some time, as well as numerous books, articles, blogs, and websites, it seems there's a bit of a debate going on about the relationship between barbecuing and smoking. Since starting to barbecue seriously a few years ago, one of the most common opinions I've seen offered is something along the lines of "Only smoking is proper barbecuing".

So, in the spirit of true academic enquiry:

"Only smoking is proper barbecuing."
Discuss

Steve W

Honestly I've never stopped to think what is proper barbecuing. And I'm not sure I overly care what it is either. I grill, I smoke and I even use gas. I do have my own prejudices in that I draw the line at electric grills and I've so far resisted the lure of force draft systems.

I enjoy what I do and I've still got plenty to learn.

I think the problem of defining barbecue is that the definition will almost certainly get drawn towards american barbecue which ignores the cooking styles/history of the majority of the world. If you twisted my arm to make a definition I would probably steer it towards what I'm interested in which is live fire cooking using wood/charcoal.

He're the Wiki version:

"Barbecue or barbeque (common spelling variant)[1] (with abbreviations BBQ, bar-B-Q and barbie), used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,[2] New Zealand and Australia (called braai in South Africa) is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry, and occasionally fish with the hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, compressed wood pellets, or hot coals of charcoal. In the USA to grill is to cook in this manner quickly, while barbecue is typically a much slower method utilizing less heat than grilling, attended to over an extended period of several hours. In Australia to barbeque (most common spelling in Australia) is to quickly cook food on a heated metal plate.
The term as a noun can refer to the meat, the cooking apparatus itself (the "barbecue grill" or simply "barbecue") or to a party that includes such food or such preparation methods. The term as an adjective can refer to foods cooked by this method. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner.
Barbecue is usually done in an outdoor environment by cooking and smoking the meat over wood or charcoal. Restaurant barbecue may be cooked in large brick or metal ovens specially designed for that purpose.
Barbecue has numerous regional variations in many parts of the world."

So from that, I would say that "low and slow" is proper BBQ.

Are you outside, cooking with a fire? It's probably proper barbecue.

There's definitely a snobbishness about smoking from some corners as opposed to grilling. That's probably because a great many buffoons are able to throw things on a grill. Just listening around these forums in the first bbq question it seems that people went from burnt outside, raw inside sausages on a grill to smoking great delicacies. Grilling to a high level takes experience and skill. To be able to control heat, know what heat different meat and cuts need and imparting the fire flavour in a short time. Not too different to what is required for smoking. Are they both proper barbecue? Yes. Is one superior?

It's like comparing apples with oranges.

So some oik in the park with a disposable BBQ burning cheap sausages is proper BBQing?

The Social Smokers wrote:So some oik in the park with a disposable BBQ burning cheap sausages is proper BBQing?

Yes. It's just not very good proper barbecuing.

Steve W

I think there is a line somewhere but where is it?

I'd say he was BBQing - just badly. And that's another pet hate of mine: cooking sausages on too high a heat. Bah, going off topic, sorry

I suppose you could say it's BBQing by technicality?

Would one of the great US pitmasters consider it as BBQ?