I had an entertaining twitter exchange with a guy from Brooklyn. It started with his sincere question:

“Are Burgers not technically BBQ?”

I, understandably, thought he might be from a whole other country, but it turns out he uses the word barbecue as a verb synonymous with grill. Lots of people do it and their hearts are in the right place, but some BBQ education is in order.

BBQ is a noun referring to meat cooked slowly with indirect heat. In contrast, grill is a verb referring to a method of cooking meat quickly over direct heat. It’s easy to forgive the confusion until you’ve been baptized in the smoke of an old crusty BBQ shack with a line out the door. Once you’ve been blessed to have BBQ from any of the regions where it reigns, you start feeling the need to defend the distinction between terms.

Grilling can be done by anyone almost anywhere. The best BBQ is usually developed over several hours in an oven or pit built for the mission. The secret is always in the sauce or rub and the best places will sell the secret in a bottle, but will never tell you the specifics about ingredients and measurements. When it’s done the meat will fall apart because it’s so tender.

In the United States, BBQ has regional varieties, and I’m just beginning to learn the differences. There is Texas BBQ, Kansas City BBQ, Memphis BBQ, and Carolina BBQ at the top and other variations in places like Georgia, St. Louis, Alabama and Kentucky.

Meats used for BBQ are typically pork, beef and chicken. Sometimes, you’ll see turkey legs or lamb on a menu, but most joints build their business around a specialty of either pork or beef.

Some places favor dry rubs. Some favor a tomato-based sauce. Some sauces skew sweet and some skew sour. Connoisseurs have their favorites that they’ll fight and die to defend. That’s not me. Even though I strongly prefer vinegar-based sauces with a bit of spice, I’m willing to give your preference a try as long as you’re buying. If I’m paying, it’s going to be a vinegar-based sauce. Otherwise, we can split the bill.

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