The difference between grilling and barbecue

At least in the northern hemisphere, it’s now officially grilling/barbecue season – and we understand that it’s actually never not grilling season down under. So we thought a brief primer on the difference between barbecue and grilling, courtesy of this video at Southern Cooking, might be helpful to all our members.

So what is the difference? It’s simple:

Barbecue is cooking long, low, and slow. Grilling is cooking hot and fast. Suitable meats for barbecue are ribs, pork shoulder, brisket – meats that take a long time to tenderize. Foods suitable for grilling include boneless breast of chicken, hamburgers, steaks, and seafood. 

And while we’re on the subject – is it barbecue or barbeque? Well, both spellings are acceptable, but if you want to be fussy, stick with “barbecue.” According to the Grammar Girl, “The most accepted spelling of the word is “barbecue” because it most closely resembles the word from which it’s derived–“barbacòa.” The shorter forms, such as “bar-b-q,” are just abbreviations that play on the sounds from the syllables “be” (b) and “cue” (q).”

Finally, this also gives us a chance to announce our latest board on Pinterest, Summer Grilling – lots of great ideas already and more to come.

Photo courtesy of Flickr