What does Barbecue consist of?

[Barbara Need]

I have checked the archives and found lots entries for earliest
attestation and recipes of things with barbecue in the name, but a
conversation was reported to me that illustrated a difference of
opinion as to just what constituted a barbecue. The context is that a
group of us had received an invitation to a barbecue and two students
(both southerners) came to the realization that what they expected to
find at this event (hamburgs and hot dogs) did not constitute a
barbecue for them: to be a barbecue, it has to have large pigs
cooking (this may be an oversimplification, but there was much
discussion later about the reported conversation). Other people who
discussed the report were prepared to include an event where any meat
with barbecue sauce was cooked/served; others were OK with a bbq that
just has hamburgs and hotdogs--which for the participants in the
original conversation is a cook-out). (I found myself today referring
to the event today as a picnic.)

Is this a regional thing? (No access to DARE at this moment.)

Barbara

Barbara Need
UChicago

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