The wiener and its warming (and the OED)

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> In more southern places, what is barbecued would be whole carcasses or substantial cuts of flesh or fowl (as specified in the OED entry), cooked and smoked for some hours in a larger structure containing coals or low flames, and an occasion called a barbecue would be a more elaborate festive gathering, typically with dozens in attendance.

Exactly. You barbecue, at the least, "whole slabs" of pork ribs,
(stereo)typically, but, occsaionally, also beef ribs, a couple of
dozens of chickens and lamb shanks or, perhaps, an entire goat or pig.
(The barbecuing of an entire side of beef or more is outside of my
personal experience.) And the barbecuing isn't done using a grille.
You use a "barbecue pit." That term covers a multitude of apparatus,
from an actual pit dug into the ground to a free-standing, chimnied,
brick-and-iron-rod  structure to a large, indoor structure vaguely
like unto a pizza oven, found in joints that advertise "Hickory-Smoked
B-B-Q." IME, the ideal is glowing coals. The cook keeps a container of
water on hand to douse any flare-ups.

It's usually pronounced "bobby-cue," whence the punning cook-book
title,  Barbecuing with Bobby.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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