Regional/Dialect Difference? ("Barbecue" vs "Cookout" vs. "Grilling")

[Ben E Lou]

So tomorrow night is our final Tucker YL event for this school year. I'm having the young-'uns over to Chez Lewis, and cooking some burgers and dogs on the grill. I went to brunch after church, and one of the high school guys who'll be here tomorrow night saw me and said, "Hey. Are we still having the barbecue at your house tomorrow?" This particular kid ain't from 'round here, which got me wondering if the usage of "barbecue" vs. "cookout" might be a regional/dialect thing. I would never refer to an event involving hamburgers and hot dogs as anything but a "cookout." "A barbecue" is generally reserved for an event involving substantially-sized (ribs or larger) parts, or all, of a pig. If I'm cooking fish, crab legs, kabobs, or veggies on the grill, it is just that: "grilling out." Now, what gets a little interesting to me is chicken. Cooking boneless, skinless breasts on the grill? "Grilling" Cooking skinned, bone-in whole pieces of chicken on the grill? "Barbecuing"--the one exception for me to the "pig rule."

So, to sum it up:

fish, crab legs, kabobs, veggies, boneless/skinless chicken breasts: "Hey, why don't y'all come over Monday night? I'm going to grill some ______."

ribs, whole pig in the ground, chicken (w/ bones and skin): "Hey, why don't y'all come over on Monday night? I'm going to barbecue some _______."

hamburgers, hot dogs: "Hey, why don't y'all come over on Monday night? We're going to have a cookout."

What's interesting is that I can say with near-certainty that I have never interchanged those three words. I'm curious how others use these particular words.

[Ben E Lou]

I asked my wife after the kid walked away, and she was adamant that barbecue should *only* be used when a pig is involved. As she put it, "Well, there's such a thing as chicken with barbecue SAUCE, but there's just no such thing as barbecued chicked." In fact, she's slightly hesitant to refer to ribs not cooked as part of a whole pig as being "barbecued." She was ambivalent about "cooking out" vs. "grilling out," though. Her roots are in the Carolinas, though, so the pig pickin' thing makes sense for her.

[Easy Mac]

I just thought barbecue went hand-in-hand with some sort of sauce on either chicken or pig, and cookout usually covered the rest.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

And yes, "All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin' Over Tonight" will probably be stuck in my head from now 'til tomorrow night--which is pretty appopriate considering the events of last week.

[JonInMiddleGA]

N.Ga mtn version ...

hotdogs/hamburgers = "cookout" ALWAYS
and pretty much anything can be referred to as a cookout
"Grilling" can go with anything that isn't pig or beef
"Barbecue" usually involves a pig in a pit

[albionmoonlight]

I'm from New Orleans, and my family tends to use barbeque pretty much for everything.

However, when my parents got a gas grill, they started to call it grilling.

We never use the word cookout.

Now, having met a Texan who explained to me that BBQ is really reserved for long slow smokey cooking, I pretty much use "grilling" for everything I do on my little charcoal beauty out back.

Also, since I have your attention re: BBQ matters, I just learned that lump charcoal is supposed to be better than the briquettes (sp?). I am excited by this new discovery, and any insight into this would be appreciated.

[sabotai]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to it as a "cookout". Sounds like some sort of competition or something.

[VPI97]

To me it's always "Hey, why don't y'all come over on Monday night? We're going to put some ______ on the grill". It doesn't matter what it is.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by VPI97

To me it's always "Hey, why don't y'all come over on Monday night? We're going to put some ______ on the grill". It doesn't matter what it is.

That's generally what it is around here. I've heard people say "barbeque" in the way SD described it, by the vast majority of the time it's what you said.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by VPI97

To me it's always "Hey, why don't y'all come over on Monday night? We're going to put some ______ on the grill". It doesn't matter what it is.

That's Cajun talk there. "You kill it, we grill it."

[Masked]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I'm from New Orleans, and my family tends to use barbeque pretty much for everything.

However, when my parents got a gas grill, they started to call it grilling.

We never use the word cookout.

What he said, except my parents never had a gas grill.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by Dutch

That's Cajun talk there. "You kill it, we grill it."

In West Virginia it was, "You shovel it off of the road, we grill it"

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by VPI97

In West Virginia it was, "You shovel it off of the road, we grill it"

[kcchief19]

I'd have to go with your definitions much more than SWMBO. In my ol' stompin' grounds in the Ozarks, we pretty much referred to anything cooked outdoors on a grill as barbecue. Here in the big city, "barbecue" is anything with barbecue sauce: you can barbecue chicken, hamburgers, ribs, steaks, fish -- you name it. If sauce isn't involved, it's grilled.

A cookout up here would mean you're building a fire on the ground or as part of a camping-type of event. You can't cookout on a grill at your house unless you're building a stone fire pit.

Now that's defining the food. I would say that referring to the event itself you could go with having a barbecuing of having a cookout. Note that "having A barbecue" and "having barbecue" round these parts are different. Having a barbecue implies some type of cookout; having barbecue definitely involves grilling with barbecue sauce.

I'm baffled at the barbecue chicken comment from SWMBO. Barbecue chicken is probably my favorite food. You have your frankincense, you have your myrrh and you have your barbecue chicken.

One more clarifier: many people around here distinguish between "smoking" and "grilling." To some, it isn't barbecue if it's grilled; it has to be smoked. If it's not smoked, it's just grilled, even if you're grilling with sauce.

[Scholes]

Here in Minnesota, I've heard Barbeque used whenever something is being grilled. I've even said it a few times, but understand the difference. We also use the term barbeque as another word for grill, such as, "I'm gonna put some chicken on the barbeque."

[Schmidty]

It's definitely a regional thing. I've never heard the term "cookout" used anywhere that I've lived other than Florida. In Michigan, anything cooked outside was just called BBQ (at least in my area). I've noticed that here Washington, I've seen the same thing, although "throw ___ on the grill" seems common too.

[Desnudo]

Maybe the amount of terms you use is dependent on how important it is to your region. Like the Northeast isn't a huge grilling center, so everyone calls everything barbeque, while in Southern areas there are more specific names. Sort of like Eskimos have so many words for snow.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Like the Northeast isn't a huge grilling center, so everyone calls everything barbeque, while in Southern areas there are more specific names. Sort of like Eskimos have so many words for snow.

That's an excellent point. I use the grill pretty much 12 months out of the year. I know I do it more than most, but as far as weather goes, it is rarely a prohibitive factor.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

N.Ga mtn version ...

hotdogs/hamburgers = "cookout" ALWAYS
and pretty much anything can be referred to as a cookout
"Grilling" can go with anything that isn't pig or beef
"Barbecue" usually involves a pig in a pit

What he said (except ignore the mountain part).

[Rizon]

Never heard of one of these "cookouts" or "grillings" before, but we have BBQs all the time here.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I asked my wife after the kid walked away, and she was adamant that barbecue should *only* be used when a pig is involved. As she put it, "Well, there's such a thing as chicken with barbecue SAUCE, but there's just no such thing as barbecued chicked." In fact, she's slightly hesitant to refer to ribs not cooked as part of a whole pig as being "barbecued."

Yeah, barbecue (when used as a noun) should refer to pork--most often pulled pork.

Smart woman.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I asked my wife after the kid walked away, and she was adamant that barbecue should *only* be used when a pig is involved. As she put it, "Well, there's such a thing as chicken with barbecue SAUCE, but there's just no such thing as barbecued chicked."

No such thing as BBQ chicken? Bullshit...


I usually use the term barbeque when putting something on the grill, but sometimes I'll call it grilling. Never use the term cookout, though...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by digamma

Smart woman.

Duh. That was evident in her choice of husbands.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Scholes

Here in Minnesota, I've heard Barbeque used whenever something is being grilled. I've even said it a few times, but understand the difference. We also use the term barbeque as another word for grill, such as, "I'm gonna put some chicken on the barbeque."

what he said. I've never heard the term cookout used up here. Its always barbeque or grilling.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Duh. In spite of her choice of husbands.

Don't sell yourself short, Ben, you're a tremendous slouch.

(or fixed it for ya')

[sooner333]

I hear cookout used here, moreso, but I've never really thought about it. Mostly in the context of "Hey, you should come over tonight, we're cooking out." And I know that it means hotdogs and hamburgers.

Now,whatever I say is going to be messed up because I learned English in Austin, TX, but then when I was six, moved to California (where I was born, but only lived for a year and a half), and then I moved to Oklahoma for high school. I think I'm starting to pick up most of the Oklahoma stuff by now (except I still put things away, not up).

[mgadfly]

Up here I've heard the term grilling and barbecue used, but they seem to mean the same thing. My wife's family, in So. Cal. use the barbecue 12 months of the year (and when I'm there it seems like virtually every day of the week) and they use the term barbecuing. They also "smoke" things in a big "smoker" like turkeys and blocks of cheese (I like the smoked cheese a lot).

[cuervo72]

I've pretty much always heard/used the term barbeque for outdoor cooking. "Cookout" for some reason gives me imagery of cooking at a campfire.

Now, I'll go with steaks as being grilled and not really barbequed. But what about BBQ beef, like beef brisket? Or pulled/shredded beef?

The real thing up in Gettysburg that I disagree with is the fact that the social committee will advertise "BBQ sandwiches" now and then. When it comes to a BBQ sandwich, I will agree that I think of pulled pork. But what they call a BBQ sandwich is basically a Sloppy Joe! And that's just wrong.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

But what about BBQ beef, like beef brisket? Or pulled/shredded beef?

That's easy -- if it ain't pig, it ain't BBQ.

[Joe]

what about barbecue chicken wings?

[sooner333]

Originally Posted by George W Bush

what about barbecue chicken wings?

I guess it would be grilling chicken wings with barbecue sauce.

[ISiddiqui]

I'm originally from New Jersey. If it was on a grill, outside, it was called a barbeque... always. Never heard the term cookout before.

Btw, the whole "if it ain't pig, it ain't BBQ" is stupid. Beef Brisket is definetly BBQ and so is barbequed chicken. If I can get it at Dreamland and they call it barbeque, that's good enough for me... . Furthermore it is slow cooked and that is the mark of BBQ, not what meat it is.

The Texans may just kill you for saying their brisket ain't BBQ... they'd probably, in turn, say your pig ain't BBQ.

[Pumpy Tudors]

albionmoonlight has already mentioned New Orleans, but since I'm also from NOLA, I'll add my piece. I've never heard anyone here say "cookout." I've always heard "barbecue" whenever somebody was putting meat on an outdoor grill. My wife is from Memphis, and she although she's being a little tongue-in-cheek, she says that "real barbecue" is pork. She doesn't see how people can even bother with beef brisket when there's pork around. As far as the use of "grilling," whenever I've heard that, it's been a reference to something done indoors, like grilling a cheese sandwich for lunch. Down here, at least in my experience, if you're cooking meat on an outside grill, you're "barbecuing."

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

She doesn't see how people can even bother with beef brisket when there's pork around.

You should tell your wife its because beef brisket is better . Well at least compared to pulled pork. Ribs are better than brisket though.

[OldGiants]

In Virginia, pork is barbecue, everything else is "grilling." Ribs, beef or pork, are part of barbecue, too. So pork, pulled or sliced and both beef and pork ribs are what I expect when the menu is barbecue.

The big debate is North Carolina style, which is vinegar based sauce versus Texas style, which is tomato (ketchup, really) based.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

... Furthermore it is slow cooked and that is the mark of BBQ, not what meat it is.

Uh-huh. If that makes you feel better, you go right on believing it.

The Texans may just kill you for saying their brisket ain't BBQ... they'd probably, in turn, say your pig ain't BBQ.

And they would, as is often the case, be dead wrong.

[clintl]

In Northern California, I've never heard anyone use "cookout." It's always "barbecue."

[Daimyo]

I grew up on a pig farm in Indiana... we basically used the following:

Pig Roast: probably what you refer to as BBQ... involves a whole pig roasted slowly over a pit with BBQ sauce avaible on the side... implies a gathering of people

BBQ: meat cooked on a grill basted with bbq sauce. mostly used for chicken (bone-in with skin), pork chops, ribs, etc

Cookout: hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages cooked on a grill... implies a gathering of people for outdoor cooking moreso than the fod cooked though i think

grill: pretty much anything else cooked on the grill with the exception of the items qualifying for bbq status

In Chicago it seems everyone just says grill for everything... haven't heard of many pig roasts up here.

[JediKooter]

Grew up in Southern California and it always seemed that if you had to use charcoal or some other burning medium that wasnt a 'gas', then it was refered to as barbequing. If you are using a 'gas', then it was grilling.

Either way though, whatever name it was called, bbq, cookout, grill, hibachi, over the camp fire, you knew the food (any type of food) was going to be cooked outside and not in the stove or oven that's in a kitchen.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Daimyo

Cookout: ... implies a gathering of people for outdoor cooking moreso than the fod cooked though i think

You raise a pretty good point there, one that's probably been overlooked.

[Coffee Warlord]

Barbecue: Anything involving roasting flesh by fire, with barbecue sauce. Ribs, barbecued chicken, pork, whatever.

Grilling: Anything involving roasting flesh by fire, sans BBQ sauce. In other words...steak and burgers.

Cookout: Gathering of people to roast flesh by fire.

[Dutch]

I think using the word "meat" would be more gentle. But that's just me.

[Kevin]

Most people here use the term barbeque for anything cooked outdoors on a grill. I've always thought it was more for something that was grilled over a low heat for a long time.

[wade moore]

Hrmm..

I grew up in the DC Metro Area and all of this is nonsense to me..

I usually used Barbecue, sometimes cookout... sometimes grilling even, but there was never a defiition behind it.. there was no inherent understanding of what was being cooked based on the term being used..

[HomerJSimpson]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Hrmm..

I grew up in the DC Metro Area and all of this is nonsense to me..

I usually used Barbecue, sometimes cookout... sometimes grilling even, but there was never a defiition behind it.. there was no inherent understanding of what was being cooked based on the term being used..

That is actually the case more often than not. I've heard any gathering where the food is cooked outside reffered to with all of those labels, and I think most people have enough stress in their life that they do not worry about the difference between a cook-out and a BBQ.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by HomerJSimpson

I think most people have enough stress in their life that they do not worry about the difference between a cook-out and a BBQ.

Yeah, from what I've observed, most people do, but I can't really identify first-hand.

[ISiddiqui]

Not to bring this back up or anything...

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Uh-huh. If that makes you feel better, you go right on believing it.

Yeah, I do tend to feel better when I believe in the truth, when people like you are dead wrong .

[stevew]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

That's an excellent point. I use the grill pretty much 12 months out of the year. I know I do it more than most, but as far as weather goes, it is rarely a prohibitive factor.

I dont understand why anyone wouldnt grill anytime. Me, If i can find charcoal at the store, that bitch'll get fired up in freakin december. Knock the snow off the top.

[tucker342]

Up here, we never call it a cookout, it's either grilled or nothing

[timmae]

In Wisconsin, Sheboygan/Milwaukee area at least, we "fry" out. The term probably comes from the olde classic of all get-togethers the "Brat Fry". And yes, there are "Brat Fry's" all year round.

In many households you will hear the phrase "Are we frying out tonight?"

Scary, eh?