It is not Thanksgiving, you silly foreigner! It is annual Kick The Brits A** Holiday!!

Oh yes, I remember now. The day you named after a Will Smith film.

Anyway, is it still going on? Haven't you had enough turkey yet?

We do not eat turkey on 4th of July!! We eat BBQ and watermelon!!

Mel, in Texas, barbecue is smoked meat with an optional tomato based sauce, usually sweet and/or vinegary.

On the Fourth of July, we usually eat hamburgers or hotdogs, cooked on a grill. Northerners refer to that grilling process as "barbecue" despite the fact that no actual barbecue is involved. Texans refer to the process as a "cookout" or one of several other terms, none of which is "barbecue."

So, I was just curious if you eat actual barbecue on the Fourth, or if you've let some kind of northernism into your speech and are referring to a cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs as "barbecue."

Ooh, markos is questioning Mel's Texas authenticity.

I'm going to pour a drink and draw up a chair to watch this one.

ARE YOU CALLING ME A YANKEE???????????????

On 4th of July all decent and upstandin' Texans eat BRISKET and ribs!! Only a yankee from CHICAGO would cook hotdogs on a grill!!

Okay, thank goodness. I am going to heave a sigh of relief that you know what barbecue is. I was worried for a minute that you were some kind of a foreign spy who had crept in to pretend to be a Texan.

Eating barbecue on the Fourth is just fine and I have done it, but in most areas of TEXAS where I have lived, having a cookout with hamburgers or hotdogs is the tradition.

What would scare me would be somebody who had the cookout and called it "barbecue"...

well, they think putting meat with some tomater sauce in the crock pot is BBQ, Markos!

In Chicago we don't need a holiday to have a cookout, and no, we don't call anything thrown on a grille BBQ...We sure don't need a holiday to eat Chicago style hot dogs and as for burgers... McDonald's is based in Oak Brook Illinois. But neither of those is BBQ.

Now some folks have what they call BBQ'd Turkey legs, but even I know that ain't BBQ.

Having roots in Arkansas, Mizzou and South Carolina, and having traveled extensively for 12 years, I have sampled what is called BBQ in many parts.

The best brisket I ever had was at a place outside KC (Blue Springs). The best pulled pork was in North Carolina and the best ribs (pork) were in Memphis. In Baltimore they call a thick steak cooked over open flame BBQ and in Kansas City, ribs means beef.

In NYC, BBQ means slathered in some ketchup based sauce and in California...Never mind...They've got the same people trying to make pizza...

I own two smokers (a vertical and a barrel) and have cinder blocks I use to make a pit for when I want to cook stuff for a bigger group.

Even the wood used for smoking is regional. Texas and parts of the SW have mesquite. In the PNW they use alder and in much of the south it is hickory that is predominate. Pecan, apple, pear and oak all have unique tastes that can be imparted to meat, fowl and fish. My favorite wood for smoking is apple, though a close second is chunks of oak from whiskey casks. Most kinds of maple make the food taste like Grandma's dining room table, though sugar maple is not bad at all.

When we get done talking BBQ, we'll talk pizza. Now there's a subjective topic if I ever heard of one...

Grillin' ain't BBQ...

So let's talk about BBQ...

Mark

We BBQ pretty much every day in summer as it is too hot to cook in the kitchen. We have a gas (LPG) fired grill and we cook beef steaks, sausages, and mince patties on it. If I am feeling creative I'll chuck on pineapple rings, apple slices, pumpkin slices and courgettes. Some people prefer a wood fired cooker, I cant be bother chopping wood in summer.

When I was in California 2 years ago I got invited to a BBQ and they cooked salmon steaks, with nary a sausage to be seen. That aint no BBQ.


Serve BBQ with new potatoes boiled with butter and chives; and a good salad.

Pizza is only good if its done in a real wood fired pizza oven. Now that I will chop wood for any day

oh nice. A yankee and a foreigner are telling the Texans how ta cook!!

Good Ol, Sounthern Ontario Canuck here and I have to say, I cook hot dogs and Burgers on a BBQ grill and it is PROPANE "powered." I don't like steak. And as far as Pizza goes, I like mine with pineapple on it.

But, I am not like all of my friends, some of them don't like pineapple on their pizza.

So am I to understand that the only cooking that deserves to be called BBQ is when the food is smoked?

Lil's gas grill, indeed any kind of grilling, just because it's outdoors does not make it BBQ? To BBQ you must light charcoal or wood, instead of cheating with gas?

I'm just trying to be clear here. I'd hate to single-handedly restart the war between the Yankees and Texas.

Another summer cooking method is Hangi.


Why not, you don't speak or write the queens English and you can't make a decent cup of tea! It is my cross to bear, but I'll educate you yet

BBQ in NZ

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with sausages!

I don't think that qualifies in Texas, though. I don't see any coal or wood!

Why is my thread crawling with foreigners and yankees!?? Who let you MATES in here???

Go have some tea or crumpets or whatever you LOT do!!

Didn't you hear, America is a free country.

The land of the free and all that.

BTW, my Mom keeps trying to convince me that I AM American. An American born abroad. I keep arguing with her that the number one way to become Canadian is to be born here and she isn't questioning that I was born IN Canada.