Barbecue is probably the world's oldest cooking method and that is the only thing about it that is beyond dispute (see my companion article on The Story of Barbecue and the Origin of the Word). Everything else about barbecue is controversial and in some quarters likely to start a fight.
Folks can't even agree on how it is spelled. Is it Barbecue, Barbeque, Barbaque, BBQ, B-B-Que, Bar-B-Q, Bar-B-Que, or Bar-B-Cue? For the record, linguists and historians generally agree that the proper spelling is barbecue because it is derived from the word barbacoa, and that other spellings are colloquial.
More articles about the history of barbecue on this site
The history of barbecue and the origin of the word.
The history of barbecue sauces and their regional styles.
The history of charcoal.
How LBJ used barbecue to advance his policies.
Charles Lamb's tale "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig".
Cut to the chase
Smoke is what differentiates barbecue from other types of cooking.
This page explains in detail the definition of the word barbecue, and refutes revisionist attempts to redefine it. A study of history, lexicogaphy, and culinary techniques teaches us that the word barbecue is a large umbrella word that encompasses a variety of cooking styles, and it is expanding.
Alas, there are a number of revisionists who seek to shrink the definition to mean what is more properly called "Southern Barbecue" or "Low & Slow Smoke Roasting". It also explains, in concert with my article on the history of barbecue, that barbecue is not American in origin or practice. That said, barbecue cooking, in all its styles, is more popular in the US than anywhere in the world, and its methods, techniques, and recipes have reached an unmatched zenith here. Here's a summary of the facts:
From a historical standpoint, barbecue is the oldest cooking method probably first practiced by homo erectus in Europe, Asia, or Africa. These proto humans threw meat onto hot coals.
Today it is practiced over campfires, indoor fireplaces, open pits, in smokehouses, and today millions of people use a bewildering array of steel devices to produce barbecue with a variety of fuels. Thousands of barbecue restaurants produce barbecue very well indoors, typically on gas fired ovens that burn logs for smoke flavor.
From a lexicography standpoint, barbecue is derived from the word barbacoa, used by Taino Indians in the Caribbean to describe an elevated wooden rack on which they slow smoked at low temperatures fish, lizards, alligator, and other game.
The word barbacoa was brought to Europe by Spanish explorers and it first appeared in print in Spain in the 1526. Even though the word originally meant a structure, not the food or the method, it expanded to include both in Europe.
As the word expanded barbecue came to mean (1) food cooked by a barbecue method, (2) a cooking device, (3) an event at which barbecue is cooked, and (4) a flavor that is similar to sweet ketchup-based barbecue sauce. That is the way the word is commonly used by most people. The fact is that, to most Americans, cooking burgers, hot dogs, and steaks is barbecue. A handful of snobs can try all they wish, they cannot change a definition based on widespread common usage.
From a culinary standpoint, barbecue is a cooking method that usually involves fire and smoke.
Over the centuries, several culinary methods of barbecue have evolved around the world. Beloved long-established barbecue joints like Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, AL, and several other hallowed locations in Memphis and Texas cook their barbecue hot and fast directly over coals. I'm not going to tell the University of Alabama football team that Dreamland isn't barbecue yet the internet is full of snobs demeaning their wonderful food. Then there's Korean barbecue (thin cut marinated beef, typically grilled over a hibachi in the center of the table), Chinese barbecue (marinated pork loins, ribs, or duck roasted while hanging in a gas oven), Santa Maria barbecue (beef tri-tip grilled over oak on an open top brazier), and Kentucky barbecue (mutton and other meats simmered in a stew in large cast iron kettles over an open flame). None of these treats fit the revisionist definition.
Barbecue encompasses several forms of cooking including open pit barbecue, closed pit barbecue, Southern barbecue, competition barbecue, gas fired restaurant barbecue, smoke roasting, grilling, Santa Maria barbecue, Kentucky barbecue, spit roasting, Mexican barbacoa, Korean barbecue, Chinese barbecue, Argentine asado, Brazilian churrasco, Japanese yakiniku, St. Maarten lolo, Indian tandoori, Greek arni kleftiko, Thai satay, South African braai, Hawaaian imu, New Zealand hangi, and more. The one thing they have in common is smoke. All these techniques produce smoke.
Revisionists have tried to shrink the definition of the word to mean barbecue cooked in steel closed "pits" similar to the method practiced at modern barbecue competitions, which they call "real barbecue" and which they claim is low and slow, cooked with indirect heat and smoke. In practice, many of them are now cooking with high temperatures and wrapping the meat in foil, which is another culinary method entirely called braising.
When they speak of real barbecue they are thinking of the popular style of low and slow smoke roasting as developed in the American South. In fact, they are speaking of Southern Barbecue. Alas, they are forgetting that barbecue is practiced around the world in different ways, and that the majority of the public just doesn't agree with them.
Summary. So let's try to come up with one overarching all encompassing definition, and hope that my effort does not precipitate violence:
Barbecue has many meanings. The bottom line is that it is a cooking method that produces smoke. It often involves flame for heat. Barbecue is also a cooking device that produces the smoke. In addition, barbecue is an event, usually festive and outdoors, at which food is barbecued on a barbecue. And finally, barbecue is a flavor produced by cooking with a barbecue, often with a sweet ketchup based sauce called barbecue sauce, on a barbecue at a barbecue event. Unless it is cooked on an electric barbecue, with any other sauce you like, and eaten alone indoors.
What kind of pitmaster are you?
Barbecue snobs love to argue about what is real barbecue. They often speak wistfully about upholding "traditions". When I hear this I always think of the classic Gary Larson cartoon, which I do not have permission to reprint here. In the background we see a caveman sitting next to a campfire grilling a chicken leg on a stick. In the foreground there are three cavemen. Two are grimacing and howling in pain as they try to grill their meat over a campfire by holding it in the flames with their bare hands. The third is looking at the guy in the background and complains "I don't care what he's doing. Sticks are not traditional".
Barbecue Traditionalist. These hard core purists preach the traditions of barbecue and cook only in a hand dug trench with wood embers. They always make their own rubs, mops, and sauces from scratch. Not many of them left. In fact, I've never met one.
Barbecue Modernists. These folks call themselves purists and say they are serious about tradition, but they use large metal cookers with charcoal for fuel. Many even purchase their rubs and sauces.
Barbecue Post Modernists. These crazed radicals, Yours Truly among them, use digital thermometers, thermostats, the Texas Crutch, wood pellets, injections, and some even use gas or electric cookers. We respect tradition, but are not afraid to innovate. We like to make great tasting food any way we can. We think food is fun and there should be no rules in the back yard, in the kitchen, or in the bedroom.
German barbecue
Wash Echte writes on contemporary German society. His description of German barbecue rituals is a hoot.
He says "German people draw a huge part of their self-esteem from doing everything as casually and spontaneously as possible, often to an extent where the casualness and spontaneity starts to bear all traits of a fully-fledged ritual. One of those crucial rituals a foreigner can use to gain respect from their German acquaintances is a barbecue party. As you might have noticed, German people are fully-fledged barbecue fiends who do not mind having a Barbecue party every day of the week from February to November. Chances are you will soon be invited to join your German acquaintances for a barbecue party on a hot summer day, or in any other weather condition actually."
Instant barbecue
A lady went into her hardware store and bought a big box labeled "Instant Barbecue" for $39.99, the one with the pictures of succulent foods on the lid.
The next day, she appeared at the customer service desk complaining that there was no food inside, pointing at the picture on the box.
The employee told her that it was just a barbecue grill and that the food was not supplied with it. "Oh dear" said the lady. "I'd better take the other one out of the freezer then!"
Some folks think barbecue is hamburgers on the hibachi. Others say no, that's grilling, not barbecue. Some say barbecue is only pork. Some say it is only beef. The Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), which sanctions hundreds of competitions, says it's both, and chicken, too. Others think it is only whole hog. In North Carolina it is only hog, but the state is riven in two parts over what part of a hog can be called barbecue. Some say it must be whole hog, others shoulder only. And their neighbors in South Carolina aren't even allowed to enter the debate.
Some say it is only cooked outdoors over live fire, in which case there are probably only a dozen barbecue restaurants in the US. Others say it must be smoked with indirect heat in which case the African American slaves who created classic Southern barbecue were cooking something else when they dug pits and put the meat above glowing embers.