What's the difference between a cook out and a BBQ?

[Anonymous]

We invite friends over to grill or for BBQ, but some if the nurses where I practice use the term "cook out" - is that a different thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We invite friends over to grill or for BBQ, but some if the nurses where I practice use the term "cook out" - is that a different thing?

No, just regional

[Anonymous]

It's the same thing. I imagine the different terms are regional as I've never heard anyone invite people over "to grill" when referring to a BBQ.

[Anonymous]

To most folks, it's the same thing.

There is an exception, however, for certain southerners or other enthusiasts for whom BBQ is a Thing. To enthusiasts, "BBQ" means someone got up at dawn to light a fire and has been tending it all day, smoking a large quantity of meat to high delectability, to feed a large number of people. Who knows, they may have even dug a hole in the ground, built a fire in it, and then tossed a pig onto the coals. For these folks, "cookout" means a casual gathering around the grill, and "BBQ" means The Real Deal.

For the rest of us, I think people use the terms interchangeably.

[Anonymous]

"A BBQ" is different than "for BBQ". If you invited me over for BBQ it would imply meat with BBQ sauce, like ribs or pulled pork.

Cooking out or grilling can be any food type, usually implies a casual meal.

[Anonymous]

Southerners don't say barbecue unless they mean it. Grilling out is grilling out. If you don't know what it means to barbecue, you have never done it and have probably only grilled out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's the same thing. I imagine the different terms are regional as I've never heard anyone invite people over "to grill" when referring to a BBQ.

So you're not from the South.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To most folks, it's the same thing.

There is an exception, however, for certain southerners or other enthusiasts for whom BBQ is a Thing. To enthusiasts, "BBQ" means someone got up at dawn to light a fire and has been tending it all day, smoking a large quantity of meat to high delectability, to feed a large number of people. Who knows, they may have even dug a hole in the ground, built a fire in it, and then tossed a pig onto the coals. For these folks, "cookout" means a casual gathering around the grill, and "BBQ" means The Real Deal.

For the rest of us, I think people use the terms interchangeably.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"A BBQ" is different than "for BBQ". If you invited me over for BBQ it would imply meat with BBQ sauce, like ribs or pulled pork.

Cooking out or grilling can be any food type, usually implies a casual meal.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'm from tue west coast we say bbq on the east coast they say cook out. But it's the same thing

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of an editorial cartoon during the 1988 campaign, in which someone was trying to teach Michael Dukakis to say "grits," and he kept saying "oatmeal."
In much of New England, the equivalent of the pig-in-the-ground BBQ would be "clambake."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"A BBQ" is different than "for BBQ". If you invited me over for BBQ it would imply meat with BBQ sauce, like ribs or pulled pork.

Cooking out or grilling can be any food type, usually implies a casual meal.

This. I appreciate that most regions outside the South use the term BBQ to describe a grill or a grilling party. However, if one suggests he is serving BBQ he should actually be serving the specific dish. A grilled hot dog is not BBQ.

[Anonymous]

BBQ is cook meat slowly with indirect heat... basically smoking meat
Grilling is cooking meat quickly on medium to high heat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue

Of course you can say I am having bbq chicken which just means chicken w/ bbq sauce.

It really does not matter unless your friends are PITAs. Then you have a whole other problem.

[Anonymous]

For most people, I think it means the same. For me, however, cook-out is when you serve hamburgers, hot-dogs, and stuff... BBQ is when you serve BBQ chicken, ribs, (i.e., real good stuff).

[Anonymous]

I think it's definitely regional/cultural. Most of my black and/or Southern friends call it a cookout, most of my other friends call it a BBQ. I am from Long Island and we called it a BBQ growing up even if it was just hot dogs and hamburgers.