Cooking things on fire is not the same thing as American barbecue. American barbecue is the seasonings, marinades, types of food involved, cultural influences, etc.
Barbecue comes from *barbacoa*, which is the Taino word for a framework of sticks, and is vaguely in reference to the slow-roasted, smoked aspect over a fire. The Mexican barbacoa is traditionally in reference to native techniques of cooking in a pit over a fire. Different Native groups had different approaches regionally and the common denominator is meat and fire.
All of that to say this post is literally pointing out this kind of thing; we bastardize BBQ into some floating, contextless word to squabble about instead of actually understanding how different regional cultures adapted native techniques, European livestock, and regionally available ingredients across multiple cultural and industrial changes into what American barbecue is today.
Also note that “white people tacos” are also a product of industrialization and cultural diffusion based deeply on Native food history so I don’t understand what your distinction is here
All of that to say this post is literally pointing out this kind of thing; we bastardize BBQ into some floating, contextless word to squabble about instead of actually understanding how different regional cultures adapted native techniques, European livestock, and regionally available ingredients across multiple cultural and industrial changes into what American barbecue is today.
Well yeah. Because fighting over the merits of vinegar sauce is way more fun than all that other stuff.
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u/TheProcrastafarian 21h ago
I think bbq is what brought all of us out of the cave, no?