Barbecue

Barbecue or barbeque is both a cooking method and an apparatus. Barbecuing is done slowly over low, indirect heat and the food is flavored by the smoking process, while grilling, a related process, is generally done quickly over moderate-to-high direct heat that hardly produces smoke.

The word "barbecue" when used as a noun can refer to: the cooking method itself, the meat cooked this way, the cooking apparatus used (the "barbecue grill" or simply "barbecue"), or to a type of social event featuring this type of cooking. The term is also used as a verb, i.e. "barbecuing" is usually done outdoors by smoking the meat over wood or charcoal. Restaurant barbecue may be cooked in large, specially-designed brick or metal ovens. Barbeque is practiced in many areas of the world and there are numerous regional variations.

Barbecuing encompasses four or five distinct types of cooking techniques. The original technique is cooking using smoke at low temperatures—usually around 240–280 °F or 115–145 °C—and significantly longer cooking times (several hours), known as smoking. Another technique, known as baking, used a masonry oven or baking oven that uses convection to cook meats and starches with moderate temperatures for an average cooking time of about an hour. Braising combines direct, dry heat charbroiling on a ribbed surface with a broth-filled pot for moist heat. Using this technique, cooking occurs at various speeds, starting fast, slowing down, then speeding up again, lasting for a few hours.

Grilling is done over direct, dry heat, usually over a hot fire over 500 °F (260 °C) for a few minutes. Grilling may be done over wood, charcoal, gas, or electricity. The time difference between barbecuing and grilling is because of the temperature difference; at low temperatures used for barbecuing, meat takes several hours to reach the desired internal temperature.