"Daniel" > wrote in message
...
> Hi everybody,
> Since I joint this NG, I discovered that BBQing in North America is much
> more sophisticated than in France.
> Knowing the reputation of American cuisine in Europe (MacDo, KFC, period)
,
> that's came as a surprise to me.

Our reputation for fine fast food is well deserved. And it's health food,
if you're a malnourished Somali or suffering from anorexia.

>
> Several points:
>
> 1 - Cooking method:
> You BBQ or Grill or Smoke.
> We only grill and we call that BBQ (Sorry)
> What's smoking, Uh??

Smoking requires a lengthy, multi-part explanation, but here's a three
sentence simplistic version. Cold smoking (done at temps under 90°F) is a
method of preserving food. Hot smoking (generally at temps between 200°F
and 300°F is a method of slow cooking which flavors the food with smoke.
The smoke has no function as a preservative.

>
> 2 - Equipment:
> You have Kamado high tech equipment, not naming their numerous competitors
> fully computerised items .
> We only have the smal grilling stuff that will definitely look "totally
> amateurish" to you.

Yep, we're the barbecue masters when it comes to equipment. We got towable
trailers the likes of which you've never seen. We like our toys.

>
> 3 - Timing:
> Some honourable members of this NG can BBQ in Vancouver or similar
freezing
> locations in January.
> Below 15 Celsius, we don't BBQ in France, except the few happy fellows who
> have an indoor chimney in the house. Outdoor with snow! Forget!

Uh, that's because our Froggy friends just don't have the "dedication" that
the Américains and Canucks do. You *can* barbecue in France when it gets
cold, you just *don't*. But you got that good wine and cheese and bread and
pastis and foie gras and olive oil that I'd like to lick off the French
girls in Provence because they are the hottest things I have ever
seen...[STOP THAT].

>
> And so on...
>
> There MUST be a logical historical explanation to that.
>
> Kindly read what follows, my little assumptions, and correct as necessary,
> thanks in advance.
>
> I Europe, nomadism vanished a long time ago and everyone is cooking at
home,
> only at home, since several centuries.

What fuel did they use, Daniel? Wood, I betcha. Or peat, which is good for
making Scotch but notso good for barbecue.

>
> In the USA, during the Conquest of the Far West, numbers of new immigrants
> had to go from the East Coast to the Middlewest and/or the Rocky Mountains
> and/or the West Coast on their own, driving horse powered wagons, fighting
> their way though the Native Americans tribes and spending months "in the
> wild".
> What they had to cook? Wooden fires. Period. So they "invented" quite a
> bunch of recipes such as "How to accomodate wild coyote meat with cactus
as
> a woodfire source". No choice.

Actually, they ate a lot of jerky. And beans. I think the cactus-based
recipes we got from the Old Wild West are pretty much limited to tequila and
peyote, and that would be "Mexican," and "Indian," thankyouverymuch.
>
> Then, came the time of the "cowboys", spending days and nights in the
wild,
> managing cattles then bringing them to the cattle markets. What they had
to
> cook? Wooden fires. Period. So they "invented" quite a bunch of recipes
such
> as "How to accomodate an old cow meat with bush plants as a woodfire
> source".
>
Cowboys were famous for preferring a slab of beef cooked until it was tough
as shoeleather. Didn't even do "au poirve," the dummies. And beans. They
ate a lot of beans.

> Here were the sources of the USA BBQ culture, which we don't have in
Europe.

The real source of barbecue came from the Caribbean, not from America. The
Arawak Indians were known for slow cooking meat (probably human meat, since
they were cannibals) and called it "barbacoa," meaning "tender, tasty
neighbor buttmeat." The English/Spanish/French pirates who sailed the
Caribbean adapted this method and barbecued hogs (imported from Europe) and
that process made its way to America. All this, BTW, may or may not be true
(there are other versions of history...aren't there always?).

The real and original masters of barbecue in America were black men in the
south who slow cooked the cast-off sections of pig meat that their white
owners didn't think palatable, like ribs and shoulders. Their techniques
traveled to Texas, where beef brisket, an otherwise inedible piece of meat
were transformed into something wonderful.

As an aside, I grew up in Florida and remember well in the late 1950's that
white people didn't eat mullet...only blacks ate them. Stupid white people.
Smoked and freshly deep fried mullet are now a pricy, not easy to find
delicacy.

Some of this stuff is actually true and all is subject to correction.

Bonjour,
Jack Curry