Barbecue
from Wikipedia.com

Barbecue or barbeque[1] (with abbreviations BBQ, Bar-B-Q and Bar-B-Que, diminutive form barbie, used chiefly in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and called Braai in South Africa) is a method and apparatus for cooking food, often meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal and may include application of a marinade, spice rub, or basting sauce to the meat. The term as a noun can refer to foods cooked by this method, to the cooking apparatus itself, or to a party that includes such food. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner. Barbecue is usually cooked in an outdoor environment heated by the smoke of wood or charcoal. Restaurant barbecue may be cooked in large brick or metal ovens specially designed for that purpose.

Barbecue has numerous regional variations in many parts of the world. Notably, in the Southern United States, practitioners consider barbecue to include only indirect methods of cooking over hardwood smoke, with the more direct methods to be called "grilling".

In British usage, barbecuing and grilling refer to a fast cooking process directly over high heat, while grilling also refers to cooking under a source of direct, high heat—known in the U.S. and Canada as broiling. In US English usage, however, grilling refers to a fast process over high heat, while barbecuing refers to a slow process using indirect heat and/or hot smoke (very similar to some forms of roasting). For example, in a typical U.S. home grill, food is cooked on a grate directly over hot charcoal, while in a U.S. barbecue, the coals are dispersed to the sides or at significant distance from the grate. Its South American versions are the southern Brazilian churrasco and the Argentine asado.

Alternatively, an apparatus called a smoker with a separate fire box may be used. Hot smoke is drawn past the meat by convection for very slow cooking. This is essentially how barbecue is cooked in most U.S. "barbecue" restaurants, but nevertheless, many consider this to be a distinct cooking process called smoking.

The slower methods of cooking break down the collagen in meat and tenderize tougher cuts for easier eating.

Worlds Longest Barbecue
13 April – Montevideo, Uruguay.
 

Ambition, organization, creativity – and of course, lots of red meat – were the perfect ingredients in Uruguay's recipe for achieving a Guinness World Record. The longest barbecue in the world, or as the Uruguayans call it, "El Asado Mas Grande Del Mundo," spread an astonishing 1493.2 metres. Creatively designed in the shape of a star, the asado was constructed in the "Rural del Prado," a rodeo located in the middle of one of the city's public parks.

Event producer Alvaro Kemper collaborated with organizers from INAC, the National Institute of Meat, to produce the important event which helped to create global awareness for the small, but ambitious country of Uruguay.

Mr. Kemper stated that the amazing record was a result of the creative cooking skills of 1250 asadores - barbecue cooks – as they cooked approximately 12000 kilograms of South American red meat.

Meat well done…job well done…perfect Sunday barbecue to enjoy!

23 April 2008

Presidential BBQ

        Barbecues have been a White House tradition since Thomas Jefferson. Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, hosted the first barbecue at the White House that featured
Texas-style barbecued ribs.

 Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter hosted a “pig pickin’”
for about 500 guests including visiting
foreign dignitaries.
 
Ronald and Nancy Reagan
 also were avid barbecuers who entertained
with barbecues at their ranch.
 
George H. Bush, 41st president, held a barbecue for Members of Congress annually on the South Lawn of the White House, a tradition continued
by his son,  President George W. Bush.
 
However, that tradition was interrupted on September 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Secret Service agents, who had evacuated the White House a day earlier,
cancelled the barbecue and the
White House kitchen released 700 pounds of beef tenderloin to feed the hundreds of
rescue workers who had traveled to Washington.