August
7
2012
Even Vegans Can Barbecue
Ray: “Can vegans barbecue?”
Anika: “Of course they can”
Ray: “No. I mean can they really call it barbecue because barbecue refers to meat, correct?”
Anika: “Well, according to the etymology of the word ‘barbecue,’ which could be interpreted to mean anything cooked on a stick or on a bed of sticks over fire, vegans can definitely barbecue. The word doesn’t translate directly to preparing and eating meat. Plus, barbecuing is a cultural activity in addition to a cooking method. So of course they can.”
I was confident in my answer as I had just read and reviewed, The Slaw and the Slow Cooked: Culture and Barbecue in the Mid-South, which clearly explained the etymology of the term. Yet, when I returned home I felt I had retorted without full confidence. Did barbecue really only refer to meat? If you got down to the nitty gritty of it, would it be impossible for vegans to actually “barbecue” Portobello mushrooms or summer squash?
According to James R. Veteto and Edward M. Maclin (editors of The Slaw and the Slow Cooked), barbecue is a term that stems from the Spanish barbacoa, coa referring to a stick or a skewer. Barba, however, is the Spanish word for beard but in the instance of barbacoa most likely refers to Barbados, barbacoa meaning a food of the people of Barbados cooked with or on a stick. While barbacoa and barbecue are both contextually referred to the process of cooking or grilling meat over an open fire, the etymology of the word itself doesn’t delimit the cooking of vegetables.
More importantly than the history of the term itself, however, is the experience of barbecuing and what it means to our culture. Barbecue is a method of cooking and an act of tradition. Gathering around an open fire or a backyard grill on a lazy afternoon, drinking a cold one, chatting with friends and strangers, and sharing a moment of reverence for how food can bring us together…that’s something everyone can do, no matter if there’s burgers or ‘bellos on the grill. It’s been part of American life for centuries. We use barbecues to rally constiuents for political campaigns, to gather the family, to celebrate births, graduations and independence, to glorify the summer season and reign in the fall. Barbecue is an experience, and perhaps even a feeling, for all eaters,…not just carnivores. So rest assured vegans. Even you can barbecue.
Want to get your veggie barbecue on? Check out the awesome selection of organic summer produce at the Brooklyn Kitchen. Some of our vegan grillable items include:
- Japanese Mirai Corn (Lancaster, PA)
- Nectarines (Lancaster, PA)
- Plums (Lancaster, PA)
- Golden Zucchini (Lancaster, PA)
- Costata Romanesca (Lancaster, PA)
- Lacinato Kale (Long Island, NY)
- Baby Leeks (Lancaster, PA)
- Tomatillos (Lancaster, PA)
- Poblano Peppers (Lancaster, PA)
- Sweet and Spicy Pepper variety from NY and PA
Don’t forget the yellow seedless watermelon (mentioned in Time Out NY)!
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As one of the editors mentioned above, I’ll have to agree, with a caveat! Even in Memphis (the barbecue heartland) people can and do barbecue non-meat items. For example, barbecued tofu. At the same time, in many places in the mid-south people would look at you strangely if you served vegetables, chicken, or even beef and called it “barbecue.” You might have barbecued chicken, tofu, or squash (the adjectival form) but as a noun, at least locally, barbecue usually refers to pork. I’ve been known to barbecue butternut squash on occasion. I think vegans can definitely barbecue!
PS: before returning to the south, I lived in Brooklyn for 10 years. I ran the Children’s Garden program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden…
As the other editor of The Slaw and the Slow Cooked, I’m going to have to disagree here. Across the South, for hundreds of years, barbecue has meant slow smoking whole animals or cuts of meat anywhere from 6 to 24 hours. Try doing that to vegetables. I have, for vegetarian friends, and it tastes terrible (e.g. squash smoked for hours, yuck!). However, grilling vegetables or tofu is delicious. Outside the South, grilling is also referred to as barbecuing. But in the South, when you mention the word barbecue, you are talking about slow smoking (meats). You traced the etymology of the word barbecue through our book, but didn’t take into account the common Southern American usage of the term for the past 300 years. But no worries, I liked your post anyway and thanks for the attention to our book! Can we access your review somewhere? best, Jim
Jim and Ted: Very insightful additions! Thanks for some clarification. I suppose most people in the mid-south would adhere to the strict definition of barbecue and call “barbecuing” vegetables “grilling” even if, as you are probably very familiar Ted, that is not the case in Brooklyn! The review is still in its second round of edits but reach out to me at anika@thebrooklynkitchen.com and I’d be happy to chat and tell you where to access it when the final draft is ready. Very interesting compilation that clearly got me (and hopefully others) thinking more about barbecue and culture!
Excellent, we’ll be in touch. One of the claims of the book is that barbecue is not only good to eat, but good to think (ala Claude Levi-Strauss). Thanks for your thoughts!
Hello. I’m looking forward to reading the book. I expect it to serve one of my family’s favorite pastimes – finding the perfect barbecue place or recipe.
But I wonder whether the speculation on the origin of the name is correct? After all, whole pig on a spit, pig in a pit, pig in any of the many ways it is barbecued is found all over Europe, and is pictured in many Medieval paintings.
It seems logical that the word come from barba+cola. From beard to tail, that is, the whole pig. Among Caribbean speakers of Spanish, mid-vocalic consonants are often dropped.
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