Rick Patrick Columnist
I was recently watching a morning news show on TV, because it was morning and that's what I usually watch in the mornings as I am preparing for my day. It was right before Memorial Day, so naturally they had a segment on outdoor grilling and what kind of fancy outdoor cooking appliances were available (many of which, I am sure, carry a price tag that would make my most recent vehicular purchase look like pocket change). As they were showing these fancy cooking contraptions, they kept referring to the act of outdoor cooking as “a barbeque.”
For those who may not be quite so enlightened, please allow me to set the record straight. The term “barbecue” (sometimes appearing as “Bar-B-Que”) is NOT a verb, or something you do, it is an adjective, or a description of a noun, which is a thing. For example, a barbecued chicken leg is a chicken leg that has been cooked on a grill and has had some kind of barbecue sauce or seasoning added to it (preferably Sweet Baby Ray's spicy sweet). Therefore, if you say “We're going to have a barbecue on Friday and cook some hot dogs on the grill, could you please bring some cole slaw,” you would be gravely mistaken. Not on the cole slaw; I happen to be very fond of most people's cole slaw. What you have described when stating your intention of cooking hot dogs (or possibly hamburgers, or preferably, both) on the grill is, in fact, having a “cook-out.”
It is possible to have barbecue as the main course of your cook-out, IF what you are cooking is either chicken or ribs. If you are cooking hot dogs or hamburgers, then it is NOT a “barbecue,” even if you do put barbecue sauce on your hot dog or hamburger (which I would not do, that's what ketchup is for).
If you happen to go away from your house and cook your hamburgers and hot dogs out in the woods, that could be considered a picnic. If you cook your hot dogs and hamburgers and pack them up and take them into the woods to eat, that could also be considered a picnic. But in neither of those cases would you correctly call those activities “a barbecue.”
I always enjoy a nice afternoon cook-out during this time of year, so long as the mosquitoes and yellow flies aren't too bad. So, if you are planning to have a cook-out in the near future, I rarely turn down an invitation. I may even bring the cole slaw.