BBQ or Smoking-What's The Difference?

The 3 methods or techniques if you will of backyard cooking are: Smoking, BBQ and Grilling. Well wait I thought that if you cook outside on a grill it's BBQ, Right? Well, that is where you are wrong. To most people, the term BBQ is a generic term that means "cooking outside with fire." BBQ is actually an abbreviation for Barbarcoa, a method of slow-cooking that was developed by the Carrib Indians who lived on the southern islands of the Caribbean Sea. Here are the differences in the 3 methods:

• Smoking involves slow-cooking or curing the meat through the use of hot smoke only, which requires indirect heat. Temps are usually between 200-275F or so.
• BBQ traditionally involves slow-cooking meats either through indirect heat using wood or charcoal or through direct low heat over charcoal.
• Grilling traditionally involves fast-cooking over high heat through the use of wood or charcoal.

The biggest difference between "BBQ" and "smoking" is time and temperature -- smoking can be done over a longer period of time at lower temperatures.