Do you know what exactly does barbecue mean?

There are many legitimate definitions, verb, noun, and adjective. There is even a legal definition. One definition just will not do the job. When you cut through the haze, ultimately, smoke differentiates barbecue from other types of cooking. The fact is that there are many forms of barbecue around the world and it is the presence of smoke that unifies them all.

The word "barbecue" was derived from a Taino Indian word that Spanish explorers said sounded like barbacoa. The Indian use of the word presaged today's controversies by having multiple meanings. It was a cooking device, a storage device, a bedlike device, a shelter, and perhaps even the food cooked on the device.

Most of the Caribbean and Amerindians tribes used the barbacoa for drying and smoking fish, turtles, lizards, alligators, snakes, rats, frogs, birds, dogs, and other small animals for preservation as well as for dinner. Occasionally deer and turkey were cooked on the barbacoa. The smoked, salted, dried meats were often reconstituted weeks later and eaten in stews. It was more like making jerky than what we think of as barbecue.

So to sum it up, it would be safe to say, that any type of cooking that involves a smoky grill would be considered barbeque!