People started celebrating the country’s birthday Sunday. The Fourth of July 2021 will be bigger and better than ever. The official observance of the holiday is Monday, July 5.
Making up for the restrictions and canceled 2020 celebrations due to the pandemic will make the holiday even more special. Americans will celebrate with: bigger BOOMs!, street hurrahs and fanfare, park picnics, and social gatherings.
And we will have ‘THE MEATS.’
There will be fireworks, parades, and barbecue grilling high on the hog and cow. Whether your fave is hotdogs, burgers, steaks, or ribs, it’s time to grill. There’s no question about the Fourth of July, Independence Day, being one of the most popular barbecue days of the year. And because of the downturn in the pandemic and vaccinations, 2021 will be no different as to tradition.
A good tradition doesn’t need any changes or tweaking—just more of the fun.
But inquiring minds want to know: Is there such a thing as a barbecue grill?
I don’t know if you’re from the North, South, or somewhere in between. To be fair, I’m going to rely on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the answer to this question. An online search for barbecue grill in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary resulted in the following: “The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary.”
What! On second thought, who cares!
But don’t tell any Southerners. In the South, we’ve never had a problem naming something differently. And sometimes things are named relative to their use. A grill, whether it is gas, electric, charcoal, pellet, or infrared, is used to barbecue. So, regardless of what type of grill you’re using, it’s a barbecue grill.
It sounds logical to me. Of course, I’m from the South.
And if you spell barbecue, ‘barbeque,’ that’s OK too, even though it’s listed as barbecue in the dictionary.
Yes, barbecue pit and barbecue sauce are verifiable barbecue terms in the dictionary. And of course, the individual doing the barbecuing is the barbecuer.
Yes, the fires will be smoldering in the barbecue grills. Some people will be barbecuing. Others will fire up their grills and burn.
There’s barbecue and a barbecue. Barbecue is the slow cooking of meat on a grill.
Now some would beg to differ on this point. They say cooking meat on a grill is grilling, not barbecuing. I say tomato tomahto.
And everyone knows that a barbecue is the gathering to barbecue and eat the meat and other fixings: vegetables, baked beans, potato salad, slaw—you name it.
So, if you’re at a barbecue and someone asks you to take the meat off the barbecue grill, just do it. Don’t ask, “You mean the charcoal or gas grill?”
We will probably throw a few chops, dogs, and burgers on the barbecue grill this year.
Have a great Fourth of July!
And stay safe.