BBQ Cooking and Southern Etiquette

Okay, Southerners – you know how important good manners and proper etiquette are to most of us living in the South. With the popularity and prevalence of BBQ cooking here, it’s important to practice correct behavior at a barbecue or pig pickin’. If you need some BBQ cooking recipes, just click! Below are some do’s and don’ts for ladies and gentlemen:

BBQ Do’s

DO offer to bring a dish when you’re invited to an event.

DO bring a dish, even if the hostess says you don’t have to, unless the affair is catered. In that case, a nice bottle of wine would be appropriate.

DO include a travel pack of handi-wipes or wet wipes in your purse. BBQ sauce is messy.

DO wear sunscreen and a fashionable hat to a summer afternoon barbecue. If it’s very casual, like most barbecues are, a nice visor will suffice.

DO compliment others on the dishes they’ve prepared – especially the hostess.

DO include a tag or piece of tape displaying your name on any containers you take.

DO thank the host/hostess for having you as a guest, and call the next day to say what a great time you had…even if you didn’t.

DO reciprocate by having the host and hostess over for a meal soon.

BBQ Don’ts

DON’T insist on helping with the BBQ cooking. It’s polite to ask if there’s anything you can do to help, but there’s sometimes a fine line between being helpful and taking over the grill because you think you’re a better cook than the host.

DON’T wipe BBQ sauce on the hostess’s curtains or bathroom towels.

DON’T ask to take leftover BBQ home with you. If the hostess has more barbecue left over than she knows what to do with, and she asks you to take some, it’s okay to take some. Don’t be a pig, though. Others would probably like some leftovers, too.

DON’T try to eat barbecue ribs with a knife and fork. God invented the rib bones to be used as handles.

DON’T wear heavy makeup to a barbecue. The wet wipes will take it off when it removes the barbecue sauce from your face.

DON’T force folks to try your super-duper-extra-special homemade barbecue sauce. If you just have to take your own sauce, you can mention it to others, and if they want to try it, they will.

DON’T overdress! Find out beforehand about the dress code from the hostess.

DON’T take the kids unless they’re invited.

DON’T discuss politics if any Yankees are at the BBQ. Most of them are FAR left of the average Southerner.

DON’T argue about college or high school football, especially if the entire group is from the South. We all know that the UGA Bulldogs are the best, so just let those Gator fans, Auburn fans, Gamecock fans, and Alabama fans think what they like. You know the truth!