Forget delicate and demure, we barbecue with women at the grill

Every year as summer gets closer, most of us start to pull out any outdoor cooking equipment we have and start getting it ready. Then, we begin to dream of the meals we'll make. The men of barbecue loom large in America. But just as women hold up half the sky, they know their way around the fire too. 

There's a new book out from Toni Tipton-Martin, the editor-in-chief of Cook's Country, and Morgan Bolling, the executive editor of Cook's Country and America's Test Kitchen — When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers. We asked Toni and Morgan to join us for a different view of outdoor cooking.

Evan Kleiman: Morgan, you wrote a really interesting essay about barbecue and gender in When Southern Women Cook. It's titled "The Heat is On," and you spoke about attending a summer barbecue camp at which there were 55 men and seven women. What was that experience like?

Morgan Bolling: Honestly, it was really fun to go to a barbecue camp. I think people are surprised to learn there's such a thing as a summer camp for barbecue. It's put on by Texas A&M and Texas Foodways. It's this lovely space where they talk a lot about barbecue and different techniques about it. 

It was not that surprising to me, as a woman who does a lot of barbecue, that I was one of the few females in the room. I didn't even think about it that much at the time, until they had students present, like they have a meat grading course. So the students came in to talk about the different meat grades, like what makes a difference between prime and choice beef. I was surprised at the ratio of women. Honestly, seeing the fact that about a third of the students are women and being surprised by that made me kind of pay attention to the gender dynamics in the room that I'd already been in this whole time, and really see how few women there were among this group of men.

I think it is just like a lot of different pieces of society. I think at certain times, things become really gendered. And barbecue is definitely one of those things. It's thought of as such a masculine, manly sort of thing. 

Although men are often heralded as being masters of the grill, Toni Tipton-Martin (left) and Morgan Bolling are quick to point out African American enslaved women were just as skilled at cooking over an open flame. Photo by Kritsada Panichgul.

When we finally got stoves inside houses, they were live fire. They were wood stoves. So how did this divide in the 20th century happen, where women cooked inside and men were expected to man the grill outside?

Morgan Bolling: Women were cooking with fires, you're saying. That was just how cooking was done. And then as things evolved, it seems like it was really in the '50s where it started to shift. I think a few things played into that. 

I read a lot of theories. One of the ones I saw is that advertising at that point was geared a lot more toward home life and pushing men to be home. Then the grill became a place that men could be at home but still gather with other men and sort of have their own designated space. So I think advertising really started pushing men toward being the grillers of the family. 

I sort of poked fun at this piece from Leave It to Beaver. There's a really funny little quote where the son on Leave It to Beaver asked his dad why men grill. And he's like, "Well, the women's place is in the kitchen, and men really handle the outdoor cooking sort of thing." It was just how our society started dividing these roles. 

Toni Tipton-Martin: I think particularly in the South, this is a continuation of the theme that white women in the South were delicate and demure and on a pedestal, right? So there was heavy cooking over an open flame in the hearth but it was done by the African American enslaved women, and the white woman was recorded in history as the one who was the keeper of the keys, meaning that she was in charge of delegating and portioning out the provisions, but she didn't really get dirty and cook over an open flame. You get ashes, you get soot, you get an animal carcass. There's this perception that lovely, demure, delicate, Southern women don't do that kind of work. 

If we fast forward to the industrial age, through the industrial age, to the point where manufacturers were creating products to ease the burden of women who were working in the kitchen once there was no longer enslaved help, a lot of the products that emerged use the language of ending slaving in the kitchen.

Wow, that's so interesting.

Toni Tipton-Martin: Yeah, cooking outdoors is something women were doing. The Navajo women made an enormous 100 pound corn cake in an open pit as a rite of passage. So women have been doing this kind of work but it's the way it's been represented throughout history that is the point of confusion.

There's so much to think about when it comes to this but let's talk about some recipes. I was delighted and surprised to see that the first recipe in this chapter was for fajitas, which is one of those things that I never think about. I never go to any restaurant that serves fajitas because I live in Los Angeles and maybe we don't do that so much here. But I know that when I've made it at home, people love it because it's sort of a DIY taco situation. Could one of you tell us about Mama Ninfa Laurenzo and her role in introducing the dish to the American vernacular.

Morgan Bolling: While she didn't actually invent the idea of putting skirt steak in a taco or tortilla, she really popularized it at her restaurant. She started selling tortillas, then she went on to sell tacos al carbon as a way to make money for her and her family after some loss in her life. 

Fajita means belt, so it's the belt of the cow where the skirt steak is. She was using those in her tacos al carbon, which isn't in and of itself revolutionary, but just the fact that she brought it to this restaurant in Texas, it really popularized from there. She's sort of the reason that in the US, we know of fajitas. They're so popular. If you're used to seeing that tray of sizzling steak and veggies coming to you at a place like Applebee's, Mama Ninfa is the person to thank for that.

"When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers" celebrates the women who laid the foundations of Southern food and their innovative torchbearers. Photo courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

I love it. It's so funny when, as you go through life and you've cooked for decades, there's always things that somehow get left behind. When you see a recipe, you're like, oh, man, I haven't made skirt steak and that kind of marinade for so long. Tell us about the marinade. 

Morgan Bolling: This one, the steak marinated in pineapple juice, which both adds a sweetness and it's so acidic, it helps tenderize the meat a little bit. It has some oil and some soy sauce and some garlic, so you're taking that, you're marinating the steak in that, and it just gets this really nice flavor to it. Then, when you grill it, that sugar from the pineapple juice really starts to give it nice char on the grill.

I also feel like making fajitas outside on a grill is a really good learning experience because it's kind of like a dance of timing and temperature to get the meat, the vegetables, and the tortillas all ready at the same time. 

Morgan Bolling: I definitely think there's some nuance. You're like, "Okay, what do I do? What can hold? Well, like the steak needs to rest but I also want to make sure the veggies are cooked through and not cold." There's definitely a little nuance to it but I think it's a good thing for people who are learning also, because, worst case, you can always reheat stuff. But it's a good way to start thinking about grilling and managing a fire. It's a good intro to grilling. 

So let's talk about sauce for a minute. What is Alabama white sauce? And what is it best paired with? 

Morgan Bolling: It's mayonnaise-based, and it's enhanced with cider vinegar, some horseradish, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. It is this really nice take on a barbecue sauce. It's really tangy. It feels like a barbecue sauce, except that it's a creamy white sauce, and it's an Alabama thing because their signature barbecue is smoked chicken. This rich barbecue sauce with all that mayonnaise, it has extra fat in there, so it goes really well with smoked chicken. I also tend to serve it a lot with smoked turkey for the holidays. This sauce is delicious with it. It's really good with lean proteins, essentially. 

So this is a sauce that you serve on this side with the cooked meat, rather than something that's slathered on?

Morgan Bolling: It depends on your recipe but with our smoked chicken, you brush it on right before you're done cooking and it rests with the sauce on there. You do slather it on but it's essentially once it's done cooking. So it does rest on there and then you serve more of it with the meat as well. 

That sounds delicious. Toni, tell me what is one of your favorite sides from this chapter? 

Toni Tipton-Martin: There's so many places to go in this book and there's something for everybody. I happen to be a baked bean lover. I just really love baked beans. But I am also a fan of a lot of our pickled items because pickling things can really bring down the heat sometimes of a barbecue sauce. 

That's so true. I want to thank both of you so much. It's the most interesting book, and the kind of book that literally is generational. One can imagine cooking from it for a lifetime then passing it on.

Toni Tipton-Martin: That's really what we hoped for, that those who love history and storytelling will find plenty to read and consume but also there is the passion for cooking. And we really hope that people will love the recipes as well.