Date:  Sun, 5 Mar 1995 08:07:00 EST

From:  "Dennis.Preston" <22709MGR[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSU.EDU>

Subject: Iowa dialects and loose meat



Loose meat sandwiches (and 'Maidrites) were unknown by those terms in the

Louisville area in the 40's and 50's. When I visited Southern Illinois

(regularly) as a boy and young man, I ate 'Maidrites' (never loose meat

sandwiches) in the area around Christopher, Benton, West City, etc...

In Louisville these were 'sloppy joes' and were made with a variety of

catsup-flavored sauces and ground beef.

Imagine my horror to discover that these abominations were called Bar-B-Cue

(or whatever spelling you like) sandwiches in Madison when I moved there to do

my Ph.D. work in the early 60's. I have encountered this sad use of the term

Bar-B-Cue in lots of northern areas (Chicago, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Detroit),

although, of course, never in African-American communities, where the term

Bar-B-Cue is reserved for the sense of slow-cooked meat. (I assume the use of

northern Bar-B-Cue to simply mean 'grill' is already well-known to readers of

this list. It has even permeated the New South, where I was invited to a

Bar-B-Cue recently and found only grilled items, although the sense of the

term for 'event' rather than foodstuffs has always been a little confusing.

Interestingly enough, these regional differences are not recorded in DARE,

although I reckon the files up in false barbecue land have some info.)

Dennis (clearly the [dInIs] Dennis) Preston

<22709mgr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msu.edu> changing (sadly) to

<preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu>