A Short History Of The Barbecue

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What could be more American (other than mom, the flag, and apple pie) than an outdoor barbecue? Well, if etymologists are right, the origin of the word and the means of cooking come from the word "barabicu" which is found in the languages of both the Timucua of Florida as well as the Taino people from the Caribbean.

Translated the word means "sacred fire pit." It essentially describes a grill that is used for cooking meat. This grill consisted of a wooden platform that rested on sticks.

Although, interestingly enough, if you look into the history of the word, it also may be derived from the term "barbie" that is used chiefly in New Zealand And Australia, as well as "Braai", a term which originated in South Africa.

Both refer to methods and apparatuses used to cook meat and other food with hot smoke and heat from a fire, hot charcoal or coals, smoking wood, cooking gas, or electricity.

No matter what the origin, the results are often delicious because they usually involve a basting sauce, a spice rub or a marinade in the preparation of the succulent morsels that are soon to be cooked.

In the southern part of the US the term barbecue only refers to indirect means of cooking over hardwood smoke. There, direct methods are referred to as "grilling".

Barbecuing is usually a slow process that uses hot smoke and/or indirect heat to cook the meat or vegetables. In the United States when people barbecue they usually disperse the coals to the side or have a significant amount of space between the coals and the grate.

Sometimes they use a smoker that has a separate fire box. When this method is employed the meat is cooked very slowly as hot smoke is drawn past it by convection. This method is how most restaurants in the United States barbecue their meat. Sometimes, on the menu, you'll see it called "hot smoking".

Here in the states, when we think of barbecue we usually think of the South. In that region barbecuing initially revolved around cooking pork. That's because during the 1800s, when food or meat supplies were low, semi wild pigs were a low maintenance source of food.

Back then pigs would be released into the woods and forests to forage for themselves. Then, when it was coming time to eat, these semi-wild pigs could easily be caught and eaten. Prior to the American Civil War Southerners ate approximately five pounds of pork for every pound of beef that they ate.

Feasts in the south were sometimes called "pig pickin's" and what has become the Southern barbecue evolved out of these festive gatherings.

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