A Brief History of Barbecue - Blog

What is Barbecue? Where did bbq come from?
The first barbecuing occurred when lightning hit a forest near a caveman coming home with some meat from a hunt–probably a million years ago-now lets get serious. I’ll try but that’s what I think actually happened.

I was reading this from some petroglyphs

on some caves in the desert of Arizona showing some cavemen which Spears and the fire surrounded by deer.

Let’s talk about the different origins of the word barbecue. some historians believe that the word barbecue came from the word barbacoa which is a Western Indian word for a sacred fire to cook meat over hot coals.

Barbacoa is the Spanish word today for barbecue. And when you order to go a taco in the Phoenix fast food line you still can say “yo quiero tacos barbacoa”.

According to the settlers who came to the New World they ran into the native Indians who used to roast meat in sacred pits over hot coals and the name for this was Barbacoa. Our settlers were so close to the way of cooking of the natives that they decided to call their Barbacoa barbecue.

Table of Contents

Barbecue has been around for thousands of years in other cultures. The Japanese used a porcelain smoker “the green egg” for thousands of years.

Barbecue Was a Response to Being Poor

Barbeque- there is another theory about the origins and history-of-bbq their very different tales concerning the history-of-barbecue in the United States. One story is that the history-of-barbecue in the US can trace its roots back to the pioneer days and poverty.

I’ve read many different articles and books on the subject and it all boils down to a slow cooking process over hours. I cant recall now where I read how the settlers traveling west ate gamey meat or the poor cuts.

Why?-because they were poor and these cuts were tough and required to be cooked longer-so you would not break your teeth.

The rich had the soft cuts of meat-if only they knew then as well as today what they are missing.

There is nothing better then a plate of bbq ribs,barbeque beans,Well, cole slaw ,potato salad for a snack!

Well the pioneers would dig trenches and fill them with wood (see my wood chip section)and start a fire and cook the meats for hours under low heat.

Well, the smoke from these fires flavored the meats and the low heat cooking over hours made the barbecue tasty and easy to eat even without teeth(the pioneers didn’t have good dental care) and teeth were a luxury! I remember that many pioneers in the 1700s had wood teeth!

Everything that the pioneers learned thru their digging of pits to cook bbq has resulted in our advanced barbecuing tools and recipes of today.

The pioneers who began our barbecue-history would be envious of the equipment we have today. I bet their eyes would pop out comparing their would trenches to what our equipment has become.

Regional Differences in the USA for Barbecue History-of-Bbq

Different parts of the USA use different methods of barbeque-history

This had a lot to do with the type of animals that did well in different regions of the United States. In the southern United States growing pigs was very common and was very easy and this led to barbecue of pork as the predominant type of barbecue in southeastern United States.

1.North East-grilling a frank is called bbq,grilling anything is barbecue.Finally I am starting to see some real barbecue in the Northeast.

2.Southern BBq is dominated by pork bbq-either ribs ,chopped or shredded butts. What are butts? You’ll need to check out the page on butts.

3. Kentucky

Bbq-unique bbq of mutton and Brunswick stew

Don’t forget the strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert

4. Texas bbq-heavy on beef brisket ,beef ribs and hot spicy sausage-hot guts. I love their sausage.. Its called hot guts. See my hot gut review.

5. Southwest of Texas-hot bbq influenced by heavy dosing of jalepeno peppers to the sauces and barbecued goat especially in Mexico resulting in tex mex food.

Here we are talking about barbacoa and birria which are delicious and also about tacos al pasteur and carne asada-all talked about by me in the Mexican bbq section.

Types of Barbecue

History-of-barbecue the two types well really there is one-slow and slow

2 methods of bbq-direct and indirect

2 types of barbeque-history method of cooking

Direct-where the heat directly cooks the meat-grilling.This is not really barbecue because we are heating the meat at extremely high temperatures to get it cooked as soon as possible and we start with temperatures over 400°F.

Usually in grilling there is no opportunity to really give a good smoking to the meat.

Indirect-where the heat does not directed sear and cook the meat-the preferred way to bbq-slow cooked food tastes best such as smoking to be for many hours at the low temperature around 200 to 225°F this can go on for hours. For example I have cooked my ribs in my smoker for between 6 to 8 hours sometimes when it’s cold out it will smoke for 11 hours. And we add some water lugged hickory or pecan or apple or cherry or mesquite wood chunks to smoke the meat.

You can ask how cold can it get in Arizona? Well believe it partner! Because we’re in the desert there is no humidity to keep heat around. When the sun goes down during the winter months here it can drop from 85° in the daytime to 40°F with no trouble.

So cooking times will naturally be longer. That’s why the Indians would cook their meat around here for hours on the low heat. Now you know that in the barbecue low heat method we can add wood and get the flavor of the wood. This really tastes great as you already know.

History of barbecue around the world

BBQ had the power to develop independently in Asia and in Africa and in Europe besides North America and in the south Pacific. You can find in all these regions the smoking of meat for many hours on low temperatures.

Barbecue-life the science behind

Barbecue-Life is all about organic chemistry.You thought I was going to write about our lifestyle.

What makes barbecue so special-the carbon atom. Without the carbon atom there would be no barbecue-life and for that matter we need oxygen so that we can have a fire.

With a mindset to cook and eat the best food,enter cookoffs,make new friends and try new recipes that is what the-barbecue-life is all about. There is purpose to the food to make each meal memorable. I cant spell for the life of me its now 6am Sunday morning while I am typing away It hasn’t been a great night as the Wi fi connection is acting screwy. So I don’t like to be attached to a cable so I am just writing this out on the word processor in the program I-Work’s from apple.

I have a brisket cooking in the backyard while I am typing away here,its been smoking out there since 2 am so it should be ready for noon. I’ll be checking the coals and water pan at 7am. That brisket is my baby and I have to take care of it. Now I am planning what to do about the sides. I usually make the cole slaw the day before because it needs a day to really ferment all that vinegar and mayonnaise to taste great with the half and half. You know we barbecue-masters are really chemists arranging chemicals by mixing and heating.

It’s really organic chemistry that tastes great. Not like the chemistry lab that I had to attend in college. I think that chemistry helped me to mix things together but my years of barbecuing took time to perfect. So what is organic chemistry you may ask it’s the chemistry of the carbon atom which is what all our life on earth is based on.

But I heard in the news that some scientist discovered life based on a different atom. I’ll have to go do a search on the internet about this topic. I don’t think that barbecue would taste great if it was based on anything other then the carbon atom.You see its carbon that gives the burnt edges that great taste the same with the smoke from hickory its all chemical reactions. We never think about the chemistry of barbecue well if you had been up all night writing this maybe you would think about this also.

I have to figure out what to serve for dessert. It needs to be something healthy this time like chocolate cake or ice cream with chocolate syrup. You remember Bosco and Hershey’s chocolate syrup? Well, its great if you can still find room in your stomach after eating a half a pound of brisket with half a pound of my cole slaw. And save some space for some salsa and barbecue baked beans. After the stomachache there is always room for pepto bismol and a nap.

Just being funny I limit the portion size these days to stay healthy so I just have half a pound of brisket with half a rack of baby back ribs and two sides instead of three-you know cole slaw and potato salad.

Ah barbecue-life trying to make choices of what to eat when that meat is so sweet so what do you think? Let me know below! Give me some thoughts about what you feel the-barbecue-life is all about. I look forward to hearing your thoughtsI

Please enter your commands below and maybe I’ll invite you over to my next cookout.

I have a brisket cooking in the backyard while I am typing away here,its been smoking out there since 2 am so it should be ready for noon.

I’ll be checking the coals and water pan at 7am. That brisket is my baby and I have to take care of it. Now I am planning what to do about the sides.

I usually make the cole slaw the day before because it needs a day to really ferment all that vinegar and mayonnaise to taste great with the half and half. You know we barbecue-masters are really chemists arranging chemicals by mixing and heating.

So what is organic chemistry you may ask it’s the chemistry of the carbon atom which is what all our life on earth is based on. But I heard in the news that some scientist discovered life based on a different atom. I’ll have to go do a search on the internet about this topic. I don’t think that barbecue would taste great if it was based on anything other then the carbon atom.

You see its carbon that gives the burnt edges that great taste the same with the smoke from hickory its all chemical reactions. We never think about the chemistry of barbecue well if you had been up all night writing this maybe you would think about this also.

I have to figure out what to serve for dessert. It needs to be something healthy this time like chocolate cake or ice cream with chocolate syrup.

You remember Bosco and Hershey’s chocolate syrup? Well, its great if you can still find room in your stomach after eating a half a pound of brisket with half a pound of my cole slaw.

And save some space for some salsa and barbecue baked beans. After the stomachache there is always room for pepto bismol and a nap.

By – Burnt Edges

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue
http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_articles/barbecue_history.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~class/ma95/dove/history.html
http://time.com/3957444/barbecue/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-evolution-of-american-barbecue-13770775/