Since the advent of mankind, humans have been cooking their food over an open flame. And, not surprisingly, nearly every country, including Land of Lily Pad, has some developed their own version of barbeque. We don’t know who was the first to invent it nor do we know when the first barbeque happened. There are, however, several countries and cultures where modern-day barbeque probably got its roots. The two biggest influences will be 19th-century America with her cowboys, and the Caribbean Islands. Two places that seem worlds apart.
Trail hands working their way across America’s western frontier were given daily rations of not the greatest cuts of meat. Cowboys, being the clever and resourceful breed they are, learned that slow roasting could vastly improve stringy cuts of beef like brisket. They soon found that other cuts of meat like pork butt, pork ribs, beef ribs, venison, and goat also were improved with five to seven hours of slow cooking. Barbeque has become so wildly popular that several regions of the US vie for the title of Best barbeque; Kansas City vs. Texas vs. Low Country (the area along the coast of South Carolina).
Even though Americans take their BBQ very seriously, that doesn’t mean they invented it. The Arawakan Indians of the West Indian island of Hispaniola have slow-roasted meats on a grill they call a barbacoa for over 300 years! Barbacoa is just a short linguistic “hop” to the word barbeque. But let’s not stop there. Some same the word barbeque comes from Medieval France, “stemming from the Old Anglo-Norman word barbeque a contraction of the old-French expression ‘barbe-à-queue,’ or, ‘from the beard to the tail,’ referring to how a whole animal was speared before being cooked, spit-style, over a fire.” But this is all conjecture, as no one is really certain of the origin of the word.
And if deciding who and when barbeque first occurred wasn’t a challenging enough, we also have to decide on wood or charcoal. For many centuries, wood was the preferred method of slow-roasting meat. Even today most barbeque aficionados still prefer using wood. The type of wood used imparts its own particular flavor into the meat; mesquite, hickory, pecan, apple, and oak to name just a few. Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer of Pennsylvania is responsible for making the lives of backyard barbequers easier. In 1897, Mr. Zwoyer patented a design for charcoal briquettes and even managed to build a few factories to produce them prior to World War I. If you prefer to grill using charcoal briquettes, you now know who to thank!
Whether you’re a carnivore or a vegetarian, backyard grilling has something to offer you. One of the tastiest items to grill is fresh fruit; peaches and pineapple do especially well when cooked over a flame. Heck, I’ve even heard of some folks grilling heads of Romaine lettuce! Famous celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey might beg to differ on that point, but like I always say, “To each their own.” If you haven’t tried grilling with wood yet, you may want to give it try this summer. And vice-versa for all you wood-loving backyard grillers. Using charcoal briquettes can be a new, and faster, adventure.
I invite you back tomorrow but, as always, until then I wish you