History of Barbecue

Some historians claim barbecue originated in America in the late 1800s during Western cattle drives. The cowboys were fed the less-than-perfect cuts of meat, often brisket, a tough and stringy piece of meat that required five to seven hours of cooking to tenderize. Other barbecue meats used were pork butt, pork ribs, beef ribs, venison and goat.

*Whole pig wrapped in wire and placed over coals in style of days gone by*

However, as much as we would like to credit the lonely cowboys for this delicious method of cooking, other sources clearly disprove that theory. But no one really knows who invented "the barbecue."

The United States Department of Agriculture defines barbecue as any meat "cooked by the direct action of heat resulting from the burning of hardwood or the hot coals there from for a sufficient period to assume the usual characteristics including the formation of a brown crust and a weight loss of at least 30 percent."

That being the case, Mother Nature may have actually made the first barbecue as the accidental by-product of some ancient forest fire.

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas around 1500, they found the Taino Indians of the West Indies cooking meat and fish over a pit of coals on a framework of green wooden sticks. The Spanish spelling of the Indian name for that framework was "barbacoa." Both the name and method of cooking found their way to North America, where George Washington noted in his diary of 1769 that he "went up to Alexandria to a "barbicue."

The word "Barbecue" could have also originated from the French phrase "Barbe a queue" which means "whiskers-to-tail" and could represent the cooking of a whole pig over a fire.

Others have been known to give credit for the name to early advertisements for bar, beer and billiards establishments -- bar-beer-cue. Others say the word originated at a Texas ranch, legendary for its hospitality, with the brand BQ on its cattle. Considering the historical facts, that romantic notion is not very likely.

If we define Barbecue as a process of cooking meat (or specifically pork) in pits, then the real inventors of this process are probably the Polynesians who have been masters of slow, pit cooked pork for thousands of years.

The word Barbecue

The issue of today's spelling is a little more clearly defined than the origin of the word. According to Webster's dictionary the one and only correct spelling is barbecue. But, over the years folks have enjoyed barbicue, barbique, barbeque, Bar-B-Que, Bar-B-Cue, Bar-B-Q, BBQ and just plain Cue or Q. And, of course, our friends in Australia love their shrimp, and we must presume pork, on "the barbie."

The dictionary will also tell you that the noun "barbecue" has at least four meanings:

a framework to hold meat over a fire for cooking
any meat broiled or roasted on such a framework
an entertainment, usually outdoor, at which such meat is prepared and eaten
a restaurant that makes a specialty of such meat

Pork as preferred meat

The Spanish explorer DeSoto introduced hogs to Florida and Alabama about 1540. The settlers at Jamestown brought swine with them in 1607 and soon thereafter Virginia enacted a law making it illegal to discharge a firearm at a barbecue! There goes the cowboy theory.

*Pork shoulders and Boston butts are the preferred cut of meat for today's chefs*

These creatures thrived in the wilds of the warm Southern woodlands where cattle perished. Pigs were a low-maintenance and convenient food source for Southerners.

In the pre-Civil War period, Southerners ate, on average, five pounds of pork for every one pound of beef. Pigs could be put out to root in the forest and caught when food supply became low. These semi-wild pigs were tougher and stringier than modern hogs, but were a convenient and popular food source.

Historically, hogs were butchered only when the weather became cool and crisp in the fall, reducing the risk of spoilage. The event became a time for celebration, and the neighborhood would be invited to share in the work ... and the bounty. The traditional Southern barbecue, known then as a pig-pickin, grew out of these gatherings.

Every part of the pig was utilized -- the meat was either eaten immediately or cured for later consumption, and the ears, organs and other parts were transformed into edible delicacies.

By the time of the War Between the States, hogs had been domesticated, and pork had become the principal meat of the South. Not surprisingly, pork has been synonymous with Southern barbecue ever since.

*There's nothing quite like the taste of fresh chopped barbecue right off the pit*

In the old South, the making of barbecue was hard work. A pit was dug in the ground the day before the gathering and filled with hardwood. The wood was burned down to coals before whole hogs, skewered on poles, were hung over the pit. The pit masters sat up through the night, turning the hogs on their spits.

The following afternoon when the guests arrived for the pig-pickin, the whole pig was placed on a clean table top, the crisp skin was removed and the cooked meat was pulled in lumps and slathered with a favorite homemade sauce.

The precise origin of barbecue sauce is unclear. Some says its use dates back hundreds of years to the formation of the first American colonies in the 17th century. References to barbecue sauce start occurring in both English and French literature over the next 200 years. South Carolina's mustard-based sauce can be traced to German settlers in the 18th century. Early cookbooks did not tend to include recipes for barbecue sauce.

The first commercially-produced barbecue sauce was made by the Louis Maull co. in 1926, but the first nationally-distributed sauce did not appear until 1948, when Heinz released a product in the United States. Kraft Foods also started making cooking oils with bags of spices attached about the same providing another early source of barbecue sauce.

Because the original pig-pickins were planned in the fall when the weather was cool enough to allow butchering without interfence from flies, many families traditionally have pig pickins for Thanksgiving or Christmas. The pig pickin has also been long associated with politics; many local political parties and politicians still use the pig pickin' to attract people to meetings and campaign rallies.

In recent times many communities have started hosting barbecue cook-offs during festivals, where chefs pit their sauce recipes and cooking techniques against other chefs for prize money and trophies.