The (Mostly) Complete History of Barbecue

I suppose before we get too far into this, it’s important to note that grilling and barbecuing are (of course) not the same things. Today, we’re going to provide a crash course on the history of the subtle art of barbecue, and not grilling. Grilling is basically just cooking over the fire -- it’s impossible to pinpoint who started that. Most likely, we have some distant caveman to thank, some 2 million years ago. While we are greatly appreciative of his efforts, he certainly didn’t invent barbecuing. And as journalist Rufus Jarman once said of equating grilling and barbecuing:

 

But, we digress.

 

The earliest evidence we can find of anything remotely barbecue-related is in the 1526 journal of a Spanish explorer. He discovered a Caribbean tribe of people who cooked meat on long, wooden sticks. The word they had for this technique? Barbacoa.

 

Over the next two hundred years, this technique made its way across every nations’ settlements in the New World, with the English taking a particular liking to the versatile style of cooking. Often in the New World, pigs were roasted over hot coals, and wine was basted over them with brushes made of foxtail. Although open-pit cooking was hardly innovative for 1700’s-era explorers, the communal, social nature of the event made it particularly appealing. When morale was low, explorers found a barbecue to be quite helpful. We can relate.

 

Into the 18th and 19th centuries, barbecues found their place as just that -- loud, boisterous events that served to bring communities together. They spread up the east coast and into the south from the Caribbean, which is why the South has such a propensity for all things barbecued to this day.

 

Early American presidents were particularly fond of these barbecue-driven celebrations. George Washington’s diary is full of references to laid-back, summer barbecues -- one of which allegedly went on for three days straight! When Lincoln’s parents were married, a barbecue was held as a celebration.

 

In the 1890s, barbecue became an industrialized, commercial enterprise, thanks to some entrepreneurial Americans. These savvy cooks would set up temporary tents and huts, in which they would roast, smoke, or otherwise produce barbecue for the masses. Although they originally moved from place to place, these tents eventually became permanent fixtures. Thus, the first barbecue restaurants were born.

 

Thomas Edison went on to design the first commercial charcoal briquette factory. Henry Ford financed and constructed it in 1921.

 

Today, all of these are relevant parts of barbecuing culture. Barbecues are still great communal events, and prepackaged barbecued foods are available across the country. The art of barbecuing has come a long, long way since its early, primitive days in the Caribbean.