Mr. Write's Page

One time, a friend asked me to write something to go on the menu in his barbecue restaurant. He wanted it short and upbeat, but also informative. Scholarly, even. I did some research and came up with this.

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June 1995

THE LEGEND OF BARBECUE

They say that the art of barbecue cooking is so natural, it practically invented itself.

Some believe that the word barbecue originated with the Spanish conquistadors, who learned from native Americans how to cook game on a green-wood grill over a trench of heated stones. Barbacoa, they called it.

Others credit French buccaneers in the 17th century, who introduced barbe à queue — literally, “from whiskers to tail” — as a way of roasting whole animals over an open firepit.

Whatever the origin, the word and the technique quickly found favor in the American South. Barbecue cooking was the perfect way to preserve meat in the damp Southern heat. Smoke did for the pioneer families of the South what salt-curing and pickling had done for their European forebears.

THE PERFECT SAUCE

The same way that Europeans added honey or molasses to temper the pickling brine, Southerners learned to balance the rich flavor of the pork, lamb, or beef with sharp sauces that added sweet, sour, and hot to the seasoning.

The familiar tomato-based sauces, by the way, are a recent innovation. Most early cookbooks based their barbecue sauces on other ingredients: mushrooms, walnuts, oysters — even anchovies.

Those older cookbooks, however, contain very few barbecue recipes – perhaps because Southern barbecueing traditionally was done by men, who were not inclined to share their preparation secrets.

A SPIRIT OF CELEBRATION

So it was that in the South, barbecue flourished as a noun, a verb, an adjective, and a social event. At the community barbecue, any man could demonstrate his prowess with the fork and the basting mop — a ritual that survives today in Fourth of July picnics, church meetings, political rallies, and family reunions everywhere.

So strong are these traditions, with their spirit of community and celebration, that barbecue has come to mean quintessential Southern cooking — and the abundant hospitality that goes with it.

Y’all enjoy!