definition of barbecue
ginger
> Ginger (and all) ---
< snipper>
> One thing, you could tell me. I gather that you've done some research
> on the subject. In terms of when/how the method of cooking (that
> open-coals thing) migrated to what is now the U.S., what makes you so
> confident that it was on the Eastern Seaboard before being anywhere
> else in the U.S.? <snippety>
Hi-ya Ken,
Sorry about getting back to you so late....we decided to have a little
fun and visit the FL strawberry festival. Yippeee!
I will say that I am NO historian. I/we have just read about and talked
to as many folks as we could. Not to say that it couldn't be from somewhere
else, there is just not evidence of it. The following was written by Dan
Gill, who is more of a history buff than I could ever be. There is also
some
historical stuff in Smokey Hales book, and that is not to say that I am in
agreement with 100% of what he writes.
Take Care,
Ginger
>By the time settlers started barbecuing in Eastern NC and Virginia, the
>English, French, Dutch and Spanish explorers and settlers had a whole
>century of exposure to native cooking methods some of which were slowly
>incorporated into the European culture. Specific methods varied greatly
>from Virginia, down the coast to Florida, the Caribbean and the South
>American mainland but the basic technique was similar throughout the
>"New World". Meat was smoked and dried or cooked slowly over or near a
>fire, usually supported by a framework of sticks that became known as a
>barbecue. The meat was often seasoned by salt (where available) and
>various botanicals, which either helped extend shelf life (along with
>the smoke) or enhanced the flavor or added nutrients. In NC (then
>Virginia) Indians cooked meat seasoned with sassafras and other herbs.
>Unlike the well-known practice in Florida, the objective was to cook
>rather than preserve. Capsicum peppers dominated the seasoning mixes in
>Central America and the Caribbean. Cooked meat was dipped in a "pepper
>pot" which was a highly spiced mixture of peppers, native spices, land
>crabs and meat or whatever was handy. Allspice (pimento) was used in the
>Islands both to season and the wood used to smoke. Two hundred years
>later, allspice was a popular item in trading posts and was used by
>Indians to help repel flies from meat. Accounts by French and Dutch
>pirates suggest that by the first half of the Seventeenth Century, when
>Eastern NC was settled, the barbecue method was well known to Europeans.
>The pig had become the meat of choice (and convenience), and spicy sauce
>(gravy) made from a variety of ingredients was generally used as an
>accompaniment. Fatty pig meat required slow cooking over coals in order
>to avoid grease fires and flare-ups.
>
>Ketchup is a sauce made with vinegar and a predominant ingredient such
>as walnuts, oysters, mushrooms, or tomatoes as indicated by this quote
>from dictionary.com:
> " Word History: The word ketchup exemplifies the types of
> modifications that can take place in borrowing - both of words and
> substances. The source of our word ketchup may be the Malay word
> kechap, possibly taken into Malay from the Cantonese dialect of
> Chinese. Kechap, like ketchup, was a sauce, but one without
>tomatoes; rather, it contained fish brine, herbs, and spices. Sailors
>seem to have brought the sauce to Europe, where it was made with locally
>available ingredients such as the juice of mushrooms or walnuts. At some
> unknown point, when the juice of tomatoes was first used, ketchup as
> know it was born. But it is important to realize that in the
>18th and 19th centuries ketchup was a generic term for sauces whose only
> common ingredient was vinegar. The word is first recorded in English
>in 1690 in the form catchup, in 1711 in the form ketchup, and in
>1730 in the form catsup. All three spelling variants of this foreign
> borrowing remain current."
>
>Though discovered by Spanish Conquistadors in Central and South America,
>the tomato did not enjoy widespread use until after 1800. It was also
>thought to be poisonous and an aphrodisiac and was called the "Love
>apple". Highly varied in shape and color, it was grown as an ornamental
>in European gardens and was considered poisonous. Closely related to the
>deadly nightshade, some varieties probably did contain toxic alkaloids.
> Therefore, traditional Eastern NC sauces did not contain tomato. Salt,
>pepper, capsicum peppers, vinegar and sugar or molasses were readily
>available and became the dominant sauce ingredients.
>
>I think it is stretching things a bit to suggest that barbecue was a
>North Carolina invention or innovation, though the art was probably
>perfected there. Pigs thrived on the plentiful acorns and were well
>liked by the early settlers. In fact, William Byrd in The History of the
>Dividing Line said they ate so much pig meat that it filled them with
>gross humours.
>
>The Western parts of North and South Carolina and Georgia were settled
>mostly down the valleys from North to South rather than East West and
>therefore had an entirely different food heritage from the Eastern
>seaboard. Though influenced by the well established Eastern methods,
>Scotch-Irish and Germanic settlers also learned from the Indians and
>developed their own barbecue traditions which eventually included more
>sugar and tomato in their sauces.
>
>Dan
>
>This posting is from a subscribed member of the Society for Preservation of
>Traditional Southern Barbecue.
one can not always be magnificent,
but simplicity is always a possible atlernative