a roast by any other name

Contributor: B&B Charcoal

Posted: December 2, 2019

What’s in a name? A name is a term used for identification. It is a word by which something is known or designated. The name barbecue was first recorded in 1493 by the explorer Christopher Columbus in his journal to describe very specific and unique type of cooking style that he had never been seen before in the western world. The discovery of the New World was also a discovery of new peoples with cultures totally different from those of the Europeans. The men of his day were familiar with all the various types of cooking in European, African, and Asian countries. They were also very aware of the cooking methods detailed throughout recorded history at that time. Most of the methods of preparing meat over fire were known as roasting, grilling, broiling, carbonizing, rotisserie, shish-kabob, frying, and even smoking meats. They knew of pit cooking and camp fire roasting as well. The rich Europeans of that time had large elaborate fireplaces for cooking and some came complete with sophisticated built in rotisserie mechanisms. The French still have a royal guild that was authorized by King Louis IX in 1248 AD called the ‘La Chaine des Rotisseurs’. They are dedicated to the roasting of all poultry, meat and game. The Smoke houses in Europe date back to medieval days where they were a common sight on large estates as a way to preserve butchered meat for extended periods of time. This process involved cutting the meat up into large pieces and soaking it in a heavy salt brine. The meat was then hung in a specialty built house while a small wood fire is kept smoldering in the middle of the structure. This process of smoking meats took days and did not involve using the whole animal, only large cuts of meat. The barbecue process that was witnessed by the early explorers in the New World was never seen before in Western civilization. Columbus and Queen Isabella were both dedicated Catholics and therefore were very familiar with the history of Catholic Church. They would have known that the early Church had a patron saint named St. Lawrence and he was the patron Saint of the grill. He was martyred by being roasted alive on a gridiron by the Roman Emperor Valerian on August 10, 258 AD. St. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome and was in charge of the early Church material goods and treasury. When he was ordered to bring the Church treasures to the Emperor, St. Lawrence brought forward a group of poor and widowed people, to whom he had already given all the treasure to as alms. St. Lawrence is quoted as saying “Behold in these poor persons…is the treasure of the Church.” The Emperor became so angry at him for his disobedience that he had a gridiron prepared and then placed it over a hot bed of coals and burned St. Lawrence alive. It is recorded that after St. Lawrence had suffered for a long time on the gridiron he is quoted as saying “I am well done on this side. Turn me over!” From this St Lawrence receives his patronage of cooks, chefs, and comedians. He is usually pictured holding a gridiron and wearing a dalmatic.

In other Roman history the ancient Roman city of Pompeii was buried under dozens of feet of ash from a volcanic explosion in 79 AD. This tragic event captured the features and activities of everyday life in an upscale Roman city.  Archaeologists have since discovered perfectly preserved homes and shops frozen in time. In one home they have found a small iron grill used in the kitchen. They have also uncovered portable kabob grills. There is even store front with a large mosaic designed in the floor representing the famous Roman fish sauce called guaum, a forerunner of Worstershire sauce, which is a main ingredient in many modern barbecue sauces.     

The ancient Roman Army also utilized an ingenious portable iron grill called a craticla, a type of Roman stove used in the field.  It consisted of a fire box. Movable cooking grates, customized pot holders. It was great for encampments and army’s on the move. And looks very similar to the modern grills located in state parks today. 

In other parts of Europe there was also a very well-known tradition of roasting Bratwurst that dates back to early 12th century. In 1134 a kiosk was noted for selling Bratwurst to the construction workers building the city cathedral and famous Steinerne Brucke (Stone Bridge). And in 1146 a Wurstkuchl or sausage kitchen was built directly into the city wall.     

I mention these different and well known forms of cooking over fire to illustrate that Columbus and the later European explorers would have immediately recognized any of these familiar forms of cooking methods. But the concept of a raised wooden rack built a few feet above a smoldering smoky fire to roast whole animals in low heat was completely new to the Europeans. This previously unknown cooking style became known as barbecue, a discovery of the New World. 

In 1493 on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World, he landed on a beach in Hispaniola (now Haiti).  He and his men observed a group of Native Americans preparing meat on a raised wooden rack and the native Tanio native americans called it a barbacoa. Columbus, his men and even the chroniclers of the New World exploration journeys were well traveled and educated men but they had never seen this type of cooking method before.  They had been to or studied all parts of the known world but had never seen food being prepared like this on a raised wooden rack using low heat and smoke. This was truly the first recorded evidence of barbecue. But it certainly wasn’t the first or the original barbecue. It was just the first any westerner had observed and recorded.  Barbecue had begun much earlier than Columbus’s discovery.