in the beginning, barbecue

Contributor: B&B Charcoal

Posted: November 21, 2019

Today ‘barbecue’ is so loosely defined and so vigorously defended that the minute you take a stand you’ll find yourself in deep hot water. That is because barbecue is a lot of things to a lot of people, and it changes every fifty miles or fifty years you travel. But it is in this diversity that gives barbecue such strength to have lasted all this time. Just trying to figure out what is or isn’t barbecue can be quite a challenge. There are over twenty-four different ways to define (meanings) the word ‘barbecue’.  There are also at least a dozen ways to spell barbecue (Appendix A). And there are literally thousands of ways to prepare barbecue. In fact, some people say just the simple act of putting food (usually meat) over a fire is considered barbecue. While that does have some very important historical meaning, that is not what this book is about. Describing barbecue in such basic and rudimentary ways betrays the original complexity and meaning of the word ‘barbecue’.     

One thing true about ‘barbecue’ is that it has always involved much more than just meat and fire. 

Preparing food over a fire is the basis of all human traditions. Keeping this ancient and time-honored food way and adapting to our current environment is the way we remind ourselves where we came from. We treasure rituals, especially food rituals precisely because they keep us rooted in a rapidly changing world. Loss of these traditions symbolizes assimilation, marginalization, and ultimately lack of meaning or purpose. Often our food rituals will outlast entire civilizations. Recipes are memories as much as they are instructional.     

 It’s the appeal to traditions, the attempt to contrast the past with the present and form a rationality to justify a certain course of action. Tradition lends legitimacy to a particular set of values that can be the means of building unity. Tradition is the transmission of behaviors and beliefs from generation to generation. The word ‘tradition’ is from the Latin word ‘tradere’ meaning to transmit or handover for safe keeping. The tradition of roasting meat over fire, the most ancient of all traditions is also the most crucial of all, without it, we simply would not be us.