A Barbecue By Any Other Name......
Folks like to argue about what defines barbecue. What they really should be arguing about is what the word actually means. It is just about the only word that "out-connotes" roast. You could for instance, say, I fired up my barbecue and barbecued a mess of barbecue for the Sunday football barbecue.
Try that on a French cook someday - it’ll crack him up like an œuf.
The origins of the word are traceable. When Columbus landed on Hispañola, he found the natives smoking meat and fish on green wood lattices built over smoldering bone coals. The natives called this way of cooking boucané. The Spaniards, being good colonialists, decided to change it to barbacoa. On his next journey from Spain, Columbus brought pigs to Hispañolia. A few of them got away, and soon there was more boucané than you could shake a flaming femur at. As word got around that the "gettin’ was good" at Hispañola, bandits, escaped prisoners, pirates and runaway slaves made for the Island and lived high on the boucané three times a day. The French, witty as they are, called these individuals Boucaniers.
So, the folks in Tampa have a football team whose name means “those who cook over sticks.”
As far as modern usage goes, barbecue the noun refers to slow-cooked pork or beef. Barbecued chicken is grilled chicken served with barbecue sauce. Barbecuing is the act of making barbecue; cooking directly over coals is grilling.
Good Eats!
Executive Chef John Blair
Ironhorse Country Club
www.ironhorsecountryclub.com
561-624-5550
