Barbecue Throughout History

Cooking meat over an open fire is something we’ve been doing since the Stone Age, so it is a little hard to say for certain when and where modern classic BBQ originated. Most sources allege that something resembling “classic” barbecue originated in North Carolina near the end of the seventeenth century.

Surely, the history of pigs and the history of BBQ are closely intertwined, and pigs (far more than cattle or poultry) were a staple food throughout the South well before the Civil War. Often, hog-slaughtering time was a joyous community-wide occasion, and it was inevitable that, sooner or later, a whole animal would be roasted and shared to celebrate the occasion. BBQ historians are generally of the opinion that the traditional Southern barbecue grew out of these gatherings.

The history of BBQ sauce is less murky. Prior to the invention of effective refrigeration, a common problem was how to preserve meat for long periods. In North Carolina, a common method was to “cure” meat, particularly pork, in a mixture of vinegar, water, salt, and peppers (still the definitive North Carolina-style BBQ sauce). Vinegar was employed as the preservative, as a cheap and plentiful bactericide.

The original idea of adding mustard and mustard-based sauces still predominates in South Carolina (and in some parts of eastern North Carolina) to this day. (Adding tomato ketchup to produce something resembling modern-day BBQ sauce apparently arose in Virginia and Georgia.)

In the half century preceding the Civil War, large outdoor BBQ parties had become entrenched in Southern culture, most often featuring a whole roasted pig. Plantation owners hosted large, festive BBQs to entertain neighbors and friends, or to feed their slaves. By the nineteenth century, barbecue had evolved into a standard feature of church picnics and political rallies: Barbecue, lemonade, and corn whiskey became a common and inexpensive way to buy political (or, presumably, religious) allegiance.

Church and political BBQs remain important traditions in many parts of the South even today. Plantation owners, slaves, and everyone in between proved equally eager to consume barbecued pork with all the fixins, so it is probably no exaggeration to say that the basic Southern barbecue was the first Southern institution that was not strictly segregated along racial lines. Or such, in any case, is the common opinion of BBQ historians.

• Read here about the origin of the word "barbecue."

See also:

• Buying A Grill
• Charcoal or Gas?
• Recipes
• Rubs
• Sauces
• Smokin'
• Styles of BBQ
• What is BBQ?