Barbecue in the United States

Lore & Background

The origins of American barbecue date back to colonial times, with the first recorded mention in 1672 and George Washington mentions attending a 'barbicue' in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1769. As the country expanded westwards along the Gulf of Mexico and north along the Mississippi River, barbecue went with it. The core region for barbecue is the southeastern region of the United States, an area bordered on the west by Texas and Oklahoma, on the north by Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Central Florida, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. While barbecue is found outside of this region, the 14 core barbecue states contain 70 of the top 100 barbecue restaurants.

Barbecue in its current form came from the South, where cooks learned to slow-roast tough cuts of meat over fire pits to make them tender. Indian corn cribs, predecessors to Southern barbecue, were described during the Hernando de Soto expedition in southwest Georgia. Early usage of the word 'barbecue', derived from Spanish barbacoa, meant 'to preserve (meat) by drying or slowly roasting'; the meaning became closer to that of its modern usage as a specific cooking technique by the time Georgia was colonized. Parts of the Midwest also incorporate their own styles of barbecue; for example, in Kansas City, barbecue entails a wide variety of meats, sweet and thick sauces, dry rubs, and sliced beef brisket, a result of cooking techniques brought by freed slaves and Texas cattle drives.

Reader's Guide

There are usually three ingredients to barbecue—meat (or a meat substitute) and wood smoke are essential. The use of a sauce or seasoning varies widely. The first ingredient is the meat: most widely used is pork, particularly pork ribs and pork shoulder for pulled pork; in Texas, beef is more common, especially brisket, which owes its popularity to Jewish immigrants who settled in Texas in the 1800s.

The techniques used are hot smoking (120–180°F) and smoke cooking (the method used in barbecue, at around 250°F ±50°F). The long, slow cooking process can take up to 18 hours. The second ingredient is the wood: hard woods like hickory, mesquite, and oak impart strong smoke flavor; maple, alder, pecan, and fruit woods impart a milder, sweeter taste. Stronger flavored woods are used for pork and beef, lighter woods for fish and poultry.

The last, often optional, ingredient is barbecue sauce, which ranges from clear peppered vinegars to thick sweet tomato and molasses sauces to mustard-based sauces. Sauce may be used as a marinade, during cooking, after cooking, or as a table sauce. An alternative is dry rub, a mixture of salt and spices applied before cooking.

Did You Know?

• The distinctive red line just under the surface of barbecued meat is due to myoglobin reacting with carbon monoxide from the smoke.
• Sassafras, a major flavor in root beer, can be used as a smoke-generating ingredient in some barbecue recipes.