Barbecue

Barbecue, often shortened to BBQ globally and called a barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand, refers to a range of cooking methods that use live fire and smoke. The word can describe the cooking equipment, the cuisine produced, or the social gatherings where such food is prepared and served. Techniques differ by region, falling into two main categories: direct and indirect heating.

Indirect barbecuing, common in the United States, involves roasting or smoking meat over wood or charcoal at low temperatures for several hours. Elsewhere, barbecuing more often means grilling food directly over hot coals or a gas flame, a quick process using dry heat.

The English word "barbecue" and its relatives come from the Spanish *barbacoa*, which traces back to a Taíno word. Etymologists believe it derives from *barabicu* in the languages of the Arawak people of the Caribbean and the Timucua people of Florida. The Oxford English Dictionary places its origin in Hispaniola, defining it as a "framework of sticks set upon posts." A popular but unsupported folk etymology claims it comes from the French *barbe à queue* ("from beard to tail"), referring to a whole animal roasted on a spit. The word has two English spellings: "barbecue" and "barbeque." While "barbecue" is standard in most countries, "barbeque" appears sometimes in Australia, New Zealand, and the US.

Spanish explorer Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés first printed the word *barbacoa* in Spain in 1526. After Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, Spaniards observed Taíno people roasting meat on a wooden framework set on sticks above a fire. This structure was also used for storing food and sleeping. The flames and smoke enveloped the meat, giving it flavor. The Spaniards called this framework a *barbacoa*. Another method involved digging a hole, burning logs, and placing stones to retain heat. Large cuts of meat, often a whole goat or lamb wrapped in leaves, were set above a pot to catch juices for broth, then covered with maguey leaves and coal and set alight, cooking for hours. Abolitionist Olaudah Equiano described this technique for roasting alligators among the Miskito people on the Mosquito Coast.

Linguists suggest the word passed successively into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English. The form *barbacado* appeared in English in 1648 in a tract describing the province of New Albion, noting that Indians "barbacado or dry and smoak fish" instead of using salt. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first modern use in 1661, in Edmund Hickeringill's *Jamaica Viewed*, which mentions flesh being "Barbacu'd and eat." It also appears in 1672 in John Lederer's writings. The first noun use came in 1697 from buccaneer William Dampier, who wrote of sleeping on "Borbecu's, or frames of Sticks, raised about 3 foot from the Ground." By 1731, a New London, Connecticut, resident noted attending a "Barbaqued" entertainment. Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary defined "To Barbecue" as dressing a whole hog and "Barbecue" as a hog dressed whole. Today, the standard spelling is "barbecue," with "barbeque" as a variant; Oxford Dictionaries consider it a misspelling. In the Southeastern US, "barbecue" mainly refers to roast pork, while in the Southwest, beef cuts are often used.

Because the word came from native groups, Europeans gave it "savage connotations." Hickeringill's *Jamaica Viewed* reinforced this through descriptions of cannibalism, though scholar Andrew Warnes finds little proof of such tales. Another false depiction appears in Theodor de Bry's *Great Voyages*, which, according to Warnes, links smoke cookery to savagery and potential cannibalistic violence. Today, Americans associate barbecue with "classic Americana."

In American English, grilling means fast cooking over high heat, while barbecuing refers to a slow process using indirect heat or hot smoke, similar to some other methods.