Barbecue is identified with America as much as “Apple Pie” and the “Fourth of July”.  But actually the history of barbecue goes back much farther than that.

In one form or another barbecue can be traced back to some of the earliest civilizations.  In both ancient Egypt and Sumerian people often cooked meat by smoking it over an open fire.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean and found that the indigenous people had been cooking a variety of meats over a wooden frame of sticks, which they called barbacòa.  Columbus was so impressed with this cooking style that he took it back and introduced it to Spain.

In the 16th century, Spanish explorers introduced the barbacoa style of cooking to the American continent.  The colonists soon adopted this form of cooking as a popular way of cooking meat. In 1897 Ellsworth B. A. Zwoyer patented a design for the charcoal briquette.  Barbecue was now firmly established as a staple in the United States.  Different types of rubs, marinades and sauces were developed and continue to be developed in various regions of the country.

As barbecue spread across the United States, several regions developed their own distinctive style and taste.

The Carolinas:

Their primary selection of meat for barbecue is pork.  They tend to use a spicy vinegar base sauce. Quite often they specialize in pulled pork.

Memphis, Tennessee:

Memphis barbecue also centers around smoking pork.  A sweet tomato based sauce is the basis for most of their barbecue.

Kansas City:

Rather than just focusing on one selection of meat, they offer a wide selection from beef brisket, pork and chicken.  They have specialized in a particular dish called “Burnt Ends”, which is the charred edges of a smoked beef brisket.  Their sauce is a thick sweet, tangy tomato based sauce.

Texas:

Texas style barbecue centers around the fact that the meat is slow cooked by smoking for hours with such wood as pecan, oak or mesquite.  This tends to give the meat a distinctive smokey flavor.

Barbecue Today:

Barbecue and grilling has become so much of our everyday experience that it is no longer restricted to your backyard.  People grill while traveling, camping or tailgating at sporting events.