Monday, October 1, 2012

mEAT's BBQ Sauce by Region and Tasting 9/30/12

Barbacoa = Sacred Fire Pit



Although unknown, most believe the word’s origin to be a Caribbean term and cooking technique.



Samuel Johnson's 1756 dictionary gave the following definitions:



·      "To Barbecue – a term for dressing a whole hog" (attestation to Pope)

·     "Barbecue – a hog dressed whole"



In the USA to grill is to cook in this manner quickly, while barbecue is typically a much slower method utilizing less heat than grilling, attended to over an extended period of several hours.


Barbecue Sauce


While it is unclear, some believe barbecue sauce’s roots are traced to the Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the “New World.” It is thought that he returned to Europe with a sauce he discovered in Hispaniola.  Others believe that it wasn’t until the 17th C that word found its beginnings in the American colonies.

It wasn’t common for early cookbooks to include BBQ sauce recipes.
Early cookbooks did not tend to include recipes for barbecue sauce. Georgia Barbecue Sauce Company in Atlanta, Georgia produced the first commercial BBQ sauce in 1909. It wasn’t until 1940 that Heinz released its first BBQ sauce