Barbecue

Today’s Barbecue Fun Fact from About.com—

When the first Spanish explorers arrived in the new world they found the indigenous people of the Caribbean preserving meats in the sun. This is an age old and almost completely universal method. The chief problem with doing this is that the meats spoil and become infested with bugs. To drive the bugs away the natives built small, smoky fires and placed the meat on racks over the fires. The smoke kept the insects at bay and helped preserve the meat.

Tradition tells us that this is the origin of barbecue, both in process and in name. The natives of the West Indies had a word for this process, “barbacoa”. It is generally believed that this is the origin of our modern word barbecue, though there is some debate on the matter.

Don’t forget to swing by the studio Saturday for the Giant Barbecue Party!