A Short History of American Barbecue

Roots

Barbecue in America grew from the meeting of Indigenous smoking techniques, African and Caribbean cooking traditions carried by enslaved people, and European settlers, most of it born of the need to cook tough, cheap cuts slowly until they were tender. It was food of necessity that became food of celebration.

The four great styles

What they share

For all their differences, the regional styles share a core: cheap, tough cuts, cooked low and slow over wood smoke until collagen melts and the meat turns tender. The vocabulary of modern barbecue, the stall, the bark, the snake and Minion fires, the probe test, is largely American in origin and now used everywhere.

Why it matters beyond America

American barbecue gave the world the low and slow method and the language to talk about it. Whether you are smoking a brisket in a kettle in Britain or short ribs in a drum in Australia, you are using techniques and terms that came out of the American South. It is one of the great culinary exports.