The history of barbeques is long and often vague

by S. C.

The history of barbeques is long and often vague. Although Australia has a long history of cooking outdoors on a barbeque – or “barbeque-like” construction – the actual birth place of barbeques is not in-fact Australia. It is still debated about the barbeques true origins as many countries have historical references to the modern day word barbeques and some of these include:

- Mexico’s “barbacoa” which refers to slow-cooked meat over an open fire

- Haitian’s “barbacoa” which refers to grills

- The French “de la barbe a la queue” which means “from the beard to the tail” and refers to cooking animal meat on a roasting spit

- Romania’s “berbec” refers to roast mutton

- The Arawak Indian’s used “barbacoa” to refer to the skewering of meat on green sticks which were then grilled above an open fire

Some historical moments in barbeques all indicate that the USA was one of the first countries to define barbeques as we do today based on the following important moments in history:

17th Century: the word Barbeque hits the English language and means wooden framework for storage of sleeping.

1655 – The word Barbeque first appeared in the Dictionary of American English and has a meaning similar to todays.

Late 1600’s – The USA state of Virginia passed a law banning the discharging of firearms at barbeques – which shows that barbeques were not only popular during this time but potentially dangerous.

1836 – Barbeques were recorded as being very popular in the USA and Texas especially.

1865 - America’s conquest of the West unleashed the Barbeques terminology and experience to the rest of America and then the world.