The History And Origins Of BBQ
BBQ has a history as rich as any cuisine, and while people have been using an open flame to prepare their food for thousands of years, the history of barbecue as we know it today began quite a bit later than that. By knowing the BBQ’s history, you can gain a better understanding and appreciation for the flavors so often infused into food today, and you can also see just how far we’ve come in developing new flavors and new ways to keep the cuisine interesting!
Good old fashioned American BBQ got its start as we know it today just before the time of the civil war. During this time, pigs were rampant in the American south, and the provided a simple, inexpensive, and nutritious food source that was seemingly always available. Wild and domesticated pigs could be raised, controlled, and harvested in Southern American environments rather easily, and it is estimated that American southerners during this time ate 5 pounds of pork for every 1 pound of beef.
During this time, the history of barbecues as social gatherings also got its roots, as plantation owners and well-to-do southern folk would host large “pig pickins” for guests or entire neighborhoods to enjoy. During this time, barbecue really only focused on pork products, but it did begin to evolve into the flavors and gatherings we now know today.
As the 19th century rolled on and began to turn into the 20th, barbecues weren’t just a staple of the south anymore. Churches, community centers, and entire neighborhoods began hosting their own barbecues as social occasions, becoming particularly popular in the political realm.
A barbecue was an inexpensive way to get a community to come out so a politician could lobby for votes, and they began being held in all parts of the country with all classes of people. It’s this practice and this period that introduced BBQ offerings aside from pork, and chicken, beef, fish, and other foods were being brought into the barbecue realm as well.
The barbecue we know today encompasses all of these traditions and all of these flavors into one mouth watering experience. Drawing from flavors of the deep south, the Midwest, the west coast, and everywhere in between, our society today is lucky to have a cuisine so rich in history, flavor, and culture. We at BBQ Bros want to keep this culture going, which is why we offer such a wide variety of regional inspired flavors in our rubs and sauces, and time will only tell where we can take our American barbecue traditions next!
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