I always
get questions about the origins of barbeque and have done my fair share of
research on the subject. While there are
a few different variations on its beginning, it is the consensus that the most plausible theory states that
the word "barbecue" is a derivative of the West Indian term
"barbacoa," which denotes a method of slow-cooking meat over hot
coals. So we know the etymology of
barbeque, but what about the actual process?
When did man first start to cook large pieces of meat over open coals
using smoke? We already know that
mankind has been cooking meat over fire long before Columbus’ voyages to the
new world, but where did the process begin and how? Did early cavemen come out of the cave and see
lightning strike a tree and set it afire?
Did somehow the smell of burning wood tempt early man to combine that
with the raw meat of his recently speared prey for something that did not tug
on his assuredly fragile teeth? Most likely
he scavenged a dead or dying carcass from a forest fire and said (or grunted)
to himself, “Hmm, tasty, not so chewy, does not spoil as fast, yum!”
Sure it seems like a bit of a stretch, but what if
it’s not? Being a
fairly open minded guy and taking on this task like a dog with a bone, I decided
to do some of my own research and hypothesize like the others. What I did not know was how close to home the
research would be. I had always thought
that mankind’s first use of fire in cooking meats started in Asia or Africa and
later, after nomadic migrations became common, worldwide. As
I delved into the history and etymology of barbeque it led me to a discovery of
some unique information that made me wonder about where and how barbeque
actually started.
To
do this we need to understand a few circumstances which would make it plausible
to consider “open fire cooking” as an original act. We know mankind has been an omnivore during
all of its existence. After all, it’s
not like we were all Vegans and suddenly one day, a man thought to himself, “I
think these berries would be a nice accompaniment to a porterhouse.” So, when did man start hunting animals for
food? When did man start cooking these
animals over the open flame and where? And
most importantly, when did man start to
cook large pieces of meat over an open flame and smoked hardwood, (also
known as BBQ)? To be convinced, I would
need proof man hunted these larger animals which meant tools. There would have to be evidence of these
tools being used in conjunction with these large animals and most importantly
there would have to be evidence of cooking these animals over an open fire or
pit.
Although
there is evidence of mankind’s’ use of fire found from 1.9 million years ago, fire was not used in a
controlled fashion until 400,000 years ago1, and then it was used
primarily for heat during colder periods.
Determining when mankind first started to cook meats with fire has led
to a number of theories but do to the age and lack of evidence no date or time
period can be claimed as the actual first neighborhood cookout. What little cooking evidence has been found
does not indicate cooking large pieces of meat but rather scraps and some
anthropologists believe it was only used to clean the bones for tools and
drying hides(What can I say, early Homo
Sapiens were not too bright).
Now how can one determine where barbeque originated when
we can’t even determine when cooking with fire started. We would need to first determine a window of
probable opportunity. For a starting
point, it would make sense that man started to cook with fire after he started
to control fire 400,000 years ago. Then
we would need to discover when man started to kill larger animals. Before
I go any further, I want everyone who is thinking mankind hunted dinosaurs and
that was the first real barbeque to go back to school and hang out a few
years. You are obviously too caught up
in the tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World), Edgar
Rice Burroughs (The Land That Time forgot), and Hanna Barbera (The
Flintstones). As tempting as a rack of
ribs from a stegosaurus would be to smoke (Can you imagine that smoker pit), the
dinosaurs were extinct 65 million years before the existence of man2.
To
determine this we need to study what tools mankind used for hunting. Mankind used tools as far back as 2.5 million
years ago in what is known today as Ethiopia but what about tools for hunting
and more importantly, hunting large game?
There is evidence of mankind’s use of rocks, clubs as tools in the Paleolithic
age 300,000 years ago3, but use of tools as weapons for hunting (bow
and arrows, and spears) is not prevalent until after the last ice age 10,000
years ago3. Mankind still
gathered in tribes, clans, packs and it would be necessary to kill a larger
prey in order to feed the collective. In
order to kill a larger animal man learned that it would take a larger and
heavier spear to take down the larger beasts.
These finds are all over the planet in areas that are within 35 – 40 degrees
of the equator. North or south of these
regions was covered by ice for 95,000 years prior to the end of the last Ice
age. This is where it gets
interesting. While the indigenous
inhabitants of North American were first thought to have come from India and
labeled as Indians, it was only because the 15th century Spanish and Portuguese
explorers initially thought America was India. However, as we know better today, it was
perhaps premature for science to call them all 'Paleo-Indians'. These 'Indians' are actually of Asian descent,
not from India (it isn't known for certain whether all the indigenous peoples
of North America were of Asian descent or closely related enough to be lumped
together).
Considered
by most anthropologists as the first group of arrivals, it is believed the
'Clovis people' came across from Asia at the end of the last glacial period or
Ice Age about 11,500 years ago4 (circa 9,500 B.C.) and their culture
lasted for about 500-1000 years. The Clovis People are associated with the large fluted spear-points which were first
found; wait for it, near Clovis, New Mexico in 1932. The area is at the bottom of Tornado Alley
which was carved into the North American landscape by the start of the ice age
and was a fertile valley supporting life near the end of the last Ice Age. It is in these finds that anthropologists
also found fossilized remains of Mammoths next to evidence of fire pits leading
me to believe that they had one heck of a cookout from time to time back then (Someone
pass me a couple gallons of my dry–rub and a chord of mesquite).
Now
there is evidence of mankind in Egypt laying out food in the hot sun or using
salt to dry out and preserve it dating further back then this and there are
many assumptions that mankind has cooked over fire but this the oldest evidence
of both weapons used to kill large animals and fire used to cook it. It may not have been called barbeque but I
think it had that wonderful smoked flavor, was enjoyed by the clan, and that gave
birth to America’s iconic cooking style.
I
am sure that there are plenty of people who would enjoy disproving my theory
and they can have at it. What I can say
for sure, is that mankind was barbequing here in New Mexico for over 10,000
years and that leads me to my next question.
On that big old mammoth, did they use dry rub or was there some
Paleolithic version of BBQ Sauce used?
2. Rey LV, Holtz, Jr TR (2007). Dinosaurs: the most complete, up-to-date encyclopedia for dinosaur lovers of all ages. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-82419-7.
3. Plummer T (2004). "Flaked stones and old bones: Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology". Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Suppl 39: 118–64. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20157. PMID 15605391
4. A.O. Kime Prehistoric Cavemen of North America Paleo-Indians, Clovis, Folsom and pre-Clovis... the American cavemen,(7th edition - February 2008)
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