The American barbecue conjecture

Updated August 19, 2001

By JOE O'CONNELL, cbbqa past President

What is the historical origin of the word and of the cooking method called "barbecue"?  The American Barbecue Conjecture posits that the word and method originated with the Taino Native Americans in the pre-Columbian Caribbean, were taken to Europe circa 1500 by Spanish Explorers, spread to England, and thence the word and method were taken back to North America by English settlers.  

Determining the origin of barbecue requires several related studies:  the origin of the word itself;  the origin of the cooking method in the Americas;  and the origin of the cooking method that in what became the United States.  These three different studies are referred to collectively as the 'origin of barbecue', but it is important to keep in mind that the term includes several components.

Introduction

This research study, as shown on these web pages, is a work in progress.  There are many website and newspaper stories that claim to report on the origin of barbecue.  Most of them claim that the word "barbecue" came from the Spanish "barbicoa" which in turn came from a word used by Native Americans (Arawak or Taino tribes) at the time of the early Spanish explorations (circa 1500).

Unfortunately, none of these web sites or other sources provide authoritative citations, whether to primary sources (original historical documents, such as the logs of Christopher Columbus) or to secondary sources (scholarly works which themselves rely on and cite to primary sources).  

To compound the difficulty, the pre-Columbian Native Americans had no written language, so any description of their language and cooking methods must of necessity come from contemporaneous primary sources - explanations by the Spanish and later explorers, in their journals, logs, letters, articles, and other documents.

The "American Barbecue Conjecture"

This study intends to resolve the following conjecture, which is referred to as the American Barbecue Conjecture or "ABC".  It is the objective of this research study to resolve the ABC with primary and secondary research material.  

In its current form, the ABC may be summarized, as follows:

The method of cooking meat low ‘n slow directly over coals was well-known in Europe before 1200 A.D. and in many other regions of the world. 

Beginning in 1200 A.D., the use of iron pots in Europe became widespread, and Europeans discovered the ease and speed of using pots to boil meat, usually with vegetables and often with dumplings or pasta.  Iron also permitted cooks to construct permanent or semi-permanent cooking devices, so that cooking and heating could take place indoors.  Other cultures, such as the Chinese, saw a similar evolution in cooking methods away from cooking over direct heat.

By the beginning of the Renaissance in 1453, the low ‘n slow method had been all-but-forgotten and ignored for generations in Europe.  Christopher Columbus and his men had never tasted meat cooked low ‘n slow over coals.  

When Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, he “discovered” the Taino Native Americans cooking fish and wild game hung on a wooden structure over coals.  The Taino word for the wooden structure sounded to the explorers like barbacoa.  

The Spanish explorers returned to Europe with this new word and “new” cooking method.  Because the printing press had come into use, the word of the discoveries - including barbacoa - quickly spread across Europe.

Soon after, de Soto and others who explored present-day Florida brought swine from Europe.  The swine quickly spread throughout the southeast.

When English colonists arrived in the present day United States, they brought the barbecue word and method with them, which they perfected in hog barbecue.  Thus, it was the English colonists who taught the technique to the Native Americans in the present-day United States.

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