Читать книгу BBQ For Dummies - Carey Bringle - Страница 10

Barbecue was born from humble beginnings. Plantation owners took the best cuts of meat from the hog and left the toughest pieces of meat for the men and women they enslaved. The method of cooking these tough cuts at a low temperature for a long time — low and slow — helped take a very tough piece of meat and turn it into a tender delicacy.

The traditional method of cooking barbecue involved either making a pit with brick or stone and cooking the meat over coals or digging an actual pit in the ground, filling it with coals, and cooking the meat on top of that fire.

Over the years, barbecue has evolved. It went from holes in the ground to stone pits; then to brick pits, smokehouses, metal pits, gas-assist pits; and now even wirelessly controlled pellet pits. A lot has changed over the years. One thing remains constant: Fire is the element that ties the evolution of barbecue and the tools used.

As of late, due to the increasing popularity of sanctioning bodies and competitions on cooking shows, barbecue is popping up all over the United States, with thousands of enthusiasts located in various regions across the country. In fact, barbecue has become such a phenomenon in the United States that excellent barbecue places are now popping up in areas that traditionally never had a barbecue heritage.