BARBECUE FACTS & TRIVIA

To barbecue generally means to cook something (meat, fish, poultry, or vegetables) directly over the heat of an open fire.  In Texas its beef, in North Carolina its pork and in backyards across America almost anything edible can be found cooking on someones barbecue grill.

George Washington noted in his diary of 1769 that he “went up to Alexandria to a barbicue.”
A 1773 entry notes that he attended a “Barbicue of my own giving at Accatinck.”

In 2009, 76 million Americans said they took part in a barbecue the previous year. (US Census Bureau, 2010)

Also known as: barbicue, barbique, barbeque, Bar-B-Cue, Bar-B-Que, Bar-B-Q, BBQ, Cue and just plain Q.

Either from the Spanish spelling of the Taino Indian word for their method of cooking fish over a pit of coals (barbacoa), or from the French barbe à queue (from whiskers to tail) or de la barbe à la queue (from the beard to the tail) or even the French barbaque (which is from the Romanian barbec) meaning roast mutton. Take your pick, every one has their favorite, and none are certain.

Paleolithic Residents of Central Europe Knew How to Throw a Barbecue: In 2009, archaeological excavations at a 31,000 year old site in the Czech Republic discovered a cooking pit with the remains of 2 Mammoths along with other animal remains.
Archaeology magazine (Sept/Oct 2009)

     Lexington, North Carolina, is known as the Barbecue Capital of the World, and October was officially declared 'Barbecue Month' with a month long Annual Barbecue Festival.  The Festival has a Parade of Pigs on bicycles (also called the Tour de Pig)!  The Lexington Barbecue Festival was designated as the Official Food Festival of the Piedmont Triad Region in 2007.

     If you didn't already guess, Lexington is famous for its barbecue. The city's first barbecue restaurant opened in 1919. Lexington barbecue is pork shoulder basted with 'dip,' a mixture of water, vinegar, salt, and pepper. It is cooked slowly over hickory wood until it is 'fall apart tender.' One pound of pork takes about an hour to cook. Today there are over 20 barbecue restaurants in Lexington.

     In the 1994 Barbecue Festival, 11,000 pounds of barbecue were served to more than 100,000 people.
Library of Congress Local Legacies Project

 

 

Also see: Food Articles and Cooking Tips

You are here > Home

Next

Please feel free to link to any pages of FoodReference.com from your website.
For permission to use any of this content please E-mail: james@foodreference.com
All contents are copyright © 1990 - 2024 James T. Ehler and www.FoodReference.com unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved.  You may copy and use portions of this website for non-commercial, personal use only.
Any other use of these materials without prior written authorization is not very nice and violates the copyright.
Please take the time to request permission.



 

FOOD TRIVIA and FOOD FACTS

FoodReference.com Logo

 

 

Popular Pages

Food History Articles
World Cuisine
Pleasures of the Table
Recipe Index

CULINARY SCHOOLS
& COOKING CLASSES

From Amateur & Basic Cooking Classes to Professional Chef Training & Degrees

 

 

Home   |   Articles   |   FOOD TRIVIA   |   Today in Food History   |   Food_Timeline   |   Recipes   |  Cooking_Tips   |   Food Quotes   |   Who’s Who   |   Culinary Schools and Tours   |   Food_Trivia_Quizzes   |   Food Poems   |   Free Magazines   |   Food Festivals & Events

FoodReference.com (since 1999)

FOOD TRIVIA and FOOD FACTS SECTION