To (charcoal) Bbq Or Not To (gas) Bbq!

Recently I attended a street party as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

. It took place on a town square and because of the proximity of the residence of the people who had invited me to the venue, it was possible to wheel out their barbecues onto the square and cook fresh food for their invited guests. I say barbecues because they had both a gas-fired one and a traditional charcoal one, in the end, because of the amount of food and the number of people to be served, having two on the go was very useful and both had their merits.

Personally, I am a good old-fashioned dyed-in-the-wool exponent of the charcoal type, but it seems some people prefer the gas-fired variety as it is quicker to light and easier to control. It got me thinking about the origins of barbecuing and cooking outside in general.

Most people enjoy the idea of cooking food out in the open-air; after all it goes back to our most basic roots when this was the only form of cooking available. In temperate climates cooking would take place in the hut or shelter, which would be built with a hole in the roof to allow the smoke from the cooking to escape. In warmer climates of course the cooking could take place outside either on a simple rack over hot coals or in a purpose-built clay or brick oven.

The word barbecue is thought to originate in the Caribbean where the word barabicu was found in the language of the Taino people. It actually means sacred fire-pit and describes a method of cooking meat on a grill or rack supported over hot coals or charcoal. The word then entered European languages as barbacoa, this described more closely the method of digging a pit and cooking meat (usually a whole carcase) slowly over several hours. The derivative barbecue appeared in around 1672 in the published writings of John Lederer after he had travelled around the American southwest.

One of the problems of cooking over an open fire is that it can quite easily get out of hand especially in very dry conditions. Damage can be caused to crops or forests from stray sparks, which ultimately create new fires that can spread rapidly. Perhaps too many of this sort of fire made people think that fire for cooking on needs to be somehow contained.

Barbecuing, rather than an essential way of cooking food, has now come to mean a social event whether its a small affair in somebodys garden or a large social gathering. Not surprisingly, the equipment used to barbecue food has become known as the barbecue, which can be the traditional method of using hot charcoal, or the newer variety of using a portable gas appliance and supply.

The traditional charcoal barbecue can take the form of a metal kettle or barrel shaped receptacle in which the coals are placed and lit an hour or two before they are required for cooking, only when these have died down to a grey ash are they at the optimum temperature to cook on. Food needs to be moved around the rack to take advantage of coals that are at different temperatures so the food cooks through evenly. Chimeneas are really clay receptacles in which fires can be lit to keep you warm whilst sitting outside; however, some of them have a rack, that can be swung over the fire, on which food can then be cooked.

The other kinds of barbecues are those fuelled by propane gas from a portable bottle. Instead of coals the base contains lava rocks which are heated directly from the gas burners. The temperature can be regulated in much the same way as a gas oven or hob in the home. They are much easier and quicker to light and are probably less smoky as there is no woody burning actually taking place. Some aficionados claim that a barbecue isnt a barbecue without that charcoal taste but in the end its all down to personal choice.

by: Bruno Blackstone

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