How to barbecue like an American

Barbecue is a fact of life in America. Long summer evenings and reliably good weather make it an easy choice – plus turning on the oven heats up the house to an intolerable level, so if you want a hot meal, outdoors it is. When I was a kid my mom wouldn’t turn on the oven for the entirety of July and August. It was burgers, salads or quick quesadillas on the grill every night of high summer.

Americans have been barbecuing pretty much since before the nation was a nation. The tradition came up from South and Latin America with the invading Spanish. Barbacoa they called it, and they’d use green wood so it cooked long and slow. Americans in the pre-Civil War South had big barbecues for 4 July, just like we do today. Records from shortly after the Revolution detail large outdoor gatherings across the southern states; in 1808 residents of Oconee County, South Carolina ‘partook of an elegant barbecue’ in an ‘agreeable and natural arbor’ to commemorate 4 July.