Food & Drink · 2
Which country is credited with originating the practice of smoking meat as a preservation and cooking technique used in what became American BBQ?
Answer
Caribbean indigenous peoples, via Spanish colonizers
The word 'barbecue' derives from 'barbacoa,' a word used by the Taíno people of the Caribbean to describe their method of slow-cooking meat over a wooden framework. Spanish colonizers adopted and spread the technique throughout the Americas.
💡 Did you know?
The word 'barbecue' traveled from the Taíno language of the Caribbean through Spanish into English — making one of America's most iconic cooking traditions over 500 years old before the first American colony existed.
Other options people guess
- West African enslaved peoples brought to the American South
- German immigrants settling in Texas in the 19th century
- Native American Plains tribes of the central United States
Topics
- barbecue
- food-history
- caribbean
- american-cuisine
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