Sports Admirer

Do you like barbecued food? Do you love NFL games? Savory food and NFL games arguably create the perfect match. Barbecue grills create a savory food that is perfect for beef, chicken, pork, fish, shrimp, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and a cornucopia of other foods. Whether it is a crisp autumn or frigid winter day, barbecuing provides tasty morsels as you and your family and friends watch another battle on the gridiron.  Barbecue foods have become so popular that we munch on BBQ potato chips, corn chips, and pork rinds, in between BBQ meals.

Whether you are a history buff, a food connoisseur, or by nature a curious person, have you ever wondered about the history of barbecuing? Humans have been eating meat since the beginning of time. Eventually, one of our ancient ancestors decided that cooking it would be a good idea. However, when did barbecuing become a new method of cooking? Knowing the answer will help us to appreciate better those tasty BBQ baby-back ribs and shrimp kebabs.


Europe meets smoked meats
“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Many of us memorized that line in our elementary history class. While Columbus was not the first European to arrive in the Western Hemisphere, he was responsible for initiating extensive interaction between Europeans and Native Americans. This allowed the two groups to learn about each other’s traditions and cultures.

Demonstrated by today’s worldwide interest in sports collectibles and “fusion foods,” food certainly serves as a means of uniting people of diverse cultures. For instance, when the first Spanish explorers from Spanish visited the New World, they observed Native Americans preserving meats by exposing them to sunlight. Actually, this method of preserving meat was ancient and widespread. However, the practice created two main problems: the spoilage of meats and the attraction of swarms of insects.

Bugs, fires, and pigs
How did the Native Americans solve this problem? They constructed tiny smoky fires. Then they would position the meat atop racks that were over the smoky fires. This process would preserve the meat and the fire would smoke out the annoying critters that hovered around the meat. Natives in the West Indies would refer to this process of preserving meat, as “barbacoa.” Many historians believe that this is the origin of the English word, “barbecue.”

The same American ingenuity present in today’s nfl shops, improved upon the Native Americans’ original invention of barbecue. As native Europeans and Africans migrated to the Southern regions of the United States, they transported their European cattle along with them. In particular, pigs became the preferred meat of the South, due to the minimum amount of maintenance that was required to raise them. Southerners would use smokehouses and pits, rather than racks, to barbecue their meats.

Speaking of cooking meats using pits, America Southerners were not the first to cook their meats in pits. In fact, for centuries Polynesians have been roasting entire pigs within an underground barbecue pit.

Barbecue culture meets barbecue science
Okay, back to the evolution of barbecue in America. During the early colonial era in America, most wealthy people rarely ate meat that cooks had cooked slowly. That is because they ate choice cuts of meat that were naturally tender. However, slaves and low-income people ate low-quality cuts of meat that required slow-cooking. Today, people of all tax-brackets can enjoy barbecued foods and NFL merchandise (such as denver broncos merchandise).   

Finally, we should remember that early Americans barbecued before refrigeration existed. Thus, while the process certainly reduced the meat’s toughness and added flavor, it also was a matter of necessity. Barbecuing meat had the same preserving effect of salting the meat. Sun-drying the meat and then smoking became the most efficient method of preserving meats. Think about it this way: which has longer shelf lifea fresh slab of beefsteak or a strip of beef jerky?

The best barbecue
Today, planning your own perfect NFL barbecue is not impossible. However, it will require some preparation and expertise about how to prepare top-quality meats. Here are some guidelines to help you achieve that goal:

1. Go with the basics
Some people might argue that you need fancy, expensive barbecue equipment, for a successful NFL cookout. That is simply not true. With a basic kettle-type grill, chimney starter and cooking thermometer, you can prepare juicy, tasty meats and vegetables without taking out a second mortgage on your house. Instead, focus more on the preparation of the meat itself.

2. Follow the rule “low and slow”
True barbecuing differs from traditional grilling, just as the bears helmet has evolved throughout the decades. Rather than using high temperatures and fast cooking, barbecuing requires slow cooking and nearly half the heat. Instead of using temperatures of 400-450, the maximum heat you should use is 250. This will allow the smoke to gradually cook and flavor the meat. In this case, one could argue that slow and steady wins the race.

3. Use the right fuel
Using the right fuel is vital to successful barbecuing. If you are a beginner, then you should use basic charcoal briquettes. However, after you have become more experienced, consider hardware lump charcoal. This charcoal is available in a variety of sizes. Make sure to light the charcoal using a chimney starter. This method is preferable to using kerosene, as the latter option could cause your meat and vegetables to have an aftertaste of fuel.

4. No peeking! (except when necessary)
It is vital never to sneak a peek inside the cooker, unless it is necessary. Only lift the lid for the following purposes:

    Adding additional fuel
    Flipping the meat
    Basting the meat

Since its birth in the Americas, barbecuing has become a worldwide phenomenon, just as
nfl sports apparel has. In part, this has been due to people’s increasing interest in living healthier lifestyles. Your guests will adore barbecue foods at your next NFL cookout. While barbecuing for your next NFL party requires patience and diligence, the results can be fantastic!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Youth sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.