[Sca-cooks] A Question of Spit Roasting....

[Terry Decker]

You might also want to check out the French for "boucan" or barbecue rack.
I believe you will find the 1661 English reference is about "buccaneers"
(from the French "boucanier" or barbecuer).  The buccaneers were originally
a marginal bunch of escaped slaves and malcontents of many nations who made
a living from smoking meat and logging.  The Spanish decided to make war on
them and they, in return, made war on the Spanish by becoming pirates.

In English, the use of buccaneer for pirate dates from about 1690.

Bear

>OED may say 1661 but the word origin is
>Spanish barbacoa, of Arawak //Taino origin.
>The interesting question would be what do the
>Spanish sources say or what and when did the
>term appear in print in Spanish sources?
>John Mariani says that the word was in use
>in the America prior to that and that it first
>appeared in prinmt here in 1655.
>
>Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway
>
>Nancy Kiel wrote:
>You might BBQ meat that you wanted to smoke or dry, or BBQ a
>
>> whole animal.  Remember this is a New World technique, the first
reference
>> being 1661.  Nowadays broiling is just top heat (e.g. creme brulee).
>> Cooking something in an oven is baking.
>>
>> Nancy Kiel