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

[Darren Gasser]

Nancy Kiel wrote:
> Roasting is direct heat, as there is nothing but air between the
> "roastee" and the fire, but the heat is coming from the side.
> According to the OED, broiling and grilling are basically the same,
> as is BBQ, in that the "roastee" is being supported on a gridiron,
> with the heat coming from underneath. 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.

I'm not sure I'd consider the venerable OED authoritative on definitions of
cooking techniques, but the etymology is always interesting.

A quick search in a few modern cooking references (Food Lover's Companion,
Alton Brown's book, Epicurious, rec.food.cooking FAQ) seems to indicate that
the use of the term 'roasting' for oven cooking with dry, indirect heat is
widely accepted now.  Period cooks certainly wouldn't have used the term
this way, though.

As for BBQ, here's what Larousse has to say:

"Barbecue:  An open-air cooking apparatus, usually charcoal burning, for
grilling
or spit-roasting meat or fish.  Charcoal cookery is the most ancient of
cooking methods. The barbercue method is of American origin,......The word
probably comes from the
Haitian 'barbacoa', meaning grill, but some attribute its origin to the
French 'de la baebe a la queue' (from the head of the rail), referring to
the method of impaling the animal on the roasting spit."

-Lorenz