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

[Daniel Myers]

On Monday, April 7, 2003, at 01:43 PM, Darren Gasser wrote:

> 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.

[...]

> 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."


Interesting.  I'd heard though that the term "barbecue" came from the
French phrase "barbe au cul", which translates as ... um ... "arrow in
the backside".

- Doc


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  Edouard Who Is Not Lainie's Edouard (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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