Meat, Fire, and Heroes

I'm a little late coming to this particular party, but I plan on catching up as much as possible this weekend:

May is National Barbecue Month, and I know that, as Texans, there are a lot of us who take our barbecue very seriously.

But Nick Pencis, the owner and pitmaster at Stanley's Famous Bar-B-Q in Tyler, said there's one thing we all need to keep straight.

"Well first and foremost, there's a pretty big difference between grilling and barbecuing. Grilling is what most people do when you have a bed of charcoal or a gas grill and you have direct heat and you're putting your heat right about the heat source," said Pencis. "Barbecuing, you're using an indirect heat source, which is going to be off to the side, and the heat's going to flow and come past it, which takes a lot longer, but then you get to incorporate the smoke and the essence of the fire into the meat."

I appreciate meat cooked with fire as much as the next man, but I'm not enough of a fanatic to seriously differentiate between direct and indirect heat. I subscribe to a more simplistic approach.

"The story of barbecue is the story of America. Settlers arrive on great unspoiled continent. Discover wondrous riches. Set them on fire and eat them."
 -- Vince Staten, Real Barbecue

But seriously, folks, a good argument can be made that without barbeque the world would be a much different place.

Barbecue made human civilization possible.

Homo erectus probably first tasted cooked meat after a forest fire burned animals, and it was good. So good that it influenced human evolution. Traits that enhanced their ability to hunt and eat cooked meat were favored: Larger brains, better hand articulation, speed, communication skills, and smaller jaws.

The Hebrew Old Testament contains what may be the first detailed plans for the design of a barbecue. In Exodus, chapter 27, probably written somewhere between 1300 and 1500 years before Christ was born, after Moses brings down the 10 Commandments, he tells his flock that God wants them to construct a tabernacle with an ark for the Covenant and an altar for burnt offerings of animals.

In chapter 29 there are instructions of how to prepare the sacrifice of a young bull and two rams and describes the process as "a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord." Apparently the scent was all the Lord wanted because Aaron, Moses' brother and the priest in charge, and his associates, were allowed to eat the sacrifice

... in 1951, George Stephen, Sr., frustrated by his inability to control the heat in his backyard grill, had the welders at the Weber Brothers Metal Works where he worked, cut up a buoy that was to be used for Lake Michigan boating. The Weber Kettle was born and introduced in 1952...

Coincidentally enough, I was born in 1952. God does indeed work in mysterious ways...

A few years later, "...hungry Texas oil rig welders began building heavy duty steel cookers from oil barrels, huge pipes, and large propane tanks creating tubular "pits" that could be mounted on boat trailers and towed from jobsite to jobsite. Some were fitted with boxes on the side to hold logs and allow the cook to smoke meats with indirect heat, low and slow."

Barbeque has even influenced politics and world affairs at the highest level:

On Christmas Eve 1963, just a month after President John Kennedy was murdered, President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Ladybird, frazzled from, as Ladybird described it, the "tornado of activity that has surrounded us" retreated to their Texas ranch on Christmas Eve. West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard was scheduled to visit Kennedy to discuss the Soviet threat, the Berlin Wall, and other important matters. Rather than return to Washington for a formal State Dinner, LBJ invited Erhard and his entourage on down to what historians claim was the first official Presidential barbecue in history. Yes, Johnson's first state dinner was a barbecue for 300 in Texas on December 29, 1963.

So take advantage of this holiday weekend and combine meat with fire. Toss in a few cold beers and you'll be all set.

And while you're doing so, please take a few moments to remember and honor the men and women of our Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may enjoy life in America, the greatest country the world has ever known.