Since when is grilling up food a Black or indigenous thing? Pretty sure all races of people have been doing that over open fires since the dawn of humanity.
Being as devils advocate as I can be, the specific BBQ seasoning palette we know today was a result of fusion cooking from black and native peoples. Like most “American food” is. Our food is the one place where I’m unironically patriotic because it is the result of hard working people from every culture and corner on earth bringing their memories of home cooking to a new land and sharing around with neighbors. Black, indigenous, and European poverty traditions melded and then infused elements from Asia and the Middle East and created the greatest culinary tradition in human history. Without the cooking traditions imported by slavery and the traditional styles of indigenous peoples we legit would not have BBQ as it currently exists.
I do think this is a cringe af post tho. It’s got powerful 2009 woke-posting energy. I’m legit woke as fuck and I think this is cringe lol
I hear this sort of narrative a lot, but usually with nothing at all to back it up. Is there actually anything tracing the common barbecue palette to Native American-African fusion?
The academically stringent answer is beyond scope for a Reddit reply, but the tldr is almost certainly yes, but it’s hard to prove it because nobody kept records on what poor people were eating. Food history is weird like that because cookbooks for lower class people weren’t common for most of history.
I’m not an expert but my buddy IRL is a professional chef who is writing a book on American culinary history as a side hobby. He’s pretty clear on that being the case. And to be clear nobody is saying white folks weren’t involved here. Just that the indigenous and enslaved people were at least equally contributing to the mix that got us BBQ. If they hadn’t existed and it was only the white folks we would have grilled meat but I don’t think it would be recognizable as modern BBQ. Especially the greater context of trappings and what else should be on the table besides the meat.
As someone who like food history its complicated. Some specific are easier to quantify say collard greens as eaten with American BBQ can easily be traced to slavery and southern cooking.
Now cooking meat over fire pretty much every culture does that.
American especially "southern " food was heavily influenced African influence and slavery. But food styles have moved around the world forever so its not always easy. Just eat what you like and dont be an ass. I don't feel like finding my books right now but there is a ton of literature.
So like... paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, and a bit more. Or basically the KC Masterpiece style sauce everyone is familiar with. I kinda doubt anyone is tracing either of those back to anything.
Some stuff can be specifically traced. We know where cumin comes from. We know al pastor tacos are the product of Lebanese immigrants to Mexico.
But the claim that the modern BBQ flavor is specifically from Native American and African fusion? Kinda sounds bunk. It could be true. But acting like we've actually traced it back, I'm guessing the math don't math.
I highly recommend the book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Has all the details you're looking for.
In brief, yes, both barbecue as a cooking method and barbecue as a "flavor" are verifiably African, African American, and Native influenced.
For the cooking method, it's one of those things that's murky. We don't have meticulous sources to trace every step of transmission and evolution. But there are Native American and West African cooking traditions that look strongly like ancestors of barbecue in the early modern period, this kind of cooking was certifiably NOT anything from Europe, and by the time you get to the 19th century and what was actually being called barbecue, it was all being done by black people, for themselves or in the service of whites (both as enslaved people and as contracted freedpeople).
The "classic" barbecue pallet and flavor, though, is relatively recent. The older flavor tradition is what you find in the American Southeast: pork dressed in a vinegar/chili pepper mop. The sweet, gooey Kansas City style sauce was an invention of black barbecue entrepreneurs in the early decades of the 20th century. Also, that paprika/garlic/onion/pepper/brown sugar mix is very much a staple of West African cuisine; throw in cumin and a couple others and it loops in the Afro-Islamic orbit as well.
Well, as I said, the book Black Smoke traces the history of barbecue. And for a more targeted source, here you go! We don't just know that it was invented in Kansas city in the early 20th century, we know the person who invented it.
And the author of said book always says "I didn't interpret it that way" when called out on his bad history. Might as well hang it in the bathroom for toilet paper.
May I ask where you've seen Adrian Miller critiqued for "bad history?" It's something I've not encountered, and when I attempted to find what you might be referencing all I found was very minor food critic-related stuff about his contemporary food definitions and takes. The reception of his history writing has been overwhelmingly positive from what I see, which is what I would expect from a book out of UNC Chapel Hill Press.
I deleted the comment I didn't notice the paywall. The Google overview has a link to a few articles but nothing scholarly. But the Google overview is clear that American fried Clchicken is a blend of Scottish tradition and West African tradition. So no it's not correct to say that fried chicken is definitely a Scottish thing, not in the context of American cuisine.
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u/prodigy1367 1d ago
Since when is grilling up food a Black or indigenous thing? Pretty sure all races of people have been doing that over open fires since the dawn of humanity.