|
Page 6 of 6
These two Theodore de Bry engravings below, which were copied from Jacques le Moyne drawings made in the 1500s, show two views of Native American cooking. These two drawings, and many others in a similar vane, were often found in the grammar school and high school history books we used back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Please remember that the Frenchman le Moyne had to redraw most of his work from memory after the Spanish burned Fort Caroline the French fort in the mid 1500s. These drawings may not be perfect but they are, nevertheless, the best depictions we have of early Indian life.The first drawing below shows Indians cooking with low heat and lots of smoke. Note that the food to be barbequed is deliberately placed high and away from the hottest source of the heat. This drawing was often referred to as an "Indians smoking meat" by publishers and historians who were unfamiliar with true barbeque. But note that the source of heat in this first drawing is such that the heat source is clearly hotter than in a true "smoking" process. Also, in smoking, the meat being smoked is cut away from the animal. Smoking is such a slow process that whole animals cannot be smoked all at once or the interior would spoil. In barbeque the animal is often cooked whole as we do in "whole hog" barbeque today. (Also note that Europeans were fascinated by alligators and La Moyne put them in as many of his drawings as he could, even if he did make them look like large lizards.) There is only a very fine line between "smoking meat" and barbeque and that line is temperature. Smoke houses, which were common on every farm up until the 1940s, used a fair amount of smoke but only a very low heat. In a smoke house, smoke is the thing and the temperature inside of the smoke house is quite low compared to barbeque. Smoking meat takes days and days. In barbequing temperature plays a larger role. Barbeque requires a temperature of between 210 to 250 degrees over a period of 10 to 20 hours (or more depending on the meat being cooked). In barbeque, cooking time is shorter and temperatures higher than "smoking." Note that Native Americans as depicted by La Moyne also cooked their food directly over a high source of heat when needed. Native Americans used high heat when it was called for but they had also learned the art of true barbeque, which was lower heat over a longer period of time and the use of smoke as an airborne marinade. They, of course, also knew how to use even less heat than in barbeque over longer periods of time when they preserved their meat by the "smoking" method. Many thanks to
Lake E. High, Jr.
President, South Carolina Barbeque Association
http://scbarbeque.com
For allowing us to reproduce this article.
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > End >>
|
