Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

The air remains smoky today in NJ thanks to the vast forest fires in Quebec. It has a very woodsy aroma, and so is not unpleasant but for its density. In fact, it is triggering a desire to fire up my own barbecue grill. Maybe I’ll wait for a day with better air quality outside, but a few home-grilled burgers would be mighty tasty. I prefer using charcoal for the smoky flavor. There are some localities (not mine fortunately) with ordinances against charcoal, but not for being a fossil fuel, which charcoal is not. Burning wood and wood products is regarded as carbon-neutral since wood grows back thereby reabsorbing the carbon. Arguably it is superior to letting wood rot naturally, since that produces more methane, which is less desirable than CO2. The reason for restrictions is smoke. Yet, without smoke it’s not really barbecue – grilling, maybe, but not barbecue. Smoke is an essential ingredient. My neighbors are far enough away in any case for us to not notice any smoke from each other’s grill.
 
Grills and barbecues are prehistoric. Braziers, fire pits, and purpose-built outside fireplaces were the most common tools for the task. They are mentioned in some of the earliest writing. We have Egyptian and Sumerian barbecue recipes dating back 6000 years. Slow-roasted smoked pork in China dates back similarly and remains popular today. The word barbecue comes from 16^th century American Spanish barbacoa which meant a framework of raised sticks – which is to say a grill. This in turn came from Arawak (Haitian) barbakoa; the West Indians used these grills over hot charcoal to smoke meat, i.e. barbecue.
 
The whole process became much simpler and more popular only a century ago, however. In the early 1920s Ford motor cars still had a lot of wooden parts including the wheels. Consequently, there was a lot of scrap wood left over from manufacturing. Not a fan of waste, Henry Ford readily backed the idea of his relative E.G. Kingsford to turn the scrap into charcoal briquettes and sell them at Ford dealerships. The briquettes caught on and soon were sold by various stores. To this day Kingsford has 80% of the US charcoal briquette market. Grills continued to be a mix of braziers, ad hoc constructions, or outside brick fireplaces however. These have never disappeared and have been supplemented by high-end smokers. But the classic easy-to-use portable backyard grill came along in the 1950s.

A fellow named George Stephen worked at the Weber Brothers Metal Works. His job there was welding steel hemispheres together to make buoys. The idea struck him that these hemispheres with legs and a few air holes would make good lightweight grills. Weber backed his idea. By the end of the 1950s Weber grills were a common backyard sight. The brand remains a dominant one. The devices make it very easy to say to oneself on the spur of the moment, “I think I’ll grill a few burgers this afternoon.”
 
I think I’ll grill a few burgers this afternoon. Or maybe tomorrow.
 

Johnny Horton – Smokey Joe’s Barbecue