Black Smoke Explores the Roots of Barbecue

 

Black Smoke Explores the Roots of Barbecue

Author Adrian Miller is too modest when he calls his recent book Black Smoke "a history of African Americans and barbecue." It's really a comprehensive and well-researched account of all of barbecue's roots, which also covers the indigenous peoples' uses of barbecue in the Americas. He includes a fascinating account of the Columbus expedition's second landing on the beaches of Cuba where they found several fires untended, with fish, rabbits, and "two serpents" cooking. The men fell upon and feasted on all but the serpents, which they found to be "disgusting" and later, they met up with the Taino people whose camp they had raided. The sailors confessed and the tribespeople rejoiced that the serpents (thought to be iguanas) were left alone. They could fish again and snare rabbits, but the iguanas were difficult to obtain.

 

After that, barbecue knowledge bounced from Native Americans to Black enslaved people to mainstream America. And Black people brought their own techniques from West Africa. Spanish colonizers contributed the pig. The cooking method served multiple purposes besides preparing food for eating; it also preserved food by drying and smoking. 

It's easy to see why Black Smoke won a James Beard award in 2021. It's well researched (23 pages of footnotes and bibliography!) and contains many illustrations and photographs. There are also 22 recipes, including The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman's Grilled Bison Skewers with Wojape, a sauce made from wild chokecherries with honey or maple syrup. 

In the photo below by August Schwerdfeger, Wikipedia Commons, Chef Sean Sherman forages for wild ramps.