The act of cooking meat or food over an open flame or hot coals, typically outdoors.
From Spanish 'barbacoa,' possibly derived from Taíno (Caribbean) 'barabicu,' originally referring to a wooden frame for roasting meat. The word entered English in the 17th century through Caribbean colonial contact and evolved into the modern spelling and cooking method.
Barbecue traveled from Caribbean Indigenous peoples to Spanish colonizers to American planters—but each culture changed what it meant: Indigenous peoples slow-roasted whole animals underground, Spaniards added the wood frame, and Americans added the sauce!
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