The First Barbeque Grill?
Perhaps Claudius, our favorite caveman in the picture is using the very first barbeque grill. If you buy into the Darwin theory of evolution, then this picture may surely represent one of the very first barbeque grills known to man. If you do not buy all of that guessing game, then surely, a more concrete explanation and history of the barbeque grill comes to us from Wikipedia.org
The Barbeque Grill has existed in the USA since pre-Colonial times. The Arawak people of South America roasted meat on a wooden structure called a barbacoa in Spanish. For centuries, the term barbacoa referred to the wooden structure and not the act of grilling, but it was eventually modified to "barbecue". It was also applied to the pit-style cooking techniques now frequently used in the southeastern United States. Barbecue was originally used to slow-cook hogs; however, different ways of preparing food led to regional variations. Over time, other foods were cooked in a similar fashion, with hamburgers and hot dogs being recent additions.
Edward G. Kingsford invented the modern charcoal briquette.[6] Kingsford was a relative of Henry Ford who assigned him the task of establishing a Ford auto parts plant and sawmill in northern Michigan, a challenge that Kingsford embraced. The local community grew and was named Kingsford in his honor. Kingsford noticed that Ford's Model T production lines were generating a large amount of wood scraps that were being discarded. He suggested to Ford that a charcoal manufacturing facility be established next to the assembly line to process and sell charcoal under the Ford name at Ford dealerships. Several years after Kingsford's death, the chemical company was sold to local businessmen and renamed the Kingsford Chemical Company.
George Stephen created the iconic hemispherical grill design, jokingly called "Sputnik" by Stephen's neighbors. Stephen, a welder, worked for Weber Brothers Metal Works, a metal fabrication shop primarily concerned with welding steel spheres together to make buoys. Stephen was tired of the wind blowing ash onto his food when he grilled so he took the lower half of a buoy, welded three steel legs onto it, and fabricated a shallower hemisphere for use as a lid. He took the results home and following some initial success, started the Weber-Stephen Products Company.
The gas grill was invented in the late 1930s by Don McGlaughlin, owner of the Chicago Combustion Corporation, known today as LazyMan.[8] McGlaughlin invented the first built-in grill from the successful gas broiler called BROILBURGER. These first Lazy-Man grills were marketed as "open-fire charcoal-type gas broilers" which featured "permanent coals", otherwise known as lava rock. In the 1950s, most residential households did not have a barbecue, so the term broiler was used for marketing purposes to commercial establishments. The gas open-broiler design was adapted into the first portable gas grill in 1954 by Chicago Combustion Corporation as the Model AP. McGlaughlin's portable design was the first to feature the use of the 20-lb propane cylinders, which previously were exclusively used by plumbers as a fuel source.
And so, the eternal search for the perfect barbecue grill continues. If you continue on here, you can click any of the images in the article and be taken to the best BBQ grill on Planet Earth today!
The Barbeque Grill is Dedicated to Indoor/Outdoor Grilling
This site is being created on the web for the purpose of telling the story about the modern day Barbeque grill. There is much more to the grill than one might imagine. Each Sunday, grillers from around the globe gather together with their ritualistic aprons and tongs in hand, and being the arduous and demanding process of creating that special piece of burned food that will be devoured by the throngs and revered by many as the best possible way to live. Cold beers in hand and gritted teeth, these unsung heroes do their best with their grills and attempt to do the impossible. Grill food that is both appealing, palatable and gets rave reviews by even the pickiest of family members. Oh yes, trying to get the baby to eat even a little piece of burned meat may be the most frustrating of all of the things attempted in the world today. If that chef can just accomplish that one simple thing, then surely, he/she will be awarded the most prized possession of all, the golden spatula award.
This award is presented to those hard working, diligent and determined grill masters who seek perfection in all of the meat they burn. This award is just a simple thank you for a job well done. But there is much more to this story, so let us continue on in our presentation about The Barbeque Grill.
Do We Know Who Grilled First?
Could it have been the so called Caveman? That noble and hairy beast sitting alone in a damp and dreary cave, hiding from the dinosaurs and trying to figure out how to make the Terradactyl lizard more tasty? He rubbed two rocks together and made fire. Then the hunting and preparing of the meat came. This was no simple task; however, he was diligent and the fire was ready. Did he say, "I wonder how this meat would taste if I put it over the hot stuff I just made?" No doubt, it happned just that way, and ever since, man/woman has spent lifetimes in the quest for the perfect barbeque grill and the perfect burned meat.
The Ultimate Barbeque Grill
The Barbeque Grill site is dedicated to that end. We will find, and then report to the world wide web, our findings on which is the best Barbeque grill on Planet Earth today. It will be a totally unbiased look at the BBQ grill in question, the ups and downs of it and even how it cooks. Oh yes, we will purchase the Barbeque grill and even test it out. This way, the site can be totally objective in its findings. It should be an interesting ride down the road towards finding, buying and using the best barbeque grill on the Planet today.
Subscribe to Tulsa Pampered Chef!
