Almost 500 years ago, the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto left his regular troops behind and rode over 24 hours to a small Native American village south of what is now Macon, Georgia. The explorer came to a stop where he saw several raised wooden racks called barbacoas holding delicious smoked turkeys, deer, and possibly opossums. It was on March 25, 1540, that the official Spanish court reporter for the expedition wrote down the word “barbacoa,” which is transcribed as “barbecue” in English for the first time on American soil. Several years earlier, in 1526, the Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon brought the first European livestock (cows, pigs, horses, and sheep) to America in present-day Georgia. These animals were not native to America, but the hogs naturally took to the environment and began to thrive in Georgia. Later, in 1603, we have detailed descriptions of the Spanish Friars slow-roasting pork on raised wooden barbecue racks on the coast of Georgia.

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Leonard Gill of "Razorback Cookers" from Blytheville, AR checks on the whole hog he is cooking at the Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest on May 2, 1980. (Leonard Atkins / The Commercial Appeal files). http://bar-b-q.net
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