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The History of Grilling

By June 22, 2022May 8th, 2024Recipes
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Outdoor cooking in the backyard has become a seasonal tradition in the United States: As soon as the first hints of spring hit, neighborhoods are full of people firing up their grills for the first outdoor gathering of the year. Outdoor cooking also goes hand in hand with summer celebrations such as Independence Day and Father’s Day. But this isn’t just a modern phenomenon: Grilling dates back thousands of years, back to the first humans who figured out how to use fire to cook food.

Discovering How to Use Fire

using fire

Harnessing the use of fire was one of the most significant achievements of humans. The first humans didn’t have grills to cook their food, but they did discover that holding meat over an open flame was an excellent way to cook the meat. Not only did the cooked meat taste much better, but it was also easier to digest than raw meat. Raw food may be rich in calories, but the body is able to use the energy from cooked foods much more readily. Cooking meats also kills potentially dangerous bacteria and parasites, which can cause serious illness.

The First Cooking

first cooking

It’s impossible to determine exactly when humans started cooking their food, but scientists think that human cooking may have begun about 400,000 years ago. Research shows that humans definitely had larger teeth and digestive tracts (to accommodate raw foods) and smaller brains at one time. Slowly, brains became larger and teeth and digestive tracts smaller, which scientists believe is due to eating cooked foods. The oldest type of cooking was open fire cooking, or cooking meats over an open flame. In fact, humans likely placed their food right into the fire without suspending it over the flames. Eventually, spits were devised that would hold meat over the flames to cook it more evenly.

The Evolution of Cooking With Fire

grilling evolution

Cooking meat over an open flame evolved into newer ways to cook. Indigenous tribes discovered that it was possible to add green wood to a fire to make it burn lower and longer. Cooking meat over this type of fire was an indirect method that wouldn’t char the meat. Spanish explorers named this cooking method “barbacoa,” which is the root of the word “barbecue.” Spanish explorers who came to America after Christopher Columbus introduced this cooking method to indigenous tribes living in America, and they adopted it readily. Colonists also cooked their meat this way. It wasn’t long until barbecues became a way to bring people together to celebrate. People had barbecues to celebrate holidays, and they were used as military and political events, too. Politicians would hold huge barbecues to promote their campaigns and policies.

Modern Grilling

modern grill

After World War II, suburban living became popular in America. Families had homes with backyards, and they began to cook outdoors with family and friends. Backyard cookouts gained traction during the 1950s. The first modern grill was made by George Stephen in 1952. Stephen was a metalworker working for Weber Brothers Metal Works. This first grill was round, opened at the center point with a hinge, was supported by three legs, and had a grate on the lower half to hold the food over the fire. During the 1960s, the first propane grills were devised, and these grills quickly became popular.