By Jason Wood
“Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network.” (Exodus 27:1-3).
Yes, these verses from Exodus describe the design for the arc of the covenant, used to transport the ten commandments, but one can’t help notice the addition of pots to remove ashes, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks, firepans and grates. Sounds like a barbecue to me, a nice bronze-lined barbecue at that.
Even Noah, who managed to save a breeding pair of each animal from the flood, couldn’t resist barbecuing a few of them when he got out of the ark.
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:20-21)
So, at least one authoritative religious source, the Bible, makes it clear that barbecue is the food of the gods, who desired the ‘pleasing aroma’. The historical context also provides us with imagery of ancient pitmaster-priests taking animals, sacrificing them, butchering them, preparing them and cooking them, sending the scent of slowly cooked meat and smoke towards the heavens. This combined, it shows barbecue and religion share much in common, not just in ancient times but nowadays. The cooking of large pieces of meat and whole animals over a live fire brings together our families, friends and brethren, celebrating a common faith (whatever that is).
This is absolutely the essence of the barbecue community…the barbecue family. Barbecue is arguably a way of cooking that still reveres the meat and the use of the whole animal in a way that most other modern cooking practices do not. If you are still unconvinced about the role of religion in barbecue and vice versa, then I challenge any seasoned pitmaster to deny they haven’t prayed to the great god of barbecue, or whichever god they subscribe to, that their brisket or pork butt eventually emerges from the stall, or that your pit will hold a steady temperature. I certainly have.
If the Bible tells us that barbecue was what the gods wanted us to offer them, and that ancient priests were also pitmasters, who made barbecue the way to show their appreciation to the gods, then we should rejoice in knowing that what we cook on our barbecues is nothing less than food that is fit for the gods.
The Author. Jason Wood is an avid backyard barbecue chef, cooking almost solely on his Weber he loves all aspects of barbecue and what it has to offer. He recently completed a Master of Business Administration at the University of Northampton where he was awarded a distinction for his dissertation on the sustainability of the UK barbecue food industry. He runs an emergent blog on barbecue, smoking and what he likes to call ‘barbecology’, an area he aims to blog more on some of the wider aspects of barbecue beyond just the recipes.
To find out more go to www.hopsmokefire.com or @hopsmokefire on Twitter and Instagram.
51