Although the exact origins of the term barbecue are unknown, conventional wisdom dictates that the Spanish, upon landing in the Caribbean, used the word barbacoa to refer to the natives’ method of slow-cooking meat over a wooden platform.

By the 19th century, this ancient culinary technique was well established in the American South. Over the years, the science of cooking meat over indirect heat evolved and “Pitmasters” began designing and building their own custom smokers or “pits”.