May 16 is National Barbecue Day
Are you ready for a lazy backyard barbecue meal today?
From sweet and saucy, to simple and smoky, you can always find your favorite,
Celebrate! It’s National Barbecue day!
Did you know…
- Grilling is no longer considered a male dominated activity. While 51 percent of males cha-cha with the charcoal, 49 percent of women flamenco with the flames.
- 263,000 moist towelettes will wipe up BBQ sauce covering fingers and faces.
- The most common ingredient added to barbecue sauce is garlic, followed by brown sugar.
- The original barbecue sauce, dating back hundreds of years, consisted of vinegar and pepper.
- Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, hosted the first barbecue at the White House that featured Texas-style barbecued ribs.
Today’s Food History
- 1832 Philip Danforth Armour was born. An American industrialist, he was a pioneer in use of refrigeration and meat canning. Armour & Co. helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.
- 1861 R.I.P. John Stevens Henslow. This British clergyman and botanist was a mentor of Charles Darwin. To get farmers to apply scientific methods, he gave lectures on the fermentation of manure. He also showed Irish farmers how to get starch from rotten potatoes during the potato famine of 1845-1846.
- 1866 Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
- 1947 R.I.P. Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. He discovered what we now call ‘vitamins,’ essential nutrients needed to maintain health.
- 2005 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Michigan and New York could not prohibit people from buying wine online from out of state wineries. Some 23 other states have similar laws that presumably would also be affected by the ruling.