In this edition, the focus is barbecuing, which is heating up with the onset of summer.

Nearly two-thirds of American households have a smoker or grill (per Global Newswire). “Barbecue” refers to wooden frames used for smoking, drying or roasting meat and/or fish. Barbecues in North American reportedly began among the Caribbean’s indigenous people, though European colonists brought the grilling method to Americans. Historian Lance Geiger explains in the video A History of Barbecue: “In 1514, explorer Hernando de Soto attended a feast with the Chickasaw tribe in what is present-day Mississippi, where a pig was roasted on a barbecue.” Illinois welder George Stephen is credited with inventing the modern grill, circa 1952.