Israel Is The Home Of The BBQ

Forget your South African braai, your Australian barbie or your July 4th cook out. The home of the real, original BBQ is Israel.

An ancient limestone cave in the rolling countryside east of Tel Aviv has provided a captivating glimpse into humanity’s remote past—the oldest known hearth, around which families periodically cooked their meals more than 300,000 years ago.

It’s “the first-ever fireplace,” said Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ran Barkai in an email, and the earliest-known evidence of domestication of fire. Bringing home and roasting meat are “two very human phenomena that for us seem natural, but really are not. [The hearth] belongs to a crucial time in human biological and cultural evolution.”

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Oh yeah baby, and I know how I’m going to be celebrating this!

Chicken on the BBQ

 h/t Touring Israel on Facebook

3 thoughts on “Israel Is The Home Of The BBQ”

  1. Please, before you Israelis char another food item into an unrecognizable black clump, please learn and embrace one fundamental concept of good grilling: indirect heat.

    1. Oh you don’t know me Jim! I’m a stickler for properly cooked meat. The chicken, obviously, is cooked through and you’ll note I cook on direct heat for only 3 or 4 minutes (they’re very thin filets of thigh) then they move to the outside to stay warm. I can cook 2 or 3 kg of chicken this way and when I serve it all, it’s all deliciously moist.

      As steaks go I’m a rare man but yes, too many Israelis insist on a charred black lump. That’s their loss.

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