In most American households, women do the cooking inside and men do the cooking outside.

If you look way back in human history (the 1950’s), there’s a reason for this.

The first outdoor BBQ likely occurred half a million years ago shortly after the domestication of fire and around the time of Nancy Pelosi’s birth. But it wasn’t until the middle of the 20^th Century, when George Stephen inherited part of the Weber Metal Spinning Company in the Chicago area, that man conquered the modern BBQ cooker.

The company made harbor buoys. But, George saw something beyond a buoy. He saw man’s outdoor cooking future.

George cut a buoy in half, turned the bottom into a place to hold the fire and hinged the top as a lid. The rest, as they say, is history.

I believe that it was George’s ability to see into the future that gave men and women their respective places to cook. With the new BBQ cooker, all of the men now had a reason to go outside and talk about the women, and the women had a reason to stay inside and talk about the men.

It was this defining of the roles that brought the cooking cosmos into alignment.

Prior to the modern BBQ cooker, social visits occurred in “The Parlor” where everyone dressed in their Sunday best, sipped coffee, ate dainty cakes and talked about the sinners in the community.

With the new outdoor cooker, the men could go outside in shorts and flip-flops and guzzle beer, while the women ate dainty cakes inside and talked about the sinners in shorts and flip-flops guzzling beer on the patio.

The modern BBQ grill also revealed some interesting facts:

1)    Men can’t make macaroni out of a box on the stovetop, but they can somehow perfect a rack of ribs on a grill.

2)    Men can’t remember how old their children are, but they know the exact number of rib eyes that will fit on their BBQ.

3)    Men can’t remember to pick up milk two days in a row, but they’ll never run out of beer on a patio.

I personally own a Big Green Egg. It’s a ceramic outdoor cooker that weighs about as much as a Prius and looks like a flying avocado. To me, it’s a thing of beauty. And it makes an amazing beer can chicken.

Good thing I have plenty of buddies to provide the empty cans.

©2014 John Moore