The Smok-Shak in Ingersol is a local legend and, according to Amanda Foreman in The Wall Street Journal, there are 30,000 BBQ joints in the United States. It’s safe to say that the majority of Americans like barbecue.

Barbecue is described as cooking meat with an indirect flame at low temperature over seasoned wood or charcoal, allowing the heated smoke to do the cooking. Pellet smokers are popular and the concept is the same. Grilling is not the same as barbecue.

Barbecue is a centuries-old tradition whose origin may have been the Caribbean where indigenous peoples placed a whole anima...