1 - (Mexico) Barbecue. Meat slow roasted and smoked with various hardwoods. 2 - (Cuba) A sleeping platform used to increase living area, so called because the occupants are "roasted" by the hotter air in the upper level and the hot roof. Barbacoas have become common in Havana as the centrally planned economy has been unable to meed basic housing nneds
In Mexico, the term barbecue is applied mainly to refer to the traditional method of preparing various meats, either lamb, beef, goat and eventually rabbit, chicken, fish, deer and iguana, which has been prepared by boiling her in their own juice or steamed.While the method of cooking is basically pre-Columbian, used ingredients that arrived with the Europeans to the Americas. This also applies to materials used in its preparation. It should be noted that similar cooking methods are used in various parts of the world.Is in the Mexican Highlands ( in the territories of the States of Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Querétaro and Mexico ) where comes the method considered as traditional and that it is the most widely spread, however there are various alternative methods in the different regions of Mexico. for preparing barbecue is needed an oven digging a hole of about 1 meter and a half deep. This should be covered by a layer of stones ( preferably from the bed of some watercourse ) that it must be heated the previous day. Selected meat, preferably a young RAM, ( together with parts of viscera in some 41 recipes; It should be slightly spicy and usually wrapped in maguey pencas1. The well is also of pencas maguey which serve as insulation and that will give the meat its characteristic flavour. Place a container on the bed of stones that will serve to capture the juice says goodbye to meat during his cooking and is known as consommé. They are covered both and the furnace lid already with the same pencas, stones or a layer of soil. Ignites a fire above this in which various materials are used ( usually logs of wood of ocote, diverse cacti and dry zacates up charcoal ) and let it cook for about 12 hours.Various combinations of chiles, spices and other ingredients make this versatile dish. You can also prepare steamed by placing the meat in a steamer.The Mexican State of Hidalgo inhabitants consider it its traditional dish. Today you can talk about a local industry for the preparation of this food, and that is appreciated, both nationals and foreigners, local restaurants, as well as neighbouring States, taking as one of its main markets, the city of Mexico.
