Georgia Barbecue

Author Ed Reilly cooks up a mouth-watering history of barbecue in the Peach State .

Over 5,000 years ago Native Americans built the first wooden barbecue racks and smoked whole animals on the banks of the Savannah River. 500 years ago, the first European livestock (beef, pork) were introduced to Georgia and the word "barbecue" was first recorded in America. The colony of Georgia was founded with a large barbecue feast, and the state holds claim to the first packaged barbecue sauce, the first barbecue restaurant and the first barbecue grill. Now Georgia is headquarters to the largest barbecue grill retailer and the winningest man in barbecue. Whether you use "barbecue" as a noun, verb or adjective, there is a home for it in Georgia, the original state of barbecue.