I recently spent a magical weekend at a buddy’s cottage, where I discovered that no one actually owns their own cottage, but that they all have friends who do. Aside from the swimming, boating, water-skiing, drinking, laughing, fireside chatting, mother nature connecting and acoustic guitar playing, my favourite part of the weekend was hands down the non-stop barbecuing. Literally every meal involved tossing some form of meat on the grill, whose billowing clouds of delicious smoke must have done to the creatures of the forest what KFC does to all humanoids within a nine block radius.

Which brings me to our last dinner of the weekend. For the first time in my life—a fact that my friends consider sacrilege and I consider shocking—I experienced a Beer Can Chicken. Also known as “Chicken on the Throne,” the meal involves stuffing the business end of a chicken (already dead of course) with an opened can of your favourite brewskie. You then place the whole situation inside your heated barbecue, where you let it cook for a few hours, as the delicious beer bubbles and soaks up into the meat of the chicken. Easily the strangest thing I’ve ever seen involving a barbecue, and easily the one thing I will request that no one does to my body after I’m gone. Over the last few days I’ve been searching for more strange recipes, but what I came up with was an even more interesting list of bizarre barbecue facts.

1. We cook, therefore we is smarter…

According to biological anthropologist and Harvard University Professor Richard Wrangham, cooking meat over an open flame is largely responsible for the evolution of the human brain. Roughly 1.6 million years ago there’s evidence that humans started cooking their meat with controlled fire. This is the same time when our species experienced a major advancement in the evolution and growth or our brains. Wrangham argues that much of the energy that used to help us consume difficult-to-digest raw foods became freed up to grow our brains, thanks to cooking which made protein much easier to digest. I knew it! I knew barbecuing made me smartest!

2. A grill by any other name, would still cook as sweet…

According to many language historians the word “barbecue” comes from barbacoa, used by the Taino people of the Caribbean, which translates to “sacred fire pit.” Those crazy Tainotians had the right idea, as barbecues are indeed sacred. The French have tried to claim the original use of the word, saying that when they visited the Caribbean, and they saw an entire pig being cooked over an open flame, they described the process as barbe à queue, meaning "from beard to tail." The French clearly had no idea what they were talking about, as pigs don’t have beards but swine-staches.

3. The world’s most delicious camouflage…

This month marks the anniversary of the Wisconsin man who broke into a couple’s house, completely covered from head-to-toe in barbecue sauce (or from barbe à queue if you’re French). The husband held the saucy intruder at gunpoint until the cops arrived. The man claimed he was wearing “urban camouflage” to “hide from the government.” Now I’ve never been to Wisconsin, but I’d love to visit a place where you’d need to cover yourself in bbq sauce to blend in with your surroundings.

4. The world’s longest BBQ

In July 2008—while BBQ Sauce Man was breaking into Wisconsin basements—the Russians were cooking up a 335-foot storm. Using 250 skewers they cooked 500 sausages over the hot coals contained in the world’s longest barbecue. See images of the sausage party.

5. The world’s meatiest BBQ

Russia may have had the longest barbecue, but Uruguay had the most meat. In April 2008, chefs cooked up 12 tons of meat (30,000 pounds) to raise awareness about Uruguay’s delicious main dish. Over 20,000 people were on hand to eat up the promotion.