If you have ever smoked meat or enjoyed pit barbecue (which goes back further than you think), you should thank a pirate. These were assembled by weaving greenwood branches into a lattice-type surface that would secure meat on top, while smoke would slow-cook it from underneath. It was the Tupi who introduced these conquistadores to cooking meat by smoke. They became known as "boucaniers" for their savvy method of smoking meat. To earn a living, many of them began pirating Spanish ships, earning the name "buccaneers," and spread their boucan cooking throughout the Caribbean to places like Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.