The mere thought of barbecue's smokey scents and intoxicating flavors is enough to get most mouths watering. However, there is a lot of chemistry that sets barbecue apart from other cooking methods and results in such a delicious experience.  

 Cooking is the process of using high temperatures to drive chemical reactions that change food at a molecular level.

Barbecue: Open flame cooking

On a barbecue, the hot grill grates heat the food via direct contact through a process known as conduction

The food also warms and cooks by absorbing radiation directly from the flames below