Pork Butt Tips for Competition
Starting a Charcoal Chimney
Lighting a Charcoal chimney is really easy if you know what to do. Parrafin wax cubes (available from Weber and others) make it super simple to just light. But newspaper is often the most available. Liquid Charcoal lighter can give food an off taste.
See the quick how to video here.
Tips For Grilling Steaks on a Gas Grill
By Andre Savoie
Grilled to Perfection: Tips to Keep the Sizzle in Your Gas Grilled Steak
Are you tired of guessing the best ways to prepare the grill and the meat? Have you eaten enough over-cooked, dry steak? Have you wondered how restaurants produce those steaks with the picture perfect grilling pattern? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of those questions, then you will appreciate these simple tips. Here are some answers to common questions about grilling steaks.
- What temperature? Before you get started, determine how everyone likes their steak cooked. Use the highest heat for rare or medium-rare, and medium heat for medium or well-done. This sounds counterintuitive, but the rarer steaks need to cook fast at a high heat in order to sear the outside and keep the inside rare. The more well-done steaks should cook slowly on a medium heat in order to avoid burning the outside and drying out the inside.
- How to prepare the grill? Oil the grill by brushing a thin layer of oil on the grates. You can also rub the steak fat onto the grate using tongs.
- How to prepare the meat? While the grill is heating, remove the steaks from the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature before placing on the grill. Rinse and trim the fat.
- How to treat the meat? Keep the steaks moist and tender by coating with a thin layer of cooking oil and the seasoning of your choice. A little salt and as much pepper as you like are good default seasonings. You can also try garlic powder, or a dash of cayenne pepper.
- When to flip the steak? Look for signs that the steak is starting to bleed through. You’ll see small red spots, which will tell you it’s time to flip the steak over.
- Although you only need to flip it once, flipping it multiple times will create a nice criss-cross pattern. Grill each steak for one minute. Turn on the grill on the other side for one minute. Then, turn and replace at a 45-degree angle for half of the remaining cooking time. Turn once more at a different 45-degree angle for the final minutes on the grill.
- How long should it cook? Although a thermometer (see below) is suggested, it’s good to have a general idea of how long to cook each steak. Here are some general guidelines, depending on the thickness of the steak:
- 1″ Thick Steaks – Rare 8-10 minutes, Medium 12-14 minutes, Well 16-20 minutes
- 1 1/2″ Thick Steaks – Rare 10-16 minutes, Medium 16-20 minutes, Well 22-26 minutes
- 2″ Thick Steaks – Rare 12-16 minutes, Medium 18-22 minutes, Well 24-28 minutes
- When is the meat done? We all know the cut and look method to determine of the meat is done. This isn’t ideal, because if it’s too late, then you’ve overcooked the steak. If it’s too soon, then you run the risk of drying out the meat. This is the perfect time to use a meat thermometer, ideally a meat fork.
- When is the meat ready to eat? The steak continues to cook for abut 5minutes after you remove it from the grill. Keep this in mind when determining the optimal temperature for your preferred ‘doneness’. Let the steaks rest for 5 minutes before eating.
Few things say summer like the sizzle and aroma of a steak cooking on your gas grill. Grilling the perfect steak may be easier than you realize. And if you follow these easy tips, you’ll be sure to dazzle your guests and family. Just remember that with a little preparation, some patience, and the right tools, grilling the perfect steak to please everyone is easy. Follow these tips, and you can just sit back and relax. Let your grill do the work for you.
Andre’ Savoie writes for BBQGrillCompany.com who offers high quality Lynx BBQ grills brands. We also offer articles that will teach you how to best use your grill including steak grilling tips.
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Big Green Egg Grill – Smoking and BBQ
By H Krafston
The great thing about the Big Green Egg Grill is the diversity of cooking choices that you have available to you, including the option of smoking foods, grilling, as well as outdoor baking.
The Green Egg Grill is a well designed barbecue that’s easy to set up and very simple to use. It is available in a number of different sizes, depending on the amount of cooking that you need to do. It comes in a mini version, what they call an original version, large, and extra large. Obviously the more food that you tend to cook with each barbecue, or the more guests that you entertain, then the more cooking space you need. This will usually lead you to one of the larger models. If you’re in doubt give the company a call since their customer service is excellent.
This grill is very functional in all types of weather. So even if you live in northern climates you can obtain great cooking results even in the middle of winter when it’s snowing and cold. The key is the unique shape and construction of the BBQ which uses ceramic for the walls. The ceramic material can withstand very cold temperatures, and it also allows the grill to heat up to as much as 1800°F. Of course when you’re outside cooking in the middle of a snowstorm your next door neighbor may think that you’re a bit odd, but they won’t think so the next time you invite them over to try some of your barbecued food.
The construction of the Green Egg Grill allows it to maintain a consistent temperature for a long time even though you are using traditional charcoal. For example, if you want to slow cook ribs or other meets at a very low temperature, say 250°F for several hours you don’t have to worry about temperature variations nearly as much as you would with a normal BBQ.
This barbecue is very versatile and allows you to slow cook your food, but it’s also great for smoking meats and grilling different types of vegetables and fish. You can also use this grill to simulate a brick oven to cook pizzas with exceptionally flavorful. Everyone’s heard about the famous fire cooked pizzas in New York, and this grill can simulate those conditions with the extreme heating and brick ceramic walls.
As well, there are a number of accessories that are made specifically for this grill, including a walk gadget that allows you to stir fry rice or vegetables very easily. Another accessory that many people will find useful is the handy fish great. Grilling fish has always been a difficult thing for many people to master, because it is very easy to overcook fish and lose all of the flavor and enjoyment. With this barbecue even the most novice chef should be able to create tender fish dishes with the slow consistent cooking.
This is a long-lasting product, and your investment should last for many years. Conventional barbecues cannot come close to some of the flavors that are achievable with the Green Egg Grill.
Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the Green Egg Grill for smoking and barbequing. The information packed Big Green Egg Grill website will teach you everything you need to know about selecting your next BBQ.
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Pita Chips – Making Them Easy
Barbecue’s big flavors often call for a collection of robust sides. Often times a backyard cookout is accompanied by some cheap potato chips. Here’s a way to dress it up and offer a slightly healthier (baked) alternative. Sure you can buy pita chips in the store, but they tend to be small overpriced bags and not enough for small gathering.
Go ahead and try to make these chips at home they’re super easy and we nailed it on the first try.
Garlic Pita Chips
1-2 packages pita bread
Olive oil
Seasoned salt
Garlic powder
Olive oil spray
- Cut pita bread in half, then cut each half into four triangles and separate each triangle.
- Place chips on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and brush heavily with olive oil.
- Sprinkle salt and garlic powder over all. (One side only for best result.)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.
- Flip chips and spray with olive oil spray.
- Bake 6-8 more minutes until golden brown. (For convection, use 325 degrees and only 6 minutes on the second round.)
- Drain on a paper towel and serve with your favorite dip!
Grilled Fruit For Summer
We’ve spotted some nice grilled fruit recipes lately. One included the nice tip of using long natual cinnamon sticks a skewers… another including cubes of pound cake along with the fruit on kebabs. But here’s a simple and elegant pinapple trick that’s sure to please from a new book called “Sizzle.”
Grilled Pineapple
The sight of grilled pineapple with a caramelized glaze makes me think of summer, no matter what time of year it is. But sugary fruits make a right mess of the barbecue hot plate (griddle). Fortunately, the mess is easily removed with water. Squirt plenty of water on the plate while it is still hot, scrape it clean, wipe with an old towel and it’ll be just like new.
Serves 4-8
1 firm but ripe pineapple, peeled, cut into thick rounds, then into quarters
1/2 – 1 cup brown sugar
Vanilla ice cream for serving
Bamboo skewers, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes
Thread pineapple pieces onto bamboo skewers. (Threading pineapple onto bamboo skewers is easier if you pierce the pieces with a metal skewer first.)
Put brown sugar on a large plate and turn skewers in it to coat. Cook over medium heat on a barbecue hot plate (cast-iron griddle) until lightly browned (the hot plate should be clean but not oiled – the juice will soon run out of the pineapple as it heats). Transfer to a plate and serve with ice cream.
Alternatively, cut the pineapple into eighths, coat in sugar, then cook on a barbecue hot plate.
* * *
Recipes from SIZZLE: Sensational Barbecue Food by Julie Biuso
(Julie Biuso Publications, April 2008, $19.95/softcover)
BBQ Grill Cleaning The Easy Way
Barbecue Cleaning Made Simple
By Steven Aucoin
During the early part of the year, a journey around the garden leaves us looking at the remains of last years outdoor cooking activities. Often, our grills are left outside in the elements, uncovered, and in many cases have seen far better days.
It is this time of year that we start to think about cooking our favourite barbecue food outside during the warmer months with our friends and family, but before we are ready to start throwing charcoal and fire-lighters onto the barbecue, it is time to turn our attention to cleaning our cooking hardware in order to get things off to a hygienic start.
BBQ cleaning methods
Wire brushing
A stiff wire brush is a huge help in cleaning your grill. Simply give your rack a thorough scrubbing before and after each use. If you have used oil to coat your rack, getting the grill clean should be easy with a brush alone. Brass-bristle brushes are especially good for cleaning porcelain-coated grills since they won’t damage the porcelain.
Grill Stones
Grill stones are specially designed to help get grease and stuck-on food off of your grill. They look similar to a large pumice stone with a handle to help make scrubbing easier and is also an excellent heat convector like volcanic rock, ceramic tiles etc. The main difference with a grill stone is that it has no holes, and because of this feature, it greatly reduces the chance of flare-ups and poor cooking. Grill stones are capable of withstanding incredible heat, up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Grill stones are ideal for use on most shapes and sizes of grill as the stones design allows it to work with almost any grill format.
Burning off
This is one of the most common methods of cleaning BBQ grills/grates. All you have to do is leave your barbecue on after cooking once all your food has been removed. Once you have done this for around quarter of an hour, allow the grill to cool down for around 5 minutes and then use an old trowel, or flat piece of metal and gently scrape both sides of the grill to remove the sticky hard residue. Please be aware that ceramic grills can get damaged very easily if too much force is applied with sharp objects, so be careful with your choice of tools.
If you have an old metal kitchen utensil, such as an egg-flipper, these are ideal tools to make the job safer and easier.
However, you should be careful that this method is not prohibited by the grill manufacturer in order that you don’t accidentally void your warranty.
Please ensure your own safety if you use this method by wearing a suitable pair of cooking mitts, or specialised heat resistant gloves.
Soaking
If all else fails, letting your grill racks soak in warm water will help loosen stubborn dirt and food remnants. This can be good for getting the edges of your racks, which are often difficult to scrub properly, really clean.
Oiling the grill
A good way to reduce the pain of cleaning a barbecue is to prevent the worst of the residue from sticking to the grill in the first place. To do this, coat your rack with a layer of oil before you start to cook. This will help you to keep your food from burning and sticking to the grill and will also make cleaning the grill afterwards much easier. Remember to only spray oil onto a cold grill. Spraying onto a fire or hot grill will cause the oil to flare up and could cause serious injury.
Steam cleaning
If you use your barbecue on several occasions throughout the year why not invest in a steam cleaner? This will speed up the time taken to clean your barbecue after use and can be very effective indeed; therefore if you are fed up with scrubbing to remove the BBQ residue, an investment in a steam cleaner can be very useful and time saving.
When you having finished cooking your food, soak an old newspaper in water and place it on top of your warmed grill with the lid firmly shut. After about three quarters of an hour, open the lid and wipe off the residue. Don’t let the newspaper sit on the grill rack for too long, as it will dry out and create even more work for you.
Preventative measures to keep your BBQ clean
Using a cover on your barbecue
The number one way to help keep your barbecue clean is to simply purchase, or make, a cover to place on your unit while it is not in use. In order to give your barbecue some protection from the elements it’s a good idea to cover it with a plastic sheet, or preferably a manufacturers cover that is specifically designed to do the job properly as they generally have a tighter fit and are more effective.
During the winter months you may also remove the grill and store it in a dry place away from the damp and the elements. This will decrease the speed at which the rust forms, and you will benefit the most by doing this in conjunction with the oiling method mentioned above.
This helps to inhibit rust during the months when your barbecue is not in regular use.
The foil “tray”
Now that you have the basics of cleaning the grill covered, you should now turn your attention to cleaning the internals of the barbecue.
After several uses, there is a fair amount of gunk left at the bottom that hasn’t benefited particularly from being left outside in the elements. Over time, this build-up can become unhygienic as well as an additional chore for you to deal with.
Charcoal grills suffer the most from this, and the best way to deal with it without spending a great deal of money is to first clean the inside of the barbecue properly by removing the hard and dry residue first using an old dustpan a brush (something all of us should have in the garage somewhere), and then removing the stuck-on dirt from the edges of the grill using general household cleaners. There are plenty of specific BBQ cleaners available, though these can cost two or three times as much as regular household cleaners. Feel free to give them a try, though from experience, regular cleaners perform the task adequately.
Simply spray on a decent amount of the fluid and allow it to soak in properly for around 10 minutes, then gently scrape off the worst of the build-up with a plastic scraper. Once you have got this far you are ready to lay in the kitchen foil.
Use a decent quality kitchen foil, the thicker the better, and triple layer it and turn in the edges so it looks like a tray. Place this into the bottom of your grill, and then add about a quarter-inch deep layer of sand into it. This will help to absorb the fat and excess juices that drain from the grill during cooking, and make your life MUCH easier in the long run.
After several uses, simply remove the whole tray and discard it. Give the inside of the grill a quick brush and wipe, and insert another of your home-made foil trays to keep your BBQ clean for the next few uses.
If you don’t mind spending a little extra money, you can use a catering foil tray and dispose of it after every few uses… just use common sense and get rid of it when it appears well past its best.
Another tip you can try, is to pour leftover coffee on the grill. Clean off with a dry cloth. For a really good clean, spray the grill with your regular oven cleaner and leave it in a plastic garbage bag overnight. Hose it down the next day, and you should have a gleaming grill that is ready to use.
You can also add vinegar or dish washing lotion to the water for additional cleaning power.
Another well-used grill cleaning method is to simply rub the grill in the sand. This will remove most of the grease, etc. Once you have done this, hose down the grill. Depending on how caked the grill is, you may have to repeat this process 2 or 3 or times, but it is worth the effort.
Gas taps often become hard to use during the colder months, causing plastic knobs to crack and in the worst cases, break. Remove the plastic knobs and spray the area with a light oil to loosen them. You can also try using a small amount of machine oil to each tap and then cover them with a light grease to prevent the oil from escaping.
If one or more of your burners doesn’t produce a strong blue flame then it may be because a gas jet has become clogged.
If you lift the burner out of the barbecue you will see small brass nozzles called venturis. These are like a small raised nut with a tiny hole through them. They can be simply removed with a small spanner. If you can’t clear the blockage, buy new nozzles ones from a specialist supplier.
Insects tend to nest inside venturis when they are not in use, and the openings can become blocked. Use a venturi brush to clean the openings of the venturis. If you won’t be using your grill for a long time, consider using some venturi covers to prevent anything from getting inside.
Reconnect the gas supply and check the connections by coating them with a 1:1 mix of dishwasher liquid and water. Any failings in the gas supply will be easily detected at this point and you will know that you will need to do something about repairing it. You can start off by tightening the connections or replacing the seals, and if this doesn’t work, then you should replace the faulty unit as per the manufacturers instructions or return it to your local service centre.
Barbecues with wooden trolleys can be kept in fine fettle by re-oiling them once a year. All you have to do is give the trolley a gently sanding with some high grit paper and then use a suitable furniture oil or a specially formulated barbecue trolley oil. This will not only soak through oil stains on the top of your trolley but help prevent new stains from forming.
Volcanic rocks need care too, if you use them. Ensure that you clean or renew them every year as they always become clogged with fat and oil. Remember to discard the old sand from the drip tray, clean the tray and give it a spray of cooking oil before lining it with aluminium foil. Place new washed sand on top of the foil to help keep it clean.
If your volcanic rocks are showing signs of cracking, you can replace them you may consider replacing them with porcelain briquettes. These disc-shaped “rocks” are less porous than volcanic rocks and they are considerably easier to keep clean.
If you live near the sea or in an area where the salt-air density is high, please note that will need to take extra time and precautions to ensure that your grill is not unduly subjected to the elements which will invariably lead to failing components and rust.
Wash the outer surface periodically with fresh water and dry it off straight away for the best results.
You can find more great barbecue tips, ideas and barbecue recipes at Barbecue Party.
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Cooks Grill Recall
What to do when your new grill get’s recalled? From the Consumer Product Safety Board:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Cooks Outdoor® BBQ Grills
Units: About 5,600
Recalled Grill
Importer: JCPenney Purchasing Corp., of Plano, Texas
Hazard: The drip pan on the grill does not allow for adequate drainage, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.
Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received 11 reports of fires resulting from inadequate drainage. No injuries reported.
Description: This recall involves Cooks® brand outdoor BBQ grills. The grill has a digital thermometer on the hood, stainless steel top and a global LP regulator. Lot number 780-2176 is printed on the underside of the grill’s stand.
Sold exclusively at: JCPenney stores nationwide and online at www.jcp.com from February 2009 through September 2009 for between $190 and $600.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled grills. To ensure the grills are not useable, consumers should remove the gas regulator and hose assembly. All consumers (whether they purchased the item online or at a JCPenney retail stores) should return the regulator and hose to the Catalog/Customer Service Desk at any JCPenney store for a full refund. Consumers should contact JCPenney for instructions on how to disconnect the gas regulator and hose.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact JCPenney toll-free at (888) 333-6063 anytime of visit the firm’s Web site at www.jcp.com
How to Marinate Anything
How to Marinate Anything
By Todd Mohr
Everyone loves to have their favorite foods cooked to perfection on the grill. And learning how to marinate is an important step in achieving this perfection. marinating is a cooking method – or at the very least an important prelude to many cooking methods – that needs to be understood in itself. It is much more than simply soaking your favorite meat in your favorite salad dressing before slapping it on the grill. Or at least it should be! There are some tricks to getting it right and lucky for you, they are simple and you will learn them right here!
Marinate with a Mission.
You’re probably wondering if you really need to learn how to marinate for great grilling. My general mantra when it comes to cooking is that there are no unbreakable rules. So I guess, in sticking with that, you don’t HAVE to do anything. But before you decide your reading for now is over, let me give you some quick reasons why you might WANT to marinate. marinating meats imparts flavor, adds moisture, and can (to a degree) tenderize meat. The first secret to great marinating is learning how to match the correct marinate with the correct cut of meat and then apply the correct cooking method. This simple formula will produce great results every time.
Proceed with Caution (but not too much!).
In learning how to marinate, one of the things to determine is what meat you plan to use. A common mistake is to overestimate the meat tenderizing results that can be achieved with marinating. Yes, marinating will provide SOME tenderizing – but only some. You still cannot take shoe leather, marinate it and cut it with a butter knife. It’s not going to happen – and expecting that will only produce those disappointing results I mentioned before. Like anything else you cook, it is always best to start with good ingredients and to consider the end result you desire. In addition, muscle tissue will absorb marinate better than fat tissue so using an overly fatty piece of meat will result in very little marinating actually getting into your product.
There is a Method to the Madness (and to the marinate).
Making your own marinate is easy and ingredient options are virtually limitless. In most marinates, the essential ingredient is an acid, which acts as a slight tenderizer, but the type of acid you choose is completely open to your creativity and the type of dish you are making. Wine, lemon juice, tomato juice, balsamic vinegar, orange juice pineapple juice and margarita mix are all fairly common acids that work great in marinates. Adding oil is also an option, but keep in mind that the oil itself will not be drawn into the muscle tissue. Oil in this case is used solely for flavoring so if you use oil, choose a flavored oil. Fresh herbs and spices can also add flavor to marinates and you’ve got lots of choices here, too. When using herbs, remember that whole herbs release their flavor slowly so they work best for long marinates. If you are going with a quicker marinate, grind up the herbs before use to impart their flavor more quickly. Then you just make it up! Yes, you read that correctly. There is no recipe here because there are hundreds of recipes for marinates and I don’t know what you like or what you’re making. The key to cooking success is to learn the basic cooking methods, the techniques of achieving the end result you desire, and then let your taste, imagination and your unique situation be the guide for making up your very own marinate recipe, which might be different each and every time you marinate.
The only Reaction should be a Good One.
Always place the product you are marinating (with the marinate) in an air-tight container to keep the moisture in. Remember – one of the reasons we are going through this process is to add moisture so you don’t want to lose it at the same time! How long you let the juices soak in to the meat depends on how much time you have and the cut of meat you are using. The thicker the meat, the longer you will have to marinate to impart the flavor into the protein. Remember to use an acid-resistant container such as stainless steel. Don’t use copper or pewter as this can react with the acid, making those who eat the food sick. Finally, always store the container in the refrigerator for the entire duration – until you cook the meat. Remember to always discard the marinate after you have finished marinating and never re-use the marinate during the cooking process because it has had raw meat soaking in it for a length of time. In these ways, you are ensuring food safety.
So – what will you make this weekend? Relax. You know how to marinate and you’ve got a whole summer of delicious experimentation ahead of you!
Chef Todd Mohr is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur, educator and host of the “Cooking Coarse” video series. For more details on Cooking by Method and how you can cook better everyday at home, visit Chef Todd’s website http://www.i-hate-cooking-recipes.com/ where you can view over 150 free cooking videos and subscribe to the Free monthly e-zine “Burn Your Recipes.”
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