The trick is to smoke the meat and not make the meat smoke
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2008 Blog Archive

Here is the ARCHIVE OF BLOGS for this year with links to all of the entries listed chronologically.
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Looking Back Looking Ahead ‘08

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Since I started this blog 3 years ago I have been ending the year with a blog containing several Top 5 barbecue related lists. Top 5 Cooks, Top 5 Things I’ve Learned, The Top 5 Mistakes Made, and my list of Top 5 Goals for the New Year. No reason to change anything this year so here goes. This year was really like 6 months for me because I had a 2 month & 4 month period where I was working nights and weekends and had to take a break from grilling and smoking. So this list was harder than some years because I had less time pack everything in. Read More...
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Winter Wish Granted

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In years past when I didn’t ∫think I could direct grill in the winter what was it I really missed?? You are looking at it above: a grilled cheeseburger. Yesterday that wish was granted and I couldn’t be happier about it.
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Direct Grilling in the Winter

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Until a about a month ago I thought you couldn’t logically use the words “Direct Grilling” and “Winter” in the same sentence. A couple recent experiments have me singing a different tune as this blog will explain. “Indirect Grilling” and “Rotisserie Grilling” yes, but “Direct Grilling” in the cold New England winter wasn’t practical. So what changed my opinion?
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Cure for the Uncommon Cold

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In some other blog entries I’ve talked about grilling or smoking in bad weather even if you really don’t have to. That way if you run into a bad weather situation where you still have to grill, you’ll have some experience under your belt. For me this was no more true than Christmas Day 2008. I’ll describe this unusual and somewhat trying cook that proved me right. This entry will not have a lot of pictures and some will be retreads, because frankly I was too busy trying to avoid a costly cooking disaster to stop and take pictures.
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It Doesnt Get Better Than This

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I’ve already posted a blog entry on brining a turkey. In this short entry I plan to reinforce just how good a brined turkey is and also that practice makes perfect.. If you are interested more in the brining process check out this entry: A BRINE TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. Let me just cut to the chase and say that this years turkey was my best ever and seemed to be almost effortless. This blog will describe getting to that point.
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Cue Cal ‘09

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Earlier this year I did a blog entry on making CALENDARS WITH IPHOTO. I will let you look at that entry if you are interested in the specifics of making one of these calendars with Apple’s iPhoto. Originally I thought that was a one time blog topic. When I made the calendar last year I had several people request a copy for themselves, so I ended up getting some more made. A few were family, which is somewhat to be expected, but surprisingly several were acquaintances who were bigger foodies than I thought. I also got several emails from people who read the blog with questions. So this year I got 6 calendars made and I will give some as gifts to these people who wanted one last year.

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On a Roll

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Last year I took a baking class at King Arthur Flour and you may say what does baking have to do with grilling? Well how about fresh hamburger (or hot dog rolls)? One of the things I always liked about the Fuddrucker’s hamburger restaurant chain was their fresh baked rolls. They were so much tastier than the store bought variety. I always fantasized about how great it would be to make my own fresh baked rolls. After I got serious about this whole grilling thing, I realized if I could do that I could probably pull off the baking thing too. I am trying to keep my expectations small. Last year in the bread baking class we were asked why we took the class. I said: I am into grilling and smoking and had learned fresh is best, so I wanted to learn how to make my own hamburger rolls.
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Mini Grill Camp '08 - Pt. 5 - Fri.

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Friday’s fare was to be BUCCANEER RIBS . These ribs were a change of pace and a bit of a surprise on several fronts. As I mentioned in my picture page entry for these ribs: the pirates referred to as Buccaneers were named for the Caribbean style of cooking they adopted. Boucon was a slow smoke barbecue using fruits and hot spices to help preserve and flavor the meat. Steven Raichlen is big into the history of cue and his recipes often include interesting historical sidebars. Read More...
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Mini Grill Camp '08 - Pt. 4 - Thu.

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This was one of those days the turned out nothing like I’d planned when it started. I ended up doing ribs but not the ones planned and on the grill not the smoker. One of the things I like to do during Grill Camp is to revisit recipes I have had trouble with. I can revisit the recipe in a leisurely fashion and if it doesn’t turn out well I didn’t ruin a meal for a family occasion. Events caused a change from a new rib recipe to revisiting RENDEZVOUS RIBS.
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Mini Grill Camp '08 - Pt. 3 - Wed.

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After the DEATH DEFYING CAJUN BURGERS were done there was no rest for the weary. The next step was to begin prep for the Stuffed Herbed Tenderloin. Beef tenderloin is an amazing roast. It is so tender that you can cut it with a fork. It is also virtually fat free and so the trick is to supplement the meat with something else to give it some flavor. This recipe approached it 3 ways. The roast was stuffed with herbs & spiced, it was rubbed with an herb past and it was seared on the grill to give the crust extra flavor. After the sear the roast is finished indirectly so as not to dry it out.
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Mini Grill Camp '08 - Pt. 2 - Wed.

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The first cook was to be a spicy burger called Death-Defying Cajun Burgers from MASTERING THE GRILL. Like many of the burgers in this cookbook, these burgers use a filling sandwiched between two half thickness patties. This filling keeps the burgers moist and gives them extra flavor.
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Mini Grill Camp '08 - Pt. 1 - Tue.

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There have been big changes for me since my last blog entry. I have been extremely busy with work related tasks so I haven’t been grilling on the weekend. The big change that has occurred is that I have decided that 27 years of commuting into Boston or Cambridge every work day was enough. So starting in October I will be off on my own working as a consultant to other firms. Since this is a BBQ website I won’t go on about this any more except to mention how it will affect my Grilling.
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Fourth of July Fun - Pt. 2

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Saturday July 5th was one of my favorite kind of day: both the grill and the smoker were up and running. It started off early: I headed out to light the CG at 6:00 AM. I was going to be cooking a 6 pound (2.75 Kg) Boston Butt for use on Sunday. The earlier I placed it on the smoker this morning, the earlier it would be done this evening. I was hoping it would come off around 8:00 or 9:00 PM. Then it would be a 2 hour rest in foil before pulling and saucing it. Saturday’s meal on the grill was to be beef and lamb kebabs.
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Fourth of July Fun - Pt. 1

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Fourth of July has a long tradition of grilling. I figured this July 4th I would do some traditional grilling. Burgers and dogs. Now I couldn’t just leave it at that, what goes with burgers and dogs? Potato chips. Steven Raichlen is fond of saying if something is good cooked a certain way, it is even better grilled. So grilled potato chips it is. My mom was going to be there and I could here her saying “We need another vegetable.” So grilled corn rounded out the menu.
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No Comment - PT. 2

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This is another entry related to iWeb the tool that created this site. Seems I’ve lost my comments again. So no food talk here. Instead this will confirm something I mentioned in the earlier entry: No Comment published earlier this week.
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More Cool Tools

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With the July 4th weekend approaching, I paid a visit to Steven Raichlen’s online store. I was looking to do some kebabs and needed skewers. While there I found some more cool tools I’ll describe. If I am doing a small batch of kebabs for two people, I can use my rotisserie to do the kebabs. It does take longer via the infra-red rotisserie burner than direct grilling. But I don’t have to turn them which makes up for the extra time. But I need kebabs for 4 or more, so it was time for some skewers. I am not a fan of bamboo skewers, I wanted stainless steel. Reusable and dishwasher safe.
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Get Fresh

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For more years than I care to admit I was a lazy cook. A recipe would call for fresh herbs and I wouldn’t even consider it. I would reach up on the shelf for the jar spices. Also when a recipe call for fresh juice, I would go to the supermarket for a bottle of juice. Or the recipe would call for zest, the scrapings off the skin of the fruit, and you guessed it: I ‘d get the zest in a bottle. Now in my defense a lot of it was plain ignorance on my part. I didn’t know how to cut up the fresh spices, or an easy way to get the juice without the seeds. The last little detail was I didn’t know what a difference there was in flavor.
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No Comment

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Visitors to my site fall into 3 categories: People into grilling, other iWeb users and lastly friends and family. This blog is directed at fellow iWeb users. Others are welcome to read on, but this entry is not about food. Instead it is a heads up to other iWeb users about what I consider to be the weakest link in iWeb: the blog commenting capabilities. More specifically I’ll mention precautions you might want to take to preserve your comments and keep them from disappearing forever.
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Mastering the Grill

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Mastering the Grill by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim is the subject of this blog entry. This is probably my second favorite grill cookbook and is the one I would recommend buying after you get some of the recipes from Steven Raichlen’s HOW TO GRILL under your belt. What I like about this cookbook is it states that cooking is both an art and a science. Many cookbooks ignore the science in favor of the art. I like to know the explanations behind how things work. I find it helps me understand what might be going on when things stop working.
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YummySoup!

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For about 6 months now I have been using a great piece of software to help catalogue the recipes I use, plus it makes the shopping and prep processes easier too. In this entry I will talk about this great little piece of shareware by a Mac only shareware developer : YummySoup!
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How to Grill

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This blog entry is about the book that changed the way I grill and that I still refer to regularly: Steven Raichlen’s How to Grill. I already told the background story in my first blog entry called, HOW DIDI I GET HERE?, so I won’t repeat that. Instead I will talk about what makes this book unique and special among grilling cookbooks.
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More Lessons Learned

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I have been having a great run lately: I’ve been cooking new items for me and cooking multiple items on a regular basis. I figured I’d pass along some of the lessons I am learning-some are repeat items and some new. The repeat items a may have mentioned in other blogs reinforce things I should never forget. This will be a list in outline form in no particular order.
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iPhone: BBQ Buddy Pt. 2

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Last November I wrote about some BBQ related uses I’d found for my iPhone. In this short entry I will add something else I’ve discovered: The iPhone is a great Grill Timer. I’ve long been using the alarm clock feature when I have been traveling. It is far easier and more reliable to set an alarm on the iPhone than some of the clock radios on steroids found in most hotels these days. There are no instruction manuals in the room and you need to have a PHD in physics to figure out how to set an alarm.
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Quesadillas

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One of my favorites whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, I thought they’d be a great on the grill. Living in the Northeast Quesadillas are a fairly new addition to the menu. I was a little hesitant to try them because this was a totally new style of cooking for me. But the key to a successful cook starts with a good recipe and everything is new to you at one point or another. With that in mind, I started my quest to do grilled Quesadillas.
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The Cutting Edge

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This blog entry will highlight a book I recently picked up that has made a big difference in my prep work. Knife Skills Illustrated - A User’s Manual by Peter Hertzman is a hand illustrated guide on the care and use of knives. It takes the various food categories and shows you step by step how to cut, dice chop, slice, julienne or whatever else is appropriate for that item. It also tells you how to prep and carve meat, fish and poultry. The best part for me is while it it has the typical illustrations appropriate for a right handed person, it also has the same illustrations and verbal descriptions appropriate for a leftie like me.
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Can We All Just Back Up a Minute?

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This entry is not about food. It is some common sense advice that may save you from the problem that plagued me recently. I’ve been prevented from updating this site for well over a month.
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Rotisserie Grilling - Part 3

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Prior entries have talked about the equipment you’ll need to get started and the steps to get the food ready for the grill. In this final part I’ll share some of the experiences I’ve had cooking food on the rotisserie. This blog entry was not supposed to be a multi-parter. However as I started writing it I realized that while rotisserie grilling is fairly easy to do, there was more to it than I could fit into a single entry.
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Rotisserie Grilling - Part 2

PART 1of this blog entry talked about the equipment needed to start rotisserie grilling. In this entry I will describe the process of setting up the grill and getting the meat on the grill, I will throw in some Do’s and Don’ts as long as you promise not to ask me how I know some of the Don’ts. Rotisserie grilling isn’t really that hard and the end results will be some of the best food you will make on your grill. Once again I’ll mention that I do my rotisserie grilling on my gas grill. I don’t use charcoal in the main chamber of my smoker to confine any charcoal cleanup to the side firebox. A lot of what I describe for the gas grill will still apply for a charcoal grill.
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Calendars with iPhoto

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I just received my 2008 calendar in the mail from Apple. As you might suspect the subject of mine is Grillin’ & Smokin’. While I will share the pictures below, I also thought I’d share how easy it is to do a calendar. This is particularly true if you are an Apple user and own a copy of iPhoto ’06 or ’08 which comes free with all new Macs. If you are a PC owner or a Mac owner who doesn’t own iLife ’06 or ‘08 , there are other photo programs out there that will create calendars. Here I will describe iPhoto, which is how I make mine. Below the description you will see samples of my 2008 calendar which features pictures items I’ve cooked in 2007.
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Rotisserie Grilling - Part 1

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With the coming of Winter I switch away from direct grilling. Instead I turn towards indirect grilling big roasts or rotisserie grilling. It is a shame many folks don’t try rotisserie grilling. this cooking method results in a moist, evenly cooked roast that is self-basting and low maintenance. While I enjoy rotisserie grilling year round, the self-basting and low maintenance part makes it ideal for winter grilling. At this point I choose not to use my smoker for rotisserie cooking and only burn the charcoal in the Side Firebox. So I will be describing using a rotisserie unit on a gas grill. Much of it will also apply to charcoal grills too. In Part 1 of this blog I will talk about what to look for in terms of equipment to get into rotisserie grilling.
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