The trick is to smoke the meat and not make the meat smoke
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Grilling

2010 Year of the Hot Dog

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I’ve noticed in the past how certain years seem to evolve into a cooking theme. It isn’t even intentional, it just happens. A new cookbook, a new piece of gear and suddenly you are doing a lot of similar items. This year actually had several themes: Grilled Paella, Grilled Pizza, Comfort Food and perhaps this is a subset of Comfort Food: Hot Dogs. I certainly didn’t start out the year with that in mind, it just happened. I started making so many dogs, they quickly rated their own section on the site. Then I had to add a second page on the site for hot dogs. Next thing I knew I was buying a book about hot dogs. So in this blog I am going to summarize the year I went to the dogs. I will provide links to the picture entries for each item I talk about. That way if you want to see more - just click on the picture link for that item. Read More...
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Plank Grilled Meatloaf

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In early October I was looking for recipes and I stumbled upon a recipe for cedar planked meatloaf. While this wasn’t what I was looking for, it did intrigue me. A few days later when I was in a bookstore I saw a cookbook dedicated to plank grilling. When I looked inside I found it had a recipe for plank grilling meatloaf. I figured it had to be a sign and picked up the book. Of course the first thing I wanted to make was meatloaf. Read More...
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Getting Better All The Time

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When I was writing this year’s 5th annual Looking Back, Looking Ahead blog entry I realized I has a really good year. I have been trying to analyze why this year worked out so well. It certainly wasn’t any one thing, I think it was a combination of items that may have come together to make the total greater than the sum of the parts. Writing this down on the form of a blog entry may help me understand it better too. Read More...
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Looking Back, Looking Ahead - 2010

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THE YEAR IN REViIEW:
Continuing a 5 year tradition, I am writing a blog near the end of the year summing up the past year. It contains several “Top 5” barbecue related lists from prior years: “Top 5 Cooks”, “Top 5 Things I’ve Learned”, “The Top 5 Mistakes Made”, and a list of “Top 5 Goals for the New Year”. In 2009 I made a change to the format and added a new list. This year, as in 2009, I was lucky enough to have made some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Since these items were also some of my favorite foods, they would automatically have to be listed as the Top 5 cooks this year. There were a lot of other great meals I made that deserved so acknowledgment. So the category I added last year for “Top 5 New Items Cooked” will return in 2010. It is intended for recipes using new foods or new techniques that turned out great. Additionally I am adding a new category in 2010 called “Top 5 Grilling/Smoking Related Events”. Read More...
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N.Y. System Hot Wieners

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This blog will be about my quest to recreate one of Rhode Islands unique contributions to gastronomy: the N.Y. System Hot Wiener. For a small state Rhode Island has some great local treats. Hot Wieners, Coffee Cabinets, Del’s Frozen Lemonade, Coffee Milk, Quahogs and Johnny Cakes come to mind. For me Del’s Frozen Lemonade and the Hot Wiener are at the top of the list. My parents were both from Rhode Island. Growing up we were down in Rhode Island on the weekends twice a month. No trip was complete without a stop at a Del’s frozen lemonade stand in the summer and to get a hot wiener anytime of the year. This blog is a story of many weird events and coincidences that ultimately resulted in my being able to recreate this ultimate hot dog - a wonderful treat I remember from my youth. But don’t call it a hot dog, it is far more than a hot dog. My quest involved a field trip to Rhode Island and a two week long search for the exact mustard used. But let’s begin at the beginning - how did I suddenly decide I had to make a N.Y. System Hot Wiener after all this time? Read More...
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Grilled Paella

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This blog entry about my journey to making grilled paellas has a bit of a “What goes around comes around” quality to it. This first paella I saw was the last one I made and best paella I’ve ever made. But let’s begin at the beginning. I saw my first paella on TV three years ago. Steven Raichlen made a Paella Primavera (Vegetable Paella) on the first season of Primal Grill. This Spanish rice dish looked amazing. When a new Spanish restaurant opened in town, paella was the first thing I tried and I was hooked. I had some self-education to do, as well as come up with a source for some special ingredients. I needed to get the special pan used to make paellas and I got a paella cookbook because I knew zip about making paellas. I’ll put some links at the bottom on sources for some of the ingredients and equipment you will need. Read More...
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A Lot at Steak

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Last Saturday was a special day around here. First it was my birthday dinner. My wife had bought me some of those 2” thick, 2 1/4 pound Cowboy Steaks I’d written about here a month ago ( see COWBOY STEAK - NOW THAT’S A STEAK blog entry). But more importantly both my parents and my wife’s parents were going to be there to share it with us. I’d made these steaks before, with no issues. So what could go possibly go wrong?
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Just Ducky - Pt 2

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Around the 4th of July weekend I went from never having done duck on the grill (or anywhere else for that matter) to making it three times in under a week. I’ve already described the duck breast on the grill in the blog JUST DUCKY- PT 1. This blog entry will describe making a duck on the rotisserie. There were a couple issues I had to deal with, one was known ahead of time and the other had to be dealt with on the fly, but overall things went well and a delicious duck was the result. Read More...
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Cowboy Steak - Now That’s a Steak

IMG_0802-Blog-420x200In my last blog entry PRIME TIME, I mentioned how a new butcher shop called The Meat House had opened up near me selling high quality meats and poultry. On my first visit I saw this amazing Cowboy Steak. I was fascinated with it and I couldn’t stop going back to stare at it in the case. It was tied for the biggest steak steak I’d seen. Morton’s Steakhouse had one this size which cost $64.00 ten years ago. Amazingly this steak I was looking at was 1/3 the price ten years later. I’d told myself that this first visit was to be a “kick the tires” visit. I actually made it out of the Meat House empty handed. I couldn’t stop thinking about that steak, and two days later I was back to buy one. Read More...
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Just Ducky - Pt 1

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Duck on the grill is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but two things kept me from it: fear of the unknown and availability. I found not just one source but two sources for duck and I finally got around to making not once, but three times. While the end results were outstanding it wasn’t a totally smooth ride. Read More...
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Memorable Memorial Day Weekend - Part 2

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My meal on Saturday, as described in the previous blog entry MEMORABLE MEMORIAL DAY - PART 1 was not soon to be topped and frankly I wasn’t going to try. I just wanted to grill up something good for Monday and the BBQ CHICKEN WINGS I made filled the bill nicely. The recipe came from Cooks Illustrated Summer Grilling 2009 and while I’d made wings in a similar fashion form some other cookbooks, there were three differences. First this recipe gave you 4 different and very interesting BBQ sauces to choose from. Second: This recipe added smoke and the method America’s Test Kitchen recommended had already proven it’s worth for Saturdays SMOKEHOUSE BURGERS. Lastly I was going to try a new recipe for potatoes called GRILLED NEW POTATOES WITH A RED PEPPER CRUST looked really tasty. Read More...
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Grilled Brats (and Shoes) in Beer

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I try to learn from my mistakes and try not to repeat them, particularly because there are so many new ones out the to make. Friday night I made a real bad mistake that came halfway close to ruining a meal. This blog entry will describe what happened. Hopefully it may help keep someone else from making the same mistake without actually having to go through the whole process. The meal in question was called Grilled Bratwurst in Beer from the COOKS ILLUSTRATED SUMMER GRILLING GUIDE (see blog entry) which has been responsible for some great meals around here in the last month. Bratwurst is a tailgating staple out in the midwest, as I found out in college. I’d d never seen a brat until I moved to Detroit. While I’ve since direct grilled brats like you would a hot dog, until last Friday night I’d never made them in a beer hot tub.
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Best YET Grilled Pizza

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In my opinion grilled pizza is the best way to prepare pizza - period. This week I learned a variation to the method used for cooking grilled pizzas that have made a noticeable improvement. This blog will describe the change in technique. I’m not going to use a whole lot of pictures in this blog. If you are interested in seeing some of the pizzas I’ve made this week I will provide some links at the end. Read More...
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Grate Technique

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The new WEBER 0N THE GRILL - CHICKEN & SIDES (See Blog Entry) cookbook had a great technique for making paninis. In a recipe scaled to make 4 Chicken Cordon Bleu paninis they had you finish the sandwiches off by placing them on the grill in a 2x2 grid. Then they had you cover them with a half sheet pan weighted down by two foil wrapped bricks. I scaled the recipe down to make two sandwiches and for that I used a 1/4 sheet pan and one foil wrapped brick as can be seen in the picture above.

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As you can see the resulting paninis have wonderful deep grill marks and look like a panini made in your kitchen using a panini press. The only trick thing is to make sure you use a low temperature as bread can burn in the blink of an eye. Better to use too low of a temperature and have them take a little longer. I use medium low on my gas grill and I usually check the bread after two minutes even though the recipe says done in three minutes.


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Picking Up Where I left Off

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After a two month hiatus I returned to grilling. I made two new dishes that couldn’t have turned out better, despite my being a bit nervous about getting them both done at the same time and in good shape. In this blog I will describe how a combination of the right tools and past experience ruled the day. I have some friends who are afraid to venture beyond cooking hamburgers, hotdogs and steaks on the grill between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They seem to think I am some sort of freak or that I got to where I am now in one step. This may be beating a dead horse since I’ve written about this several times: But nothing beats experience and the best thing anyone can do is keep trying since things do get easier. At some point it begins to feel like you are on this incredible roll where things that once confounded you, now seem to just work out. Now maybe I was just lucky, but I am actually prepared to take some of the blame for the success of this meal. But not to get ahead of myself, lets begin at the beginning. Read More...
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What is Your Position

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Most grills or smokers have hot and cold spots-it is the nature of the beast. On the surface this could seem to be a minus, but in reality it can also be a plus. I will discuss some of the ways you can work with this reality so your food is cooked evenly. Read More...
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