The trick is to smoke the meat and not make the meat smoke
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Hot Dogs

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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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 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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