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

 LINKS - Sites I Like

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  Date: November 11, 2015
  Info: This page of links started life as a blog entry. I figured more people would see it if I moved it to its own page. These are some of the various websites I’ve visited in my journey to learn more about grilling and smoking. Perhaps their are some missing gaps in your knowledge base that these will fill in.

Some of these sites are commercial sites sponsored by a company, while others are hobbyist sites. There is much useful information to be had on both types of sites. Just remember the commercial sites may have a bias based on their bottom line and the personal sites may reflect their owner’s personal bias. The sites are listed in alphabetical order, under each category.

GENERAL GRILLING OR BBQ INFORMATION

About.com-BBQ
This site has a wealth of information about equipment, recipes and techniques.When I have a general question and I am looking for a concise answer, this is where I go for more information.
http://bbq.about.com/
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Barbecue’n on the Internet
This site is a combination of tips, techniques and recipes. I have picked many little tips here and there from this site.
http://www.barbecuen.com/
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Steven Raichlen’s BBQU Online Recipes
Many of the recipes I have made that you see on this site come from Steven Raichlen’s great grilling cookbooks. He also makes these recipes on his BBQU TV show on PBS. Many of the recipes from the TV show are found here.
http://www.barbecuebible.com/featured/
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Steven Raichlen’s Online Store
This is a great source for cool grill tools. Many of these tools are one of a kind items or have some special twist that sets them apart from similar tools. You can see many of them in my Gear Section on this site. This is my first stop for most of my barbecue tools. Many are carried in stores around here seasonally, but I grill year round.
http://www.barbecuebible.com/store/
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The Virtual Weber Bullet
This site is a site by enthusiasts of the Weber Bullet charcoal grill. Don’t let the fact you don’t own one of these grills put you off. There is a wealth of information about different cuts of meat and how to prepare and cook them. This is my first stop when I want to learn about a new cut of meat I’m going to try. I have used many of their recipes too. They can be adapted to any kind of smoker..
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html
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GENERAL COOKING INFORMATION

America's Test Kitchen
is the testing arm of Cook's Illustrated magazine, This site features recipes, food taste test and equipment tests that often appear in Cooks Illustrated magazine. You can get a free 14 day trial membership by furnishing an email address. Just remember to cancel before the 14 days are up. A membership here gets you access to some of the material found in Cooks Illustrated. I like their scientific method of testing recipes: They will try things until they find the combination of ingredients and cooking methods so you don't have to. I feel very safe making one of their recipes-it will always taste great and work well.
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/

Cooks Country TV
The website for the PBS TV show based on Cooks Country magazine. The magazine is a publication of Cook Illustrated. Got all that? The site hosts all of the recipes, taste tests & equipment reviews from the Cooks Country TV show. Like America's Test Kitchens, there is a free trial membership. I enjoy the recipes on this site even more than the ATK site. They are often American classic recipes like you grandmother would make. The emphasis here is reproducing the taste of the classic recipe. They don't seem to try as hard as ATK to use more modern healthy ingredients.
http://www.cookscountry.com/

Cooks Illustrated
Cooks Illustrated is the one food magazine I subscribe to.. There is a wealth of information about tools & technique here. There are also links to the America’s Test Kitchen website where they do equipment and taste testing for Cooks Illustrated. The magazine content is often featured in the America's Test Kitchen PBS TV show. I also paid to join the America’s Test Kitchens website to get access to all of the older archive content.
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/
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About.com-Food & Drink Channel
I was already familiar with the BBQ area of this site. Recently I had to look up “chiffonade”, a technique for cutting certain herbs. This site had a written and pictorial version of how to do this. When I searched for the proper way to dice a tomato this site turned up, It had the same step by step directions with pictures. I’ve since noticed that many of my Google searches have been turning up this site as a primary source.
http://www.about.com/food/
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H-E-B Cooking Tips & Meal Planning
Tips and recipes from a retail store website. There is some useful information to be had here.
http://www.heb.com/recipe/recipes-cooking.jsp?_DARGS=/common/global-nav.jsp.31_A&_DAV=3
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SPECIALIZED SITES

Amazing Ribs.com
This site has an amazing amount of information about ribs just as it's name would imply. But it is not just a one trick pony, there is a wealth of information about BBQ, equipment, ingredients & other related topics. Plus you gotta love a BBQ site run by someone who's handle is "Meathead"
http://amazingribs.com/
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Ask the Meatman.com
While they are trying to sell you their services, there is a lot of good information about meat here.
http://www.askthemeatman.com/table_of_contents_1112005.htm
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BBQ Food Safety
These are tips from the USDA on BBQ food safety. From purchase to prep to storage. These tips tend to err on the conservative side and many cooks tend to go with lower doneness temps to avoid drying out their food. There is a good starting point, but as I mentioned you will often see recipes that explain why they go lower than these USDA guidelines.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Barbecue_Food_Safety/index.asp
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The Cooks Thesaurus
This site is great for a newbie like me starting to use unknown ingredients. Great information on ingredients and substitutions if you can’t find what you want. I am also looking forward to checking out their equipment information area.
http://www.foodsubs.com/
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How Much? How Many?
Ever have a recipe list 1 cup diced green peppers without telling you how many green peppers to a cup. This link is to a large one page chart listing ingredient amounts and how many items it takes to get that amount.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1734.asp
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The Naked Wiz.com (Lump Charcoal Info)
While it sounds like a porn site, it is definitely not. This is THE place to go for tests and information about lump charcoal. It also has a wealth of information on using ceramic grills.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm
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Penzy’s Spices
Penzy’s was once mainly an online purveyor of spices, but now they have brick and mortar stores around the country. If there is one near you, it is worth the trip. Their website has a lot of information about spices and you can download their catalogue in PDF form which is a great way to learn about spices.
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html
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The Spice Encyclopedia
This site is sponsored by spice maker McCormick and has a lot of general information about spices from A-Z.
http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?ID=8291
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The Spice Equivalency Chart
This link is to a page that lists the ratio of fresh spices to jar spices you can use when a recipe calls for one and you want to use the other. I would encourage you to use the fresh.
http://www.spiceadvice.com/usage/suggested.html
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Turkey Tips
Two links here from the Butterball turkey website. The first is for proper meat thermometer placement. The second has a link to a video on turkey carving technique. I usually visit both when I haven’t done a turkey for many months to brush up.
Turkey Thermometer Placement
Carving a Turkey - See How To Videos Links
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PERSONAL WEB SITES & BLOGS

Barbecue Addict
This illustrated blog is written by a very talented lady who calls herself Smokin'_Gal on various BBQ websites. I always look forward to and enjoy her truly amazing posts. You too will be impressed by the wide variety of foods she grills and smokes - from the simple to the elegant. I don't think there is too much she hasn't smoked at one time or another. Then there are the incredible desserts she whips up...
http://www.barbecueaddict.com/
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Griffin's Grub
Another long time poster from various BBQ websites, Griffin recently started his own very entertaining, diverse and informative blog. It contains pictures and descriptions of some of his cooks (often with recipes), plus tips and tricks, reviews of spices and rubs, plus also some of what's interesting in the BBQ world around Dallas Texas. Griffin is branching out into baking on his BGE and promises to document his progress in his blog. I'm looking forward to this.
http://griffinsgrub.wordpress.com/
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