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 Hi {FirstName}, ... If you've not been paying attention, you may not know that Memorial Day is only On this day millions of people will drag out their grills for the time honored tradition of burning enormous quantities of meat in the name of outdoor fun! Wouldn't it be nice if you could prepare juicy, tender morsels to delight the pallet? Well, it can be done and we're here to help you!  Memorial Day is Monday, May 26th! ... Plan accordingly! |
In just a few weeks, we will have our first "taste" of summer fun on Memorial Day weekend. May 26th will be an extra special day to celebrate and thank our troops who make our country safe (...especially for backyard cooking)!
If you're one of those people planning on staying at home this summer instead of cavorting all over the world, then Barbecue'n On The Internet is the place to vacation and learn the time honored tradition of barbecuing and grilling properly. Forget what you wonderful dad told you; what your best friends have mentioned. Most of them only learned from their fathers! Read what professionals like Smoky Hale says about PERFECTION around the pit.
From Our Grills To Yours
Smoky's FAQ's
Great American Barbecue & Grilling Manual
Hi {FirstName} & Welcome! We know it may still be cool in various portions of the country, but since it has hit over 100° in Texas and a few other states, we ultimately proclaim SUMMER HAS BEGUN! With summer comes more outdoor activities and one of America's favorite activities is outdoor grilling and barbecuing. YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT: If you've not already done so, head on into the garage or shed, remove all the items you have placed on top of the grill and drag that sucker out into the bright sunshine. Clean up your trusty pit and get the replacement parts you may need. Don't wait until the last minute, get ready, get set, GO GRILL!
| FOR THE BEGINNER FOR THE PRO FOR GREAT RECIPES |
Plan your Memorial Day!
Great events don't just happen ... They are orchestrated!
To have a successful Memorial Day event, plan ahead. Begin deciding now what to have and where to party. Remember, millions of people will be hitting the parks and the great outdoors. Maybe your best location is in the backyard with great friends and family. As for the event, plan to invite folks over early to join in the early finger foods, great refreshments and showing off your culinary skills.
While you are enjoying appetizers, fix up some burgers and dogs for the kids! It'll keep them happy and let you enjoy the rest of the meal while they're out expending energy on the swing set or sandbox.
If you are doing ribs, pork butts, brisket or any larger portions of meat, start them early enough so guests don't have to wonder if you know what you're doing. Make the meal come out on time with great fan fair! Below are some links to some of the recipes you might consider offering.....
The ABCs of Getting More Thrill From Your Grill
Get Ready To Enjoy The Summer!
Attitude A proper attitude is imperative for successful grilling. A quiet, calm air of confidence, an embrace of the essential techniques and a workmanlike approach to the project gives serenity to the task. This is not “Iron Chef” or “BAM!” cooking. RELAX!
Broiling Since what 99% of us do 99% of the times that we use a grill is broiling, broiling techniques must be mastered. Successful broiling requires learning how to provide and use temperatures at 500-900* without charring, over cooking, flaming and fouling the grates.
Control Learning to control temperature on your grill is absolutely essential for your mastery of grilling. Whether you are cooking with gas or playing with coals, you must learn the secrets for reaching and maintaining the preferred temperature on your grill.
Details “The Devil is in the details.” Plan ahead. Know each step required, have the tools and materials to do it and allot the time.
Ease Take it EASY. Relax. If you do your planning and exercise the plan then you can execute the tasks with ease.
Firing Up Whether you cook on a gas grill, with charcoal briquettes, lump charcoal or wood, plan your firing up time to have the grill ready when the food is. Unbeknown to most is the fact that most gas grills require as much time to reach proper temperature as an average charcoal fired grill. Not waiting until the grill is properly heated is one of the major mistakes in broiling.
Give it time Let the grill do its job. Don’t try to rush it. When meat meets the hot grate, it will seize. Wait until it releases to try to turn. Gently lift a corner to see if it is ready. The meat will tell you when it is time. Otherwise you will not get the lovely sear marks and you will foul up your grates with sticking food which turns to char.
Heat Broiling is using intense heat to sear and seal the exterior of food while bringing the interior to a peak of desired texture. The grates must absorb heat to the point that they sear the food immediately with the beautiful brown stripes and the coals in a charcoal grill or a heat sink (lava rocks, ceramic briquettes, steel plate) in a gas grill must provide intense radiant heat to cook the inside.
Intensity When the pitcher winds up, the successful batter concentrates with all his intensity. When the meat hits the grate, the successful griller concentrates exclusively on his task. Pay attention. Let everything else go.
Juggling When the food hits the grate is no time for juggling. Broiling successfully requires careful attention to the short period of time that the food is on the grill. Concentrate.
KISS Remember the old adage, “Keep It Simple Stupid.”
Leave it ALONE Don’t mess with the meat! Don’t press the flesh. Let it lay there until it is ready to turn. I recently watched a guy grilling hamburgers, while he flipped them at least 20 times and when he wasn’t flipping them, he was mashing all the juices out of them. My ‘burgers, an inch and a half thick, get turned three times, max. Fish gets turned once. Steaks get turned once or twice.
Maneuver Move meat or vegetables from hotter to cooler locations and vice versa as appropriate. Put thicker pieces on first. Manage you grill space.
Next time: “The rest of the alphabet”
Enjoy!
Smoky
The Challenge of Beef Brisket
Are you getting ready for Memorial Day fun yet?
This coming Memorial Day, the item most likely to be found sizzling on the grill will be your juicy, tender all-American hamburger. Flame kissed and meaty! That having been said, we are going for something just a little better. One of the more difficult pieces of meat to cook, and perhaps the most challenging is the beef brisket. And for you folks up north, it is barbecue too!
The brisket comes from the front portion of the cow, right between the shoulder blades. These muscles get worked plenty and thus can be a little tough if not cooked properly. The best method of insuring a tender brisket is to cook it very slowly (allow plenty of time), at low temperatures (try not to exceed 220°) and avoid too much smoke (pure lump charcoal works best). Follow these rules, cross your fingers and get after it!
Below are some important DO's and DON'T's for brisket. But for starters, let's get a recipe going....
THE ALL AMERICAN BRAGGIN' RIGHTS BEEF BRISKET
DIRECTIONS: The first thing would be to trim the brisket of all extraneous fat. Beef fat does not really render (melt away) and while many people want to believe this will baste the meat, in fact, very little basting will occur from the fat. Next, using the ordinary yellow mustard, rub a thin layer all over the meat. You will never taste the mustard, but it will help hold on the seasonings and set up a tender crusty bark which is to fight over. [If you cannot bring yourself to use mustard, try a very light coating of cooking oil to help hold the spices on the meat].
Combine all the seasonings and coat the brisket liberally (about twice what you would use as salt - Some like it even heavier than that!). The heat from the grill will make the spices more mellow and flavorful.
NOTES:
DON'T rush a brisket
DON'T wrap it in foil
DON'T baste until 1/2 finished cooking or when the dry rub adheres to the meat
DON'T use sugar or tomato products on the meat while cooking
DO bring brisket to room temperature before placing on the pit
DO pre-heat the pit to 200° to 230°
DO use yellow mustard on the outside
DO rub/pat the spices into the meat
DO allow the spices to sit on the meat for 2 to 4 hours
DO cook indirectly
DO baste every 30 minutes after the wait period
DO allow the pit to cool for the last 30 minutes - Then apply your finishing sauce (favorite barbecue sauce)
Do allow the brisket to "rest" on a cutting board 15 minutes before slicing
Do slice about 1/4" to 3/8" thick each
DO know that all briskets are not created equal and some are more naturally tougher than others. Sorry!
REVIEW: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IF YOU STILL NEED HELP!
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If this sounds great to you, then listen up and pay attention! We're here to make you a HERO this Memorial Day weekend. Before getting started, we want to dispel the greatest threat to great barbecued chicken. Forget the sauce until told otherwise! You hear us? Placing tomato/sugar sauce on the meat while cooking will only produce burned tomatoes and sugar. Wait until we tell you to use it!
Now that we have built in a safety factor, let's proceed cautiously and carefully! Great chicken needs tender, loving rubbing to make it down the path to a delicious ending. Take your favorite dry seasoning mix (a dry rub) and gently rub it into and under the skin of the chicken. Get plenty under the skin for great internal flavoring. Dry rubs will not burn like the tomato and sugar products. Once applied, allow the chicken to rest covered in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to get the flavors ingrained into the meat.
Next, crank the grill up to 350° to 375° and set it for indirect grilling (all the coals on one side and none on the other - or - one burner on and the others off). If you have a small pit, then we suggest getting lump charcoal which burns hotter and thus uses less space. Allow the entire grill to become hot before placing the chicken on the hot cooking grates away from the side where the heat is located and leave it alone. If you wait until the grill is HOT, it will give you "great grill marks" and release from the grill when ready to turn! Baste your birds with something other than a sweet or tomato sauce. Some ideas can be located on our Recipe Page or any of the Spray Glazes in the store.
If you insist on cooking directly over the hot coals or gas, then reduce the heat to around 300° (medium heat) and/or increase the distance between the heat and the meat! Turn more often than when cooking indirectly.
Next, control you heat! As Smoky mentioned above, control the heat and don't do a bunch of juggling or other jobs while grilling. You are the pilot so don't crash the plane with all your guests on board! Baste often and turn frequently when direct cooking, less frequently when indirect cooking. When the internal temperature at the thickest point (not touching the bone) reaches 170°, then the skin should be crispy and delicious. If you would rather have moist skin and barbecue sauce, during the last few minutes (and when the heat has subsided) brush the sauce on the chicken. Don't let it burn! Remove from the fire and serve.
Suggested Cooking Thermometers: Instant Read Meat Thermometer, Digital Meat Thermometer, Barbecue Pit Thermometers, Remote Thermometers, EZ Reach Thermometer, Poultry Button, ThermoFork
Reader's Quips, Questions & Comments
Rob may have lost it ...
Hello,
Hi Rob,
Glitz. Cooking shows are always looking for ways to show you how much more the B.S. slinger on camera knows than the poor dumb klutzes who are watching.
The hanging steak, also known as "hanging tender" and "butcher steak" is a small, relatively tender muscle that hangs from the kidney. There is only one per carcass, so it is not usually displayed for sale -- not enough of them -- the butcher used to take it home in the old days, hence "butcher steak." These days 99.9% wind up in hamburger and I am not surprised that a meat cutter in a supermarket has no idea what they are.
Frankly they are not worth the chasing. If you could find them displayed, they would probably be priced higher than tenderloin and anything you can do with a hanging steak, you can do with many other cuts of beef.
Have fun!
Keep Those Fires Hot!
Well, {FirstName}, we've done it again, come to the end. We hope you enjoyed
this SPECIAL EDITION of The Smoke N' Fire Inquirer. Keep on
SSSSsmokin'. . . . . Again, if you have any comments, please send
them to ..............
Charlie @ barbecue@nottingham.com
Sincerely,
Your Barbecue'n hosts,
Rob O'Reilly here. I have a question for you. On a few cooking
shows I've seen recently, they are preparing what they call hanger
steaks. Its not a dish, but seems to be the CUT of meat (beef). Have
you guys heard of this before? My local butcher is as confused about
this as I am. He thinks I've lost it. Thanks for taking the time to
respond, Rob
Making
If you like making sausage and find the meat difficult to grind without making it into "mush", try placing the cubes of meat in the freezer long enough for them to become very well chilled - not frozen. You will find grinding a pleasure instead of a chore!
Well, we've got to go back to work now, so enjoy the site and
keep those comments (good and bad) coming along!
Charlie McMurrey (a/k/a/ "PC") & And Smoky
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