BBQ Show On TLC

Came across this TV show on The Learning Channel. It's a reality show about competition barbeque.

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/bbq-pitmasters/

Lots of interesting tips these guys are giving away. Sometimes competition bbq-ers won't share any tips with you. These guys are part chef, part athlete & part 5-star General. Cool. And I don't doubt for a second that it's very competitive. This is NOT grilling hot dogs & hamburgers.

Oh, and follow your dreams.

Guide To Hamburger Styles

Here's some interesting reading for anyone into hamburgers & cheeseburgers. It's from http://aht.seriouseats.com/ which is the "A Hamburger Today" section of the SeriousEats website.

You know what they say, a hamburger a day...

Here's the article on hamburger & cheeseburger 'styles', of which there are many:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/09/a-guide-to-glossary-of-regional-american-burger-cheeseburger-styles-and-cooking-methods.html?ref=se-bb2

Mmmmm, hamburgers....

Plus, now an article that tells me more about them.

Enjoy.

BBQ - This Is A Lang Smoker

Time for some Q! Here's an interesting video by a guy who has (a very excellent-looking) BBQ smoker from Lang Smokers. Now this, this,.... this is a cool lookin' BBQ smoker. Check it out. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare $2k lying around in my sofa cushions, otherwise I'd order one for myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1xypMXJndI&NR=1

You can check out Lang's stuff at:

http://www.pigroast.com

Plus YouTube has lots of people posting videos of Lang stuff.

Labbatt's Porter, And Federal Meats Bacon/Cheddar Patties

We've all heard of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Combining peanut butter with chocolate, makes for a good candy.

http://www.hersheys.com/reeses/

Well, I found 2 other great tastes that go great together: Labbatt's Porter beer, and Bacon/Cheddar hamburger patties from Federal Meats. And of course, the hamburgers are grilled, with mesquite smoking chips.




There was recently a sale on the Labbatt's Porter at the local beverage center. Buy one 6-pack, get one free. This made it a tempting offer.










Federal Meats has lots of cool little specialties, and these bacon & cheddar hamburgers are great. The only thing I don't like is they only come frozen, so I'm going to try my own recipe made from fresh ingredients someday soon.

















I used Kingford Mesquite chips. I also grilled up some sausages at the time.

The only thing wrong with this taste combo is when you switch back to regular burgers & beer. You take a taste and say "What the hell is this? I gotta get the good stuff again."

Marinated Chicken Breast Cutlets

It's been awhile since I've done a BBQ post, so here's one of marinated chicken breast cutlets, marinated in a lemon/pepper marinade. This really dresses up an otherwise bland piece of meat.

I cooked them using the indirect method, with the hot lump charcoal on one side of my Weber Kettle Grill, and the meat on the other side. With the cover on, and with some maple chucks burning along with the charcoal, and with some oak smoking chips made from genuine Jack Daniels oak aging barrels, the smoke flavor was a great combo with the lemon/pepper marinade.

Mmmmmm MMMMMM ! ! !

DEEEELISH.

Plus, when I was lighting the charcoal, I threw in some leftover grease from the kitchen, from bacon and so on. This helped to get the coals sizzling away a bit faster I would guess. Plus it had a nice bacon smell. As Homer Simpson would say: "Mmmmm, bacon."

Smokin'.

Some BBQ & Foodie Sites Of Interest

Here are some sites I like to visit once in awhile. They cover barbeque and foodie stuff.

Enjoy.

BBQ Sites:

http://www.pigtrip.net/ BBQ stuff

http://backyardchef.blogspot.com/ A BBQ blog. Goes by the name of The Hampton Smoker.

http://www.bbqguyblog.blogspot.com/ Another BBQ blog. Good info.


Foodie Sites:

http://tastefix.com/ Food pictures & recipes, blogs.

http://foodgawker.com/ Same as above.

http://www.tastespotting.com/ Same as above.

GRILL IT!

Here's a new book I recently received as a gift.

Bobby Flay's GRILL IT! book.

I like the ! in the title. Makes it sound more intense.

It is quite an interesting book. He starts out by explaining basic ideas, like direct vs. indirect grilling - which is quite basic really, but so many people don't realize it.

Looks like it's not quite done yet there Bobby!

He also mentions basic gear to have, controlling heat, storing stuff so it's safe and fresh, and stuff like that. Then, tons of recipes. Then at the end, sources for getting food, spices, woods/charcoal and other supplies.

I'll have to decide what to cook first. Probably beef.

Some Cast-Iron Cooking Blogs & Sites

Awhile back I posted about my 2 cast iron devices. Here are some links to some blogs and other web sites with info on this subject.



http://blackirondude.blogspot.com/

This blog has information, recipes, how-tos for seasoning the iron, adventures in cooking outdoors in bad weather, etc. And lots of pictures and links to other blogs.



http://www.cookingincastiron.com/index.html

Another blog, similar to the above blog.



http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/

Byron's Dutch Oven Cooking Page



http://www.dutchovencookware.com/dutch-oven-recipes.html

More recipes and info.


I look forward to more time cooking the Dutch Oven on the Weber kettle grill this year.


Oh, and follow your dreams.

Tribute To Stubbs BBQ Sauces - EXCELLENT

Here's a tribute to Stubb's sauces. Excellent stuff.





http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/03/christopher-b-stubbs-stubblefield-the-texas-barbecue-music-austin-icon.html



Great sauces I have used for years. Plus: you can buy this sauce at many stores everywhere, how cool is that?

Good sauce.

Cool BBQ media site

Hey, what's up?

I want you to see a BBQ video site I have watched for quite a while now. It's great, and you don't need to register or pay any money for, or trade your 1st child for, etc, etc, etc.

http://championshipbbq.tv/bbq/

Plus Stumps Smokers grills are cool.

One other thing: I saw a great charcoal smoker/grill at Lowes the other day. It's got the Royal Oak brand name on it, and it has room for an optional side smoker so it becomes an offset smoker. Almost bought it on impulse. The only thing was: they had the grill in-stock, but not the side box. It was "only" $320 bones. Maybe this weekend...


Barbeque rules.

D

Happy 30th Blog Post - Let's BBQ ! ! !

Oh how I love my Weber kettle grill. It's good for grilling, and for smoking, as in cooking food over a wood fire with plenty of smoke chips that is.

I'm so sick of winter, let's pretend it's summer. BBQ time !

Finally, I can upload a new video to BlogSpot. Woo-Hoo!

Here's a shot of the kettle with cover on and smoke flavor cookin' away.

Well I'm glad I could finally cook up some sausages with hickory smoke chips. I was so excited to see the temperature go above the freezing point that I just had to BBQ.

I do not see a need to wait for spring to BBQ. I don't care if people stare, BBQ is for all seasons. Plus Johnsonville Brats are available at my local convenience store. No excuses any more.

Here's my chimney starter in action. Great tool for starting charcoal or briquettes.

New Year's Resolutions

Well, here we are at another New Year's Eve. Time to celebrate the beginning of a new year. I always wondered, if we're celebrating a new year, does that mean the old year sucked totally? Think about it. If this year is great, we would not celebrate the end of it. On the other hand, if the old year sucked, then we'd celebrate a new year since we can't wait to get rid of the old one. Substitute 'car' for 'year'. You would celebrate a new car if your old one was such a piece of crap that you had to get rid of it. If you have a new car but your old one is still pretty cool, then you get a new car that sucks, who celebrates that? But nooooooo, we just celebrate the new year without any idea of whether the new one will really be better. Oh well.


Here are my New Year's Resolutions:

1) Clean out the garage so I can actually park my truck in it.

2) Barbeque more. Much more. You may see many more food and BBQ posts on my blog soon.

3) Work on more electronics and computer projects. I have not put any posts up yet about my interests in electronics and computers. This will probably change.

4) Work on recording some of my original music I have written. This is something I've done in the past but never really finished.

5) Limit my resolutions to 4, then stop.



Whew, that sounds like a lot of work. Good thing I have one year to do it.

Are We There Yet?????

Here's a link to some info on when meat is done:

http://www.grillingcompanion.com/meat-doneness-temperatures/

The site has some good stuff on it.

http://www.grillingcompanion.com/

A good digital meat thermometer is a good investment for getting meat cooked enough to be safe, but not too much so you don't dry it out.

Meet The Meat Charts

Whenever I go shopping for good cuts of meat, I always get confused by all the different types of meat there are. Confused, until I look at a chart or 2 to refresh my memory. Different cuts of meat come from different parts of the animal, and have different taste and tenderness characteristics. I found some charts on http://www.cookshack.com/ and I went to the Cooking link on the menu bar, then Meat Cut Charts. I always try to give a free, shameless plug to anyone who gives me valuable information for free on the internet.

http://www.cookshack.com/meat-cut-charts

Hope this is helpful to you, although these charts don't tell the whole story. You just have to try cooking/barbecue-ing the different cuts to know for sure what you are doing, and to find out what you like.

Two good BBQ rubs from last summer

Here are a couple good rubs I made for barbecue this past summer. The one with lemon zest was great on chicken and the other rub was used on ribs. I'm sure they would be great on other meats as well and when I try this out, I'll let you know how it went.

























Rib Rub:

2 tsp celery salt
6 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt


I used this rub on ribs and I cooked them indirect method on a weber grill using hickory wood chips for smoke flavoring. They were great.


Chicken rub:

4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp rosemary, crushed
2 tsp sea salt, iodized
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest, fresh
1 tsp black pepper, fresh ground

I used this on chicken breasts and I cooked them indirect method on a weber grill, also with hickory wood chips for smoke flavoring. They were also great.


In both cases, I applied the rubs just before the grill was getting up to temperature. The cooking process took an hour at least. Low & slow is the way to go I always say. Low as in low temperature, and slow as in take your time and don't rush.