It's grillin' time........ (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

This will, for all intents and purposes, be the year of the grill for me. For the past many years, I have increased my grill time every year and last year I must have grilled something every weekend from April through November (helps to live in CA), but I have stepped up into the big leagues with my new purchase. Ladies and smoke-infested-gentleman, I give you the Weber Summit Platinum D6 which will be constructed and running this weekend.

I plan on sharing and learning as much info as possible with y'all this summer.

Here is my first: I buy my spices online from The Spice House. If you're buying just a few then its going to seem expensive, but if your order is large enough, the shipping isn't that big of deal. The price is about the same or cheaper than your grocery store, and the quality is first rate. Plus they have specialty items that may not be found in your area/your particular grocery store. (i.e. File powder for Cajun Rub anyone ?)

Anyway, I love making Ribs. I love a good steak and agree that it shouldn't be messed with (the above simple rub is really all that is needed for a choice rib eye), but my favorite item, a reflection of my years spent living on the central California coast, is tri-tip. I dont want to start a debate here, any real conissuer of meat will try and convince you the rib eye is tops, and if you're at Smith and Wollensky's, yea, I'd probably go with that too, but for the money, pound for pound, tri-tips can't be beat.

In addition to just meat, I love making many vegetables on the grill, like Asparagas, yukon gold potatoes, zuchinni, eggplant, etc. etc. etc. as well as shrimp, chicken, pork (chops and shoulder). Just 2 weeks ago I made some succulent sage marianated chops.

The pure joy and pinnacle of any good summer weekend is preparing the entire meal on the grill.

In fact, two of my goals this year are as follows: create a web site for my grill experiences, guess that would be a grill blog. hmmm...grill blog.com and secondly, I may enter the rib cookoff in our City's 4th of July celebration.

 

[Greg_R]

I use a simple but effective recipe. Take a whole sweet onion and core it from the top, leaving 1/2" or so of the bottom (you now have a whole onion with a vertical finger-sized hole). Stick 1-2 beef bullion cubes and a bit of water into the hole. Wrap them up in foil (keep the hole up!) and cook for 45min or so. The onions will be suffused with the bullion flavor and slightly caramelized.

Steaks: toss a pad of real butter onto each steak right before you remove them from the grill. As you let the steaks rest, the butter will suffuse into the steak. This keeps the meat tender...

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Tony,


You're absolutely right, and I should have elaborated in my original post.

If wagyu or kobe beef is cooked like a regular steak, it will end up tough and dry and flavorless. The traditional way to cook wagyu is by searing, which seals in all the juices -- it will end up almost liked baked alaska -- seared to a crisp on the oustide, and quivering raw in the middle.

When I grill, I usually stick with ground wagyu patties, and turn up the heat (on my propane grill, sorry!) all the way. They cook very quickly on the outside, remain extremely rare on the inside, and taste wonderful.

 

[KenLeBlanc]

Why is this ? That seems like awhile to wait. I usually dig in right away.

Some of you are serious about your BBQ'ing. My BBQ (spacemaker) cost about as much as that talking thermometer that one guy mentioned.

I still love my BBQ'ing and probably use it 4 - 6 times a week in the summer. I guess if I had the money, I'd buy one of them nice stainless BBQ's. Those Weber grills look nice.

 

[Dennis*G]

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Because it allows time for the juices in the meat to soak back into the center for a much juicer bite. Also, you should let your meat warm up at least 30 minutes on the counter before grilling it (do not go straight from fridge to the grill) also, do not season ahead of time, especially with salt (it will dry the meat out) season just before you put on the grill, unless of course you marinating, then the longer the better.

I love those ribeye's also. at least 1 1/4" thick. sometime 1 1/2" thick. Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh garlic. Sear that thing at 550 for a few minutes each side and thats one yummy medium rare steak.

I have also cooked a whole turkey on the grill using an smoker pouch, and that came out great. about 350 for 4 hours I think it was?

Grilled up fish (smoker pouch also) and pork tenderloins, and of course the burgers, dogs and brats.

I tried corn once, but I did not like the taste of grilled corn (both in the husk and out)

For the best ribs, yoiu need to slow cook in a smoker for like 12 hours, a grill will never make ribs better then a true smoker will, but if you must, just cook low and slow and use a smoke pouch

 

[Jack Fanning]

12 hours would be overdoing it quite a bit on ribs. I've taken advice from some of those competition cookers and alot of them suggest a 3-2-1 method, that is: 3 hours uncovered, 2 hours wrapped in alum foil and the last hour unwrapped again. All this at about a 200 to 225 degree temp.

Seems to work very well!

 

[Ted Lee]

ken, pretty much what dennis said, but you can test this yourself.

next time you bbq, take two different cuts. cut one down the middle right away, but let the other one rest about 10 minutes before cutting.

you'll see that the one you immediately cut will have a lot of juice flow out -- that's a *bad* thing. that's the juice that you want in the meat...not on your plate. the other piece you let rest may still have some juice seep out, but it shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as the first one.

bottom line is resting the meat (whether it's steak, chicken, pork, whatever) allows the flesh to "settle back", and allow the juices that were squeezed around during the intense heat to absorb back into the meat.

good tip on cooking the meat at room temperature too.

 

[Alex-C]

Can anyone recommend a good home-theater-forum-ish forum for grilling ? Weber's site does not have one.

 

[Jack Fanning]

Here's a pretty active site that I frequent.

http://www.homebbq.com/duportal/forums/default.asp

 

[ScottH]

Three words: Beer Can Chicken.

 

[JayBru]

I hope this in not out of place. All references have been to BBQ'n various meats except for the lone onion recipe which I will try on Saturday. Have you ever done asparagus on the grill? Here is a great way to do a veggie on the grill. Lightly coat about one pound of asparagus spears with olive oil, place in plastic bag and then add Kosher salt about 1/4 cup, shake and roll the bag until all the spears are coated with salt, let sit for the afternoon or at least an hour. The spears can then be put directly on the grill, or in a grilling pan and cooked until done while frequently turning the spears. The spears will burn, brown and cook through to your liking, very good in my estimation.

 

[Ted Lee]

jay - that's pretty close to how i do my asparagus as well. but i don't use that much salt - 1/4 a cup sounds like a LOT of salt??? i typically only put a couple of pinch-fulls in the bag, plus i add freshly ground pepper.

if anyone else tries this, be sure not to overcook the asparagus on the grill. it literally only takes about 3 minutes or so...otherwise if you overcook them they'll get all soggy on you. if they're a touch undercooked, that's fine as well as the carry-over heat will finish them off perfectly.

 

[Greg_R]

JayBru,
Try these veggie / fruit recipes:

Summer Squash / Zucchini:
- thinly slice (1/8" or so) veggies on a bias to make long strips
- lightly coat in olive oil
- put on medium heat grill and sprinkle salt and fresh ground pepper
- flip and salt/pepper the other side
-> You can use any spices you like. The heat will drive out the moisture and condense the vitamins and flavor. The slight char also adds to the goodness .

Grilled Pineapple (taken from the BBQ Bible):
- Trim exterior of pineapple and cut 8-10 slices.
- Mix 1cup sugar with 1tsp cinnamon and 1/2tsp ground cloves. Add some lime zest.
- Melt 1/2 stick of butter
- Dip pineapple in butter and let excess drip off. Now dip both sides in the sugar mixture and place on the grill. Note: The grill must be super-clean and lightly oiled!
- Grill 7-8 minutes per side (~350 degrees)
- Take off grill and optionally flambe with dark rum
-> I like to serve this with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream. You can also try this with wedges of peaches (use a little more cloves).

 

[Alex-C]

Same here Ted, and all I would add to this is to layer some parmesan curls on the top. Just take a block of parmesan and use the large single blade side of a standard cheese grater.

 

[Blu]

My favorite grilling dish is pork tenderloin!

Trim up the tenderloin to your liking and make sure you get the silver skin off of there. Place on the grill on a medium direct heat and depending on size flip it often for a nice even finish.

When the juices are clear you are done, cut, eat, and enjoy!