Archive for August, 2005
Another nod for chimney starters
Awhile ago I wrote about the benefits of using a chimney starter instead of lighter fluid for starting your fire. Over at the BBQ Junkie you’ll find another vote for this method.
Seems like they agree. It’s fast, easy, and convenient. It also uses no chemicals, and when paired with lump charcoal creates about as natural a fire as you could hope to achieve. Best of all, they are cheap, usually less than $12 or so.
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Double decker trash can turkey
Previously, I’d written about building a smoker from a trash can for about $50. Here’s a follow on article explaining how to modify the setup to smoke a turkey and a couple of briskets.
In this modification, they’ve used a second trash can to double the height of the smoker in order to make the extra room necessary for such a feast. Water heater insulation was used to seal the area between the trash cans and help them retain their heat better.
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Making your own sausage
Sure, you can grill up a mean bratwurst or smoke up some juicy hot links. But have you ever considered making your own sausage at home? That’s certainly the true test. Follow the link on this article to view a photo tutorial how-to on the fine art of stuffing your own sausage.
I’ve made my own sausage, but it didn’t turn out that well. Things went well at first, I ground up some pork then added the fat. Some how, I ended up with salt pork instead of fat back, resulting in some very salty sausage. Oh well, I’ll have to try again sometime. Unlike the article, where they have some sort of professional rig, I was using a KitchenAid stuffer attachment and food grinder conversion kit with our stand mixer, and it works just fine.
If you want to go really hard core, check out this article on making sausage from scratch in Romania, which includes the sorting of the intestines and blowing air through them to check for leaks.
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The WienerStick stops roll away wieners
Bet you don’t have one of these in your arsenal! This new product is the brainchild of the aptly named Wiener Tec, who are masters of wiener technology. Inventor Reg Wall came up with the idea when, and I’m not making this up, a cat ate his wiener. It rolled off the grill where it was quickly snatched up by the hungry feline.
The patented WienerStick is basically a rack of vertical stainless steel tines which you use as sort of a vertical kabob setup. The WienerStick sits vertically on your barbecue, maximizing space and turning your two dimensional cooking surface, into a three dimensional experience. Food skewered on the stainless steel tines cooks quite quickly from the inside out, allowing you to make a variety of foods including wieners and hotdogs, without the hassle of constant turning or burning. If you have several of these you could cook enough hot dogs for the entire neighborhood in one shot.
There’s an action shot of the inventor demonstrating this little gadget in The Abbotsford News and more information on the Wiener Tech website. No photos of the wiener eating cat however.
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Building a real trash can barbecue
Too cheap to buy one of them fancy store bought Weber smokers? Got a trash can (or a neighbor with a trash can?) and a hot plate? You are all set buddy boy. Following the plans on this link you can build your own trash can barbecue for less than $50.
A few tips for my fellow Aggies who may attempt this:
- Use a metal trash can, PVC is not a good flavored smoke
- Make sure you’ve emptied the trash before you begin
- If you live near Sesame Street, check for Oscar
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A regional barbecue cheat sheet
I found this great quick reference guide to the different regional barbecue styles you’ll find in the United States. It’s a one page cheat sheet that lists the type of meat, sauce, and preparation associated with each style of barbecue, including:
- North Carolina
- Texas
- Kansas City
- Memphis
- South Carolina
- Alabama
- Kentucky
An example is in order. Carolinians on the whole point to pork as their meat of choice, but South Carolinians prefer a mustard based sauce, while in North Carolina (at least in the Western areas) they use a ketchup and vinegar based sauce.
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The hot sauce festival was hot
As if there was any doubt, the hot sauce festival was pretty dang hot. As I mentioned in a previous post, this weekend was the 15th annual Hot Sauce Festival in downtown Austin. Very crowded and hot, but definitely Austin. Good music, reasonable beer prices, free hot sauce, quite the bargain.
I tried a lot of different salsas, grilling sauces, spice rubs, and other spicy foods. For grilling, I recommend the Austin Spice Company’s “Smoky Hill Barbeque Salsa and Grilling Glaze”, which you can order from their website. It can be used either as dip, or like you would a barbecue sauce. Tasty!
I also bought some roast garlic sea salt from Spiceburst Gourmet Spices. This stuff will go great on grilled ribeyes.
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Freezing your barbecue for a rainy day
Every time I barbecue I have left overs. No, it’s not because it tastes bad, my guests never go home hungry. Rather, its because I always make some extra, generally as much as my pit will hold. The extras go first into next day’s lunchbox, (and sometimes the next, and the next…) then into the deep freeze for a rainy day.
It’s great to have an emergency stash of barbecue standing by, so I thought I’d share a few tips for freezing barbecue. Barbecue freezes surprisingly well. I’ve eaten chicken quarters and briskets well over a year old and I swear you can’t tell the difference.
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Comments have been restored
I’ve fixed the comments section, so you should be able to post responses and comments now. Thanks for your patience.
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Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is tommorow
The 15th annual Austin Chronicle Host Sauce Festival is tomorrow, Sunday August 28th at Waterloo Park in downtown Austin from 11:00 to 5:00. Best of all, entry is free. Plenty of hot sauce, hot music, and well hot people since its topping 100 degrees here right now.
Entry to the competition is available at the show, just complete an entry form from their website and show up with a quart of hot sauce. Last year their were over 300 entries and over one hundred gallons of hot sauce consumed. Other than hot sauce, there is always plenty of food vendors selling a little of everything, including snow cones and cool drinks (which you’ll no doubt need).
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Removing barbecue stains
Some more useful advice for labor day weekend festivities. How to remove barbecue sauce stains. Who doesn’t enjoy a good messy barbecue, except for the person doing the laundery. Here’s a tip on removing your favorite sauce from your favorite shirt.
First, rinse the stain with cool water. Apply a liquid enzyme detergent and let the clothing rest for about an hour before rinseing. Next, sponge with hydrogen peroxide. Finally, apply a laundry presoak and then wash with an enzyme detergent. Drying the clothing in the sun will further help bleach out the stain.
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Rooster adds kick to white barbecue sauce
In Northern Alabama, locals enjoy a regional specialty you won’t find most anywhere else — white barbecue sauce. Along with a history lesson on where this sauce came from, I’ve included my favorite version of the recipe. There are many variations to be sure, but in this one I’ve used a spicy Asian ‘Rooster’ sauce to add some extra kick.
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Grilled Pizza
Nothing’s better than home made pizza, and pizza off the grill is better than that. If you want to try this at home, assuming you don’t have your own brick pizza oven, look no farther than this Grilled Pizza article on the Italian Chef website. From dough (the key, IMHO), to sauce, to cheese and topics. You can pick up some great how-tos and tips.
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End your rib worries!
Labor day is coming, time for first-time rib cookers to try their luck. But do you know a spare rib from a baby back? What about country-style? How about beef ribs, ever tempted to cook those?
Here’s an article full of good information about selecting and cooking barbecue ribs. It includes recipes for several rubs, a guide to various cuts of pork and beef ribs, as well as tips like this:
“Most barbecuers refer to the best pork ribs as being 2 and under,’ which means a slab (13 bones) weighs less than 2 pounds,” she says. “I’ve had great luck with slabs that weight 3 and 4 pounds, too … but stay away from the 5-plus pounders. These are usually really cheap and really tough – referred to as dinosaur bones in the business.”
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Recipe: Flat Iron Steak Martini
Cooking.com and The Texas Beef Council bring us this unusual recipe. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s a cocktail, no wait its an appetizer. Kinda scary. Somehow I don’t see cowboys sipping, er chewing, these around the campfire.
It looks kinda foo-foo, yet strangely compelling. It starts with a medium-rare flat iron steak that has been marinated in Vermouth and juniper berries. Cut into thin slices, it’s served in a martini glass and topped with olives, onions and blue cheese.
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