Grilling...

...how do you do it?

[mivox]

Any grilling aficionados who want to discuss this ritual with the same detail and care that Shak and friends discuss the tea ritual?

Lawman wants a ritual, and I say the great big gas grill he owns is a fine place to start...

Personally, I prefer to grill over an open wood fire pit, use dry seasoning rubs on the meat, and cook the veggies with a little butter and some fresh herbs sealed in foil pouches.

There have to be some more backyard gourmets around here, so lets give those tea-drinkers a run for their money here...

Wood fire, charcoal or gas?
Dry seasoning rubs, marinating or BBQ sauce?
Beverages?

[pmac]

ahhh, weber speak. Sure I'm up for it, but I don't tend to grill in a ritualistic way because I like to experiment.

What I made last night may become a ritual I suppose cause it was so damn good. I took a bit of olive oil, some dijon mustard, a little salt,some pepper, some thyme and to "kick it up a notch" I tossed in some crushed garlic. I mashed it into a paste and took some "fred flintstone" size Alberta rib eyes and covered in them in the paste for an hour.

4 mins per side on the Weber and behold complete perfection. A couple "wobbly pops" to wash it down followed by a nap on the couch makes for the perfect evening IMHO.

Doesn't come off as quaint as tea huh?

[lawman]

I grill everything - beef, pork, chicken - even grilled my T'giving turkey. Also do my veggies. I love zucchini covered with my special marinade and sea salt.

The grill (Weber Genesis Gold), she is lp. Fires up quick and can cook quick or slow. It has three stainless steel burners. The grill itself is stainless as is the hood. There are also 5 or six stainless steel flavorizer bars (A-shaped contraptions. The grease hits these hot babies and copious smoke is generated).

Standard beverage while grilling and eating is good old american beer. Hoever, I am not totally uncouth - I drink it out of a mug rather than a bottle.

lawman

[mivox]

Oh, I drink out of a bottle while grilling. :)

My standard is to take two nice 1" thick angus rib eyes, sprinkle them liberally on both sides with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and garlic (either fresh or granulated, whichever is handy), cover one side with fresh sliced red onions, wrap it all back up in the butcher paper and leave it sitting for an hour.

Then toss on the grill after spraying with some olive oil.

Served best with fresh veggies with dill and butter, and a nice cold hefeweisen with a squeeze of lemon.

Better yet: next summer the hefeweisen will be homebrew! (Which is another idea for a ritual for you... brewing definitely has a ritualistic feel to it, and you get to drink the result... except it takes about a month from brew to finish)

If steak isn't handy though, chicken breast or shrimp skewers will do in a pinch.

[pageoneresults]

mivox, how do you grill in sub-zero temperatures?

[lawman]

I wanna put my Weber through it's paces. Let's have the next barcon at my house.

[mivox]

I do most of my grilling during the summer, pageone. It's usually in the 80s for most of June and July here, unless we get a few weeks in the 90s. :)

And, since it stays light out all night long, I can grill whenever I want. Nice to sit outside at 11pm, and not have to worry about turning on the porch light.

We did have a spring cookout last year before the snow melted though. That was a hoot. :)

[mivox]

Anyone know the secret of the all-day wood fire barbecue? I want to know how to do that... I had some ribs from a food cart once, couple of southern brothers who'd done a very slick conversion job on a pair of 55 gallon drums to make a giant all-day wood fired slow BBQ, with a little sales stand attached that towed behind their truck. Most amazing ribs I've ever eaten... falling off the bone, not too sweet, just the perfect amount of spicy... oooooh....

[DrCool]

I've also been curious about that Mivox. I saw a show (I think on the Food Network) about a bar-b-q contest. Some of the grills these guys have are amazing and they slow cook the meat for 12 hours or more. I would love to try that with a brisket or pork butt sometime.

The most amazing thing was how precisely they could control the temperature just using wood. That, I think, is one of the biggest keys to getting the slow cooking right.

[msgraph]

Flat rectangular or brick chimney grills are the best. Preferably with ability to raise or lower the grill grating.

- Make a small pile of wood and crumpled newspaper.

- Top with charcoal, the real burned wood chunks, not the compressed garbage.

- Light it up. No lighter fluid.

- Wait till coals are hot and blackish-grey.

- Spread some coals evenly under the grating from the pile and be sure to leave enough in the pile so that if you need to heat up more coals you can.

- Season meat with very coarse salt. Nothing else.

- Cook meat over a medium heat, flipping only once. This will give the outside a crispy texture with a juicy center.

- Serve with Chimichurri sauce.

Beef is very very cheap here. Well before the economy collapsed but still cheap in US dollars. Just to let you know, Filet Mignon runs at about $2/lb.

[lawman]

The last filet I bought was $14.99/lb. Cheap hamburger is $1.79/lb. How about you pack me some filet mignon up in dry ice and ship it to me. ;)

lawman

[Terrier]

I find Oak the best wood (good flavor) for an all day outdoor grill,Have a good fire going to one side of where you want to grill, and when you are ready rake some hot embers across put the griddle over the hot embers and slap on the meat.Pork or lamb, I like to marinade for 12hr before.
Best is a slow spit Roast whole lamb stuffed with garlic and rosemary.

[mivox]

Never really cared much for lamb... something about the flavor of the meat just doesn't suit me. Now, moose meat is a real treat, but I think I'd need to hire a contractor to build a fire pit big enough to spit-roast a whole moose.

I could probably stuff the moose with the whole lamb for you though... heheh.

[Terrier]

I bet you could. But one of the heavy hogs on the farm next door could give your Moose a run for his money they are BIG.
I doubt I could find a spit big enough bit like roast Rhino.

I like Lamb, good vehicle for Garlic, well done so the meat is ready to fall of the bone.

[tbear]

Went to a party at a friends finca last month ( before the cold spell), on the parilla they grilled 35 kilos of beef ribs (they being Argentino + Uruguayo - the chefs).
They very much used terriers method but with Olive wood (trunks actually), 4 grills with the hot embers from the main fire. Excellent.
They tell me that in Argentina the first thing to look at, when you rent even an apartment, is the quality of parilla on the balcony.
This whole thread is making me dribble, excuse me, gotta wipe my chin. BRB

[mivox]

I wish it wasn't the middle of winter... I'd go out and grill something tonight. Might have to settle for panfried ribeye instead.

I'd like to make a more permanent grill, but not sure how to do it so it doesn't get shifted apart with the ground freezing and thawing under it every year... right now we just have a ring of bricks and large stones, and we toss the wood on the ground in the middle. Works fine, but doesn't make for a very adjustable cooking surface.

I'd like to do a proper brick firepit, with a grill on one end, and put in an adjustable grill rack...

[oilman]

ok - all you guys can come on up to oilman's place and have some real Alberta beef - mmmmm droooool.

Give me a spice rack and some white wine for marinade and I'll teach you what beef is supposed to taste like (I see pmac has good taste) - cooked just long enough that it stops mooing ;) You folks have some good recipes - I think I'll print out this thread and try them out.

In a pinch if you don't have enough time to really soak your slab pour your marinade on and go crazy with a couple forks - tenderize and allows the marinade to penetrate nicely. 2 minutes with the forks can make up for a few hours of soaking.

[lawman]

Got so hungry reading this thread that I grilled some filet and baked some spuds. Nothing fancy. Put Dale's marinade on the beef for about 45 minutes. Olive oil on the taters sprinkled liberally with sea salt and wrapped in aluminum foil. Total time from preparation to the plate was just over an hour (meat was marinading while Idaho's baked). Yummy.

lawman

[Macguru]

pmac, your marinade seems perfect. Next time I will try that plus maybe a twist of lemon juice and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.

msgraph got the perfect charcaol and cooking ritual.

mivox suggested wood fire. Open flame is ok for kooking on pots and pans, but not suitable for grill stuff. You need to use hardwood and wait untill no more open flames are given from the fire before putting anything on the grill.

It sure did remind me of some wild camping trips.

[mivox]

Open flame is ok for kooking on pots and pans, but not suitable for grill stuff.

Funny, my steaks always seem to taste awfully good. ;)

[oilman]

oooo taters....
oilman's taters:
1) Chop up as many taters as you think you can eat
2) repeat step one
3) spread out foil on table and butter it liberally
4) sprinkle garlic powder, onion salt and pepper on the buttered foil
5) put potatoes on foil
6) spread more butter on potatoes,
7) sprinkle more garlic poweder, onion salt and pepper on potatoes
8) wrap em up in the foil and then double layer it
9) cook on medium heat until done (time will vary based on size and heat)
10) serve with sour cream (real sour cream - none of that lowfat crap)

[Macguru]

>>Funny, my steaks always seem to taste awfully good.

Well, maybe. I have never had moose before.

[msgraph]

Mivox, in the colder regions here, warm too, most houses have a special attached room with a brick chimney grill. It does tend to get smokey at times but, hey, you're able to BBQ, and, without stinking up the rest of the house.

>Dale's marinade

That is one marinade I really really miss. I think only people who lived in the South know about that one right? Simple yet gets the job done. I'll have to tell the family to send some down here next time i talk to them.

[mivox]

oilman's taters:

Oooh... I'm gonna remember that. mmmm.

never had moose

Never had a moose steak myself... moose stew, moose sausage, moose stroganoff, moose roast, but not steak. Most hunters around here get roasts and have the rest of the meat ground or turned into sausage when they take it in for processing.

But all my beef rib eye steaks taste awfully good after being cooked over a low flame...

a special attached room with a brick chimney grill

That's a great idea. Heck, if we even had a regular fireplace, I'd figure out how to cook in it...

[oilman]

the key to oilman's taters is to always use about twice as much seasoning as you think you'll like. Whenever I make them when a friend's over they always freak out when they watch me pouring on the seasoning - then after dinner they ask for the recipe. :)

[cattle.ca...] - will give you an idea of how seriously we take our beef and grilling in Alberta ;)

[msgraph]

Where's the UK chaps?

Bet they don't know how to BBQ ;)

[Quinn]

They get nervous when there's this many Americans in one room.

[mivox]

Maybe they're afraid we'll throw away their tea again? ;) They seem to take it terribly seriously... strange, considering there's no fire or meat involved.

[Macguru]

Macguru's marinade for the perfect brochettes [imperium.ludi.free.fr].

1 cup of virgin olive oil
1/2 a cup of fresh lemon juice
1/4 a cup of dry white wine
1/4 a cup of regular dijon mustard
6 table spoons of honey
5 table spoons of fresh crushed garlic (remove the green bud in center if any)
3 table spoons of finely chopped fresh basilic
2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar
2 table spoons of fresh ground green pepper
2 table spoons of salt

(fresh chives can be considered)

The perfect brochettes are 2 1/2 to 3 inch thick filet mignon (or moose) with your choice of veggies.

Let it rest for 2 to 3 hours in the fridge before cooking. Don't overcook.

[edited by: Macguru at 11:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 10, 2003]

[Quinn]

lol. That's the first time this combination of words has been printed.

filet mignon (or moose)