BBQ History
Hot Stuff
Go Wild on Fat Tuesday with Wings, Shrimp, and Much More!
Today is Mardi Gras, better known as “Fat Tuesday.” It’s the last hurrah for observant Christians, who beginning tomorrow, will start a 46-day period of fasting leading up to Easter Sunday. (Loosely translated, Carnival, from the Latin carne vale, means “farewell to meat.”) There was once a practical as well as a liturgical purpose behind Lent. Peasants couldn’t afford to overwinter their animals, so there was generally an ample supply of...
Read more →Planet Barbecue
Escape Winter: Jamaican Jerk Pork
Already, this winter seems interminably long. Everyone I know is yearning for a respite from grey skies and single digit temperatures. But an escape to the Caribbean isn’t always in the cards. The next best thing? Recreating the spirit and flavors of the islands at home. No dish is more iconic than Jamaica’s fiery, lip-tingling, explosively flavorful jerk. Like many island cuisines, jerk is wholly dependent on ingredients found right there on Jamaica—primarily,...
Read more →Barbecue University™
Indoor Grilling
Here in Miami, we break out the warm hoodies and jackets when temperatures dip into the fifties. But I realize other parts of the country, particularly the Northeast, are enduring real cold this winter. (The wind chill in Vermont last week was an unfathomable -100 degrees.) There’s certainly no shame in taking the party indoors when temperatures fall below zero. Or maybe you’re one of millions of condo or apartment dwellers who are prevented from...
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The New Veal
After decades of pariah status, veal is making a comeback. Outrage in the 1980s at the cruel conditions under which young calves were raised made Americans lose their appetite for veal. It all but disappeared from restaurant menus and meat counters. Annual per capita consumption dropped from four pounds to about a third of a pound, the equivalent of one measly dinner of wienerschnitzel or veal Parmigiana or osso buco—literally too little to graph. ...
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Celebrate National Bratwurst Day!
Bratwurst have become a staple of American cuisine, with grilled brats topping the list of favorite summer foods for many. So much have brats made their impression in this country, we now have a National Bratwurst Day dedicated to this tube-shaped food. August 16th is the official day - our friends at Johnsonville have even created a storybook character dedicated to this celebration and titled the day Bratsgiving. How will YOU be celebrating? Here are some facts about the...
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The History of Worcestershire Sauce
What’s the ingredient most frequently used in barbecue sauces? Ketchup is a no brainer. But I’d put my money on a condiment that comes in a paper–wrapped bottle: Worcestershire sauce. (And according to Nielsen, it is one of the fastest growing sauces in sales dollars.) This thin, brown, sweet-sour condiment turns up in barbecue sauces of all stripes and types—from the tomato-based sauces of Kansas City to the butter sauces of New Orleans to the black dips of...
Read more →The Unique Barbecue of Santa Maria, California: Worth the Visit
This post is brought to you by Visit Santa Maria Valley, which provided advertising support. Ever since butchers Larry Viegas and Bob Schutz grilled the first tri-tip in the meat department of a Safeway store on the corner of Mill and Vine Streets in Santa Maria, California in 1952, the Santa Maria Valley has been one of America’s best kept barbecue secrets. California’s favorite barbecued beef, the tri-tip—the triangular tip of the sirloin—combines...
Read more →Tempted by Tacos
Even baby boomers have a difficult time remembering when tacos—like pizza—weren’t a ubiquitous part of the culinary landscape. (Glen Bell opened the first Taco Bell restaurant in 1962 and went public with his franchise in 1970.) Now, Americans eat more than 4.5 billion tacos a year. Tacos rank among our most beloved fast foods, good for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a late-night snack after the bars close. The anglicized tacos of our youth started with a boxed kit containing fragile U-shaped taco shells, salsa, and a packet of seasoning...
Read more →A Guide to Offset Barrel Smokers
Water smokers, box, barrel, and pellet smokers do a fine job smoking meats and seafood. But nothing establishes your street cred as pit master who means business like an offset smoker. For years, these hunka-hunka smokers—a.k.a., offset barrel smokers, horizontal smokers, pipe smokers, or “stick-burners”—have dominated the competition barbecue circuit. Now, thanks to mass-market models available at stores like Home Depot and Lowes, they’re bringing their own particular aura of machismo to American and European backyards. The first offset smokers were likely built by oilfield workers in Texas and Oklahoma. Far from home and restaurants, it didn’t take much for barbecue-starved welders...
Read more →Battle of the Hibachis
It’s the antithesis of the modern North American stainless steel super grill (you know, that propane-fired monster with multiple heat zones, infrared sear station and industrial strength rotisserie). But when it comes to providing maximum grilling efficiency in minimal space, few grills can beat its direct, concentrated, blast-furnace heat. It’s the compact Japanese-style tabletop grill known in the West as the hibachi. Without it there would be no yakitori or robatayaki. Get the Yakitori Like They Make It in Japan recipe....
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