Beef
Barbecue University™
How to Grill the Perfect Steak
Thousands of students have graduated from Barbecue University, the intense hands-on course in live-fire cooking I’ve been teaching since 2001. And nearly all have a common goal: to learn how to grill the perfect steak—crusty on the outside, juicy and sanguine on the inside, and deftly seasoned. Even among intrepid grillers, the fear factor is high with beefsteak. Miscalculate the cooking time by mere minutes, and you’ve potentially devalued your investment—which is usually substantial—and...
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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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The Matter of Meat: Responsibly Raised Steak and Brisket
This post is brought to you by Nebraska Star Beef, which provided advertising support. As Steven has said time and time again, where your food comes from and how it was raised matters as much as how you grill it. Nebraska Star Beef shares this belief, and has tailored their business to follow this tenet. With a focus on traditional methods of raising, aging, and butchering cattle, the result is a high quality meat with a trustworthy...
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In Time for Father’s Day: 5 Great Recipes for Grilled Steak
George Stephens, Sr. fabricated the first prototype of his iconic Weber kettle grill in 1952. My family didn’t get the memo until the 1970s, meaning that all the steaks that ended up on our table were cooked on a grill with a lidless shallow fire pan. I recall the grill grate could be raised or lowered via a crank-operated center stem over the coals, but only by a couple of inches. Consequently, everything was direct grilled. And my father did steaks one way and one way only—hot, fast, and well done, seasoned...
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My Favorite Rib Recipe, Plus 8 Tips for Righteous Ribs
Twelve years ago this month, I began working for Steven Raichlen, the world’s foremost authority on international grilling and barbecue. My first major project was testing recipes for Steven's book Best Ribs Ever. My brand-new Weber Performer—I didn’t own a smoker in those days—and I turned out slab after slab of ribs during the spring of 2005, which I would vacuum seal and pack with frozen gel packs and overnight to Steven’s home in Miami....
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Taco Tuesday Hits the Grill
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. And now, tacos have their own day! Taco Tuesdays have become a ritual in kitchens across the country. We challenge you to mix it up this week, and grill your taco ingredients! We've compiled a list of recipes below to get your started. 1. Shepherd’s Tacos (Tacos al Pastor) Like many totemic dishes on Planet Barbecue, the tacos al pastor...
Read more →Project Smoke Quiz: Test Your Beef Knowledge
Test your BBQ IQ: OK, you know how to smoke beef ribs and brisket. But how far does your beef knowledge extend? Test your knowledge with this short quiz. Take another quiz on barbecue and grilling techniques.
Read more →Buying Beef: Prime vs. Choice, Wet-Aged vs. Dry-Aged
As a member of this barbecue community, you probably buy a lot of meat. And when you do, you may have lots of questions: Should you buy Prime or Choice? Wet-aged or dry-aged? Here’s how to speak with your butcher so you sound like you know what you’re talking about. PRIME VERSUS CHOICE The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grades beef according to tenderness, texture, and “marbling”—the distribution of intramuscular fat. (Remember this equation: Fat equals flavor.) There are eight USDA grades, but...
Read more →Reverse-Seared Smoked Beef Tenderloin for New Year’s
Whether you’re planning to ring in the New Year by hosting a festive sit-down dinner or an over-the-top buffet, there’s nothing more celebratory than a whole beef tenderloin. Yes, it’s extravagant. And, no, it’s not inexpensive. But it’s guaranteed to delight the carnivores in your circle—especially when smoke-roasted to sanguine perfection. An added bonus? It’s ridiculously easy to prepare—you can even do it ahead—and can be served...
Read more →The Ultimate Holiday Prime Rib
All photos by Rob Baas. Prime rib. No other hunk of meat has such wow power. And no other cut strikes more fear in the hearts of home grill masters. With the holidays just a few days away, I feel the anxiety level rising. My inbox is inundated with questions, while search engines thrum with the words “prime rib recipe.” For the record, Google returns 1,430,000 results. Your search is over, however. My two-step method, which I debuted on Project Smoke, is simply the...
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