I know many of you are assuming at this point that the Grillin Fools will be competing but that is not the case.  We have a lot going on that weekend outside of it being a holiday weekend.  This particular Grillin Fool, and my lovely wife, are expecting our second baby on the 30th.  But that doesn’t mean the Grillin Fools won’t be there.  My cousin Tom, and his wife, Tracy, will be two of the judges at the event.  My father and I may make it down for the event in progress but neither of us can make any promises at this point until we know if that baby is coming.  Our first went into extra innings and that may happen with this one as well.

While I realize that we won’t be cooking there I highly recommend the event.  If you have never been to Iron Barley, you are missing out.  My wife and I have been a couple times and it is really amazing.  Particularly if you are into craft beers like myself.  My wife isn’t at all into the beers and loves the place because the food is incredible.  This is an invitational, so they are only going to bring in the top rib talent, that live up to their standards for great food.

For $20 you can get samples of the ribs, drink/draft specials and BBQ plates will be available.  Did I mention the live music like Rockin’ Jake, Baker McClaren, the Bob Camp Band, and Tom Hall and the Boss Hall Band?  And some of the proceeds go to benefit the USO and the Fisher House, which is an excellent charity that helps support military families, and with so many of my friends serving this is near and dear to my heart as it is for my father and cousin who are both Vets.

So, please, come out on Monday the 31st from 2-7 PM and sample some great BBQ, talk to the teams, get some tips, say hello to Tom and Tracy (and maybe Dad and I), listen to some great music, have some amazing beers, and do it all for a good cause.  I hope to see all of you there, although if I can’t make the event it will be because I’m tending to the 5th Grillin Fool who will be less than a day old!!!

121 St. Luke’s Center Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63017

Here is a link to a PDF of the pic below:

Here is the actual link to the website with all the particulars

• The event features free health screenings for carotid artery, blood pressure, bone density, skin damage, and hearing.  There is a $10 fee for non-fasting cholesterol screening
• Golf tips from Steve Lotz, PGA professional and past Gateway PGA Teacher of the Year
• Beer sampling from the International Tap House
• Mini break-out sessions with St. Luke’s physicians (bone and joint, heart and skin)
• Door prizes including box seats to Cardinals games
• AND the Grillin Fools doing what we do only healthier

Our menu is not set in stone, but it will be soon enough.  Some possible candidates for the menu are:

• Grilled romaine
• Grilled scallions
• Grilled asparagus
• Indirect chicken breasts
• Smoked turkey breast with Smart Balance and garlic under the skin
• Proper technique for grilling a steak
• Grilled lobster tails
• Grilled shrimps(minus the bacon)
• Grilled fish
• Grilled potatoes (regular or sweet or both)

Most of the items above we have done on the site in some way shape or form on the site (all except for the asparagus and indirect chicken, the latter we will get up soon enough), but if you want to see them done live come on out and meet with us if just to point and laugh, shake our hands, or see what makes us the fools that we are.  Everyone will get a chance to sample what we do.  We won’t be feeding the crowd each a full meal, but we will give away samples of everything we do.

Come out to watch us do what we do, have a couple samples from iTap, learn some healthy living tips and maybe win a set of Cards tickets.  We hope to see you there.

Check back as we finalize the menu or check us out on Facebook or Twitter for updates.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  Football, pies, brisk air, stuffing, friends and family, and of course turkey.  We all know the drill.  Place bird in aluminum tray, insert in the oven, bake till the little thing pops up, serve and hope it’s not dry.  If it is dry, well, make sure there’s a gravy boat nearby.

What happened?  The turkey used to be the star of the show.  Now it’s just something we do every year because it’s tradition.  I’m not saying to break tradition and go with ribs on Thanksgiving (but if you do I’m pretty sure we have a recipe for you).  I’m saying make that bird the star again.  Send your guests away full and commenting on how great that turkey was rather than how well the gravy was that moistened up the dry turkey.  And I realize that the cool weather is not traditionally grilling weather but think about it, rather than the grill making you sweat in the Summer time, it will actually warm you up when you check on the bird.

I will hand this off to my cousin, Tom – the Big Green Eggspert – Jones.  He will be doing this on his Big Green Egg.  For those of us that don’t have a BGE, simply follow the temperature guidelines for whatever grill you have.  Click below to learn how to make the turkey something to be thankful for once again…

Tom’s Thanksgiving Day Turkey Brined and cooked on the grill!

Ingredients:

• 1 – 20 pound turkey
• 12 cups water
• 3 cups apple cider
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 4 stalks celery
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup cajun seasoning (or seasoning of your choice) If you don’t use this increase salt to 1 1/2 cups
• 1 TBS black pepper

If using a frozen turkey, please safely thaw the bird. Place the frozen turkey (in the original packaging) in a shallow pan in your refrigerator. Allow 24 hours thawing time for every four pounds of turkey.  The bird, all 20 pounds:

***Editor’s note – Whether you are grilling the bird or not I cannot stress enough the importance of brining.  If you brine properly you will never have another dry bird.  Click here to learn a little bit about the science behind brining.***

The Brine:

Bring water to boil, add salt and stir until dissolved. Let mixture come down to room temperature while you prep the remaining ingredients for the brine.

Chop onion, celery and carrots into large pieces:

Either crush or rough chop the garlic:

After the salt water mixture has cooled, add the remaining ingredients and stir until combined:

Place the turkey, breast side down into a large bag that can be sealed (some grocery stores sell very large zip-lock type bag for this purpose):

Pour the brine over the turkey ensuring the cavity fills with the brine. Place the bag containing the turkey and brine in cooler along with ice for several hours (overnight is best):

Remove the turkey from the brine, making sure to drain liquid from the cavity and pat dry with paper towels. Drizzle olive oil over the bird and season lightly with salt, pepper and seasoning of your choice (if using cajun seasoning don’t use salt). Place some of the vegetables from the brine inside the cavity:

The Grill:

Prepare grill for indirect heat and add wood for smoking if desired (we used peach wood). Place a pan with liquid in it under the grate positioned below the turkey. This will add moisture and will catching the drippings from the turkey. The liquid can be plain water, wine, beer, etc:

***Editor’s note – If you don’t have peach wood available, apple, apricot, nectarine and pear are all good substitutes.  Click here to see the Grillin Fools guide to smoke woods.***

Place on the grill breast side up:

Cook at approximately 300 degrees. Cooking time will be about 15 minutes for every pound of turkey.  Coming along nicely:

Starting to become a really nice golden brown:

During the last 30 minutes of cooking baste with butter and it should look something like this when removed from the grill:

To check doneness of the bird, use an instant read thermometer. Place thermometer into into the thickest part of the thigh, making sure the thermometer does not touch bone. The juices should run clear from the thigh, also wiggle a drumstick to see if it moves easily at the joint. The final internal temperature in the breast and thigh should reach 165 degrees.

You may want to remove the turkey from the grill at 160 as the residual heat in the turkey will continue to cook while it stands / rests before carving. Important! Allow turkey to stand 20 – 30 minutes before carving.

If you have achieved the correct internal temperature and the juices are clear, the meat near the bone may appear pink. This is normal and the turkey is perfectly safe to eat.

Note: This may sound like a lot of seasoning and salt. However, the end result is a perfectly seasoned, moist and delicious bird that your family will devour!!

If you are looking for other poultry dishes for Thanksgiving or otherwise click here.

And of course you could serve this bird on Thanksgiving to add a little humor to the event.  Feel free to forward this link on to your friends for a little chuckle.

If you have any questions about the recipe above, feel free to email me or simply leave a comment below and one of us fools will get back to you as soon as possible.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures.

The Grillin Fools went down to the dome downtown St. Louis for the Mizzou/Illinois border war game on September 5th.  We hauled down four grills, 15 slabs of ribs, 20 pounds of chicken, five fatties, close to 300 bacon wrapped stuffed peppers, and enough ingredients for about 100 crostinis.  I realize that doesn’t really make us all that different than other tailgaters but what makes us fairly unique is that we gave it all away.

Not a lot of new information in this post as we did a lot of our old classics.  We added a couple little twists as well as tried a new product from the guys at Saucehut.com.  Click below to see how the day went for us.  And if you met us there and I took your picture you just may be in the link below…

After a quick and very expensive trip to Sam’s we went to my folk’s place and started prepping the ribs.  Tom was skinning and slicing the slabs in half:

My dad was doing the rubbing:

Let’s get back to the skinning first.  Lots of people have a hard time with this.  It’s a little tough the first time you do it but in no time you will be a master like my cousin Tom.  Check this out:

We did the ribs with two different rubs.  The first was dad’s standard rub which can be found here and the other was a commercial rub called Bad Byron’s Butt Rub that we got from the guys at SauceHut.com:

We made up about 300 bacon wrapped stuffed peppers more commonly referred to as Atomic Buffalo Turds (ABT’s) which filled six gallon ziplocks.  An ABT is simply a pepper sliced lengthwise in half, filled with cream cheese with a little smoky (cocktail weiner) placed on top, wrapped with a half slice of bacon and stabbed with a toothpick to keep them in place.  They take about 30-40 minutes indirect on a 250-275 degree grill.  Click here to see more detail on how to make ABT’s but check out below as we have added another step that was dynamite. Here is all the food other than the fatties in a gigantic cooler:

We took enough ingredients down to the tailgate to make about 100 crostinis but only made about half of that.  Making that many takes time and they can’t really be made ahead of time.  You can click here to see how to make crostinis. I apologize for the bad pics.  I will try to take some new pics of the process with the new cam and update the post.  I was so busy churning these things out that I had no time to take any pics down at the event of the crostinis themselves.  So just take my word for it!?!

We also served up close to 20 pounds of chicken breasts marinaded in another Saucehut product – Tobago Keys Steakman Marinade.  I know it’s a steak marinade but it’s better on chicken.  We brushed on more marinade after they cooked for a little while to add to the flavor.  Here is the chicken cooking indirect with some ABT’s:

I didn’t get any shots of the fatties either.  But how I made them was I took 1 pound of breakfast maple sausage, added 1/3 of a gala apple minced, a couple thin slices of vidalia onion (also minced), two heaping teaspoons of minced garlic and a few turns of cracked black pepper in a bowl and mixed the ingredients all together.  Then I dusted the outside with a rub of granulated garlic, brown sugar, paprika, and black pepper.  They take just as long as ribs to cook indirect.  If you are going for a six hour smoke of ribs at 225 or a two hour smoke at 275 for the ribs it will take the fatty the same amount of time.  Here are a couple other Fatty Recipes:

Cheese stuffed and yellow pepper and corn stuffed

More fatties

So where did we tailgate?  We were in the Holiday Inn Select parking lot just west of the Dome and America’s Center on 9th.  The exact address is – 811 North 9th St. That lot has more than 300 spots in but thanks to a good buddy, Dan W., I have this little picture showing you exactly were we had our 10′X10′ awning, grills, and food set up:

That pic above was taken on a nice bright, sunny day.  That was not the case on the 5th.  We showed up at 8 a.m. and set up shop in this mess:

It rained nonstop for about four hours.  But that didn’t stop us from grillin, chillin and thrillin:

How about some ABT’s:

The above was the first batch as I wanted to try something new.  We had three different types of peppers, well two kinds, one of which was in two different stages of ripeness.  We had these monster green jalapenos (you can see one on the far right above with two pieces of bacon wrapped around it as we made them into double ABT’s that we sliced in half to serve), regular red jalapenos and baby bell peppers (look for the orange peppers above).

I was worried that the red jalpenos would be hotter than the rest so I decided to put a little brown sugar on the top to counter the spiciness of the pepper.  I got the idea from a coworker, Bryan, who wraps little smokies in bacon and covers in brown sugar for a side dish at office pot lucks.  Well, the peppers were not any hotter but the brown sugar was a real hit.  I wasn’t sure how to make these things better but brown sugar did the trick.  After we sampled these, time to go into mass production mode:

Now on to some ribs.  One hour in on a the old work horse Charbroil:

Skin browning up, blood oozing from the bones (sounds gross but it means they are cooking) and a nice temp of about 275.

Now over to the brinkman:

Still pink and holding only at about 200.  Both grills got a chimney full of lit charcoal and a couple chunks of wood.  The charbroil held the heat better.  The lesson here is to not assume that two very similar grills with similar set ups will cook the same.  Don’t rely too much on temps and times.  Let the meat tell you how fast it is cooking and when it is done.

These were getting close to being done when some friends from Red Bud Illinois showed up to enjoy some tailgating:

Above we have from left to right Angie, Eric, Clinton, Mike and Krysta Kelley.  The food has to be good to get people to come down early in this weather.

Here we have Tom and Dad doing a little quality control before sending Mom out to deliver food to the masses – at this point not a whole lot of people were leaving the comfort of their tents and awnings:

You want an idea of how wet it was?  Look at Tom’s pant leg above.  It is soaked to just below the knee.

Funniest thing I saw all day, well other than the University of Illinois get housed, was this guy:

Did you check out that umbrella?

How about a closeup of that umbrella:

Yeap, that’s a pink Dora the Explorer umbrella that barely covers his head!!

The coolest thing I saw all day was this:

That thing was bad to the bone.  Another close up:

That meat wagon had a big smoker on one side, long gas grill on another, warming stations and the cab of a semi on the front with police sirens and insanely loud horns to let everyone know when the BBQ was ready to go.  Oh, and how about that huge built in awning!!  Yeah, the Grillin Fools had some serious grill envy.

Here are some pics of people who walked up to sample our wares and talk BBQ:

Ribs are done:

And here they come:

My best friend Chad, in the blue Illinois shirt in the middle below and my oh so mature father with the rabbit ears behind him.  The rest are a testament to what good BBQ can do.  It can unite those from both sides of any line:

A little washers going on:

I think this sums up how good the ribs were:

And this fine gentleman posing with his lovely wife posts on STLToday.com forums as rustymkl2.  He spent most of the day tailgating himself.  He was raving out the rib eye steak sammiches he made when he wandered over to chat with us.  For details on how to make the sammiches check in here:

And here we are the three grillin fools.  After a long wet day, the food is gone and we’re about ready to tear everything down and head over to the game.  Tom on the left in the white apron, Dad on the right in the black apron with the orange shirt, and me right next to him in my Mizzou jersey.  But most importantly is Mom in the middle with her arms crossed.  Special thanks to her for canvasing the lot handing out samples and business cards to the throngs there.  And doing so barefoot because her shoes were soaked:

Grilling is done and now it’s time to head to the game.  Here I am with my new hat (thanks Chad, did it have to be one with gray hair?) and of course my game face on:

Waiting in line to get into the dome.  Here are the things you can’t bring in:

Wait, what the hell was that?

Wait.  Wha?!?  This needs to be specifically spelled out?  How many missile toters get to this sign and turn around all dejected since their missiles are on the prohibited list?

In our seats:

That would be, from the left, myself, Chad, Art and Lauren.  Only myself and Lauren will be happy when the game is over.

Pictures of the field from our seats:

I think Illinois was about to turn it over in that pic.  But the Illinois Band was really good:

A little more revelry after the game:

]]> http://grillinfools.com/2009/09/04/come-tailgate-with-the-grillin-fools/feed/ 6 http://grillinfools.com/2009/08/25/the-grillin-fools-grillin-on-vacation/ http://grillinfools.com/2009/08/25/the-grillin-fools-grillin-on-vacation/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:04:52 +0000 Scott http://grillinfools.com/?p=1059 In July the Grillin Fools and 30 of our relatives went up to Michigan:

It wasn’t all sunsets, swans and salmon.  Of course we did some grillin, chillin, and thrillin:

We may not have had much to work with (wait to you see the grills) but we still put out a mean product.  And if we can do amazing things on these grills I guarantee you can learn to do the same on just about anything you have in the back yard simply by perusing this site.   There are no real write ups here but I have linked most of the recipes back to other times we did these items on the grill.  Click below to see how the Grillin Fools roll on vacation around the grill and otherwise.  And make sure you go all the way to the bottom to see yours truly getting mocked mercilessly!!

Day 1

Brisket and Rib  Eye Steak Sammy’s

We marinaded two briskets overnight in mustard, scraped most of the mustard off and placed them on a cutting board:

Applied the rub to both sides and placed them in disposable tin trays which will allow them to simmer in their own juices as well as shield the meat from the heat.  Briskets need low and slow so shielding them is a very good idea:

Now out to the grills.  Try not to laugh:

Coals on one side, a lump of smoke wood on top (pecan) and the briskets on the other side:

Getting some pretty good smoke action from these pitiful grills:

The rest of the items that will be needed – Mop sauce, mop, silicon gloves, squirt bottle to put out fires, tongs, a cutting board and more smoke wood:

This is Dad’s cook so he is ready to man the grills:

After about 90 minutes on the grill:

After about three hours on the grill:

Heat’s running low, so move the entire grill rack over to the top of the other grill and add some more charcoal:

Put the grill back down and rotate the brisket so it cooks evenly:

About four and and a half hours on and ready to come off for some foiling:

While those rest in the foil for about an hour it’s time to get the steak sammy’s going.  Here we have two pans of rib eye slices that have marinaded all night in a mixture of mainly Andria’s steak sauce and diet coke which we will also use to make a rib eye steak hot tub on the grill to keep the meat warm while we make enough for everyone:

The slices of steak on one of the grills:

The other grill has some slices cooking and the hot tub waiting for the meat:

Almost done with one hot tub full so we had to add a second:

Now time to slice up those briskets.  For those of you not familiar with good brisket, it’s supposed to look like that:

Of course one could always use some help slicing the brisket.  That’s yours truly being supervised by my lovely cousin, Hannah:

Not much to the serving and presentation of the brisket or the steak slices as both are just put on buns.  Here’s dad getting ready to serve everyone:

Here is a more descriptive write up on how to grill a brisket and how to make rib eye steak sammy’s.

Day 2

Grilled Chicken

There is not much to this but when you are grilling for 30 serving everyone surf and turf is out of the question.  At least on the Grillin Fools budget it is.  Grilled chicken though is a pretty cheap, and low maintenance way to grill for a crowd, not to mention somewhat healthy compared to a lot of the other stuff we have been known to throw on the grill.

The chicken was sort of a last minute deal so we did not have a chance to brine which I always recommend.  Click here to see why and how one should brine chicken (and pork for that matter). Below we have the chicken laid out.  We did the chicken two ways.  About 2/3 was sauced (the chicken in the pans will be sauced) and the other third will have just a coating of an herb rub that I found in a grinder jar in town earlier that day.  The chicken on the cutting board will get the herb rub:

Here is the chicken coated with the rub as well as a little coarse salt and black pepper:

Now onto the grill.  When doing chicken over coals this is your best friend:

Chicken is notorious for flames ups as the fat renders out of the skin and ignites in the hot coals.  Get your spray bottle ready to put those flames out.  Always keep an eye out on the smoke coming out of the grill when shut.  If the amount increases dramatically you may have a flare up inside that you will want to take care of before it burns the chicken.  You may want to spray the areas just around the flare up as it could be a hot spot that will continue to flare.  Soaking an inch or two all the way around can help cool that hot spot down and reduce future flare ups in that area.

Below is Dead Eye Dad taking down a flame up:

One quick note about grilling chicken pieces like this.  Throw the thighs on first.  I know they aren’t the biggest but they have a lot of mass and the highest fat content.  The breasts have the most mass but the lowest fat content.  The legs and wings have high fat content but low mass.  So put the thighs on first for a few minutes.  Then put down the breasts and the legs for a few more and finally the wings.  In the pic above you can see the skin is browned on all the thighs but not the rest of the cuts because the other cuts had just been put on when I took this pic.  Don’t worry that the skin on the thighs is browned all ready.  The fat content of the meat will continue to braise the skin and keep it from burning.

Below dad is tending to his chicken that is to be sauced:

He was awful proud of his chicken arrayed out so nicely:

Another side note, don’t array food out like this for a neat pattern for anything other than taking a picture.  Let the fire dictate where you need to put the meat.  If a few pieces are cooking fast over a hot spot, swap them with pieces that are not cooking fast in order to have everything cook evenly.

Below the chicken has been sauced with Tracy’s secret sauce and placed back on the grill so that the sauce can caramelize a bit.

Some of you are sauce fans and Tracy’s is one of the best.  And while I crave sauce every now and again, I prefer my BBQ not sauced.  Here is the chicken I did that was not sauced.  How does that look?

Dinner is served.  And my sister does not look happy about me taking her picture.  My Aunt on the other hand is looking forward to the meal:

The creator of the BBQ sauce is happy to have her picture taken.  Blake, on the right, has no idea that the camera is even there.  All he cares about is the food:

Dad and I serving the masses.  And yes, I realize I look a bit possessed:

Here are some links to other chicken recipes

Day 3

Salmon and Lake Trout Fresh from Lake Michigan

Before you can serve fresh fish from the lake you have to catch fresh fish from the lake.  I think this will do:

From left to right above you have Tom, aka the third Grillin Fool, Brad and Gary.  These boys can fish!!  Oh, did I mention that was only the first big catch.  A couple days later they brought this home:

My son touching a fish for the first time:

How much fish is all of that.  Well this is some of it:

And here is the rest of it:

BTW, that was after feeding salmon to 30 people!!!  Like I said, these boys can fish!!!

Now on to the cooking.

Here is Tom discussing exactly how he wanted to grill the salmon, which considering how fresh this salmon was, it was not going to be complicated.  The fish is amazing by itself.  It doesn’t need much to be absolutely incredible:

Here is a closeup to that salmon in front of Tom.  How does that look?  It should look great considering it was swimming a few hours before I took this pic:

What the hell am I doing with that pair of needle nose pliers?

Removing these little bastards.  Those are pin bones that are a pain in the rear to eat around and only a little less annoying to remove one at a time from enough salmon filets to feed 30.  And again, how does this salmon look?

Don’t forget the lake trout:

Very simple here.  Drizzle with olive oil, inside and out:

Dust with Slap Ya Mama spice rub inside and out along with some coarse salt and black pepper:

Put some lemon sliced inside and wrap in foil:

On the grill.  When the fish softens up  it’s done:

Now back to the salmon.  Some we did with those herb grinder I mentioned in the chicken section:

Some we did with a dusting of Slap Ya Mama:

We get our Slap Ya Mama from our sponsor Saucehut.com.  Salmon just needs a dusting of this stuff and maybe a little salt and pepper.  The SYM just accentuates the flavor of the fish which is great by itself.  Extremely simple and always a crowd pleaser.  To order some Slap Ya Mama, click the link above but don’t forget to put in the promo code GrillinFools to get 10% off your order.  Also, before you place your order you should check out the jerk ribs I did with their Walker’s Wood Jerk Marinade, or the Papaya Curry Marinade that is excellent on Shrimp.  That write up and others will be posted soon.

Back to the salmon.  Here is the salmon on the grill with the foiled trout:

This is Tom tending to one of the grills:

Here is a close up of that salmon he is grilling:

Some have been flipped and some are ready to be flipped:

At this point the trash talking had commenced.  It seems my father decided to challenge Tom and Brad’s fishing abilities.  He bet them a couple bottle of Pinot they wouldn’t catch anything.  Well here is my dad paying up and Brad basking in the victory:

We also did some salmon with a sort of glaze on it but I didn’t get to try any of that so I can’t really comment on it.  The salmon on the back of the grill have the glaze:

And here are some pics of the masses enjoying a couple different nights of grilled deliciousness:

Day 4

Surf, Turf and Spuds

The last night of vacation a bunch of the crew went into town for seafood.  A couple of us decided to just grill some steaks, potatoes and prawns.  I did the salt marinade trick with the steaks except I added some garlic and a little worcestershire sauce on top of the salt.  I will have a full write up on that soon as well.

First are the grilled the potatoes.  Easy as can be.  Slather with olive oil, dust with granulated garlic, a little coarse salt and some fresh black pepper.  You can find a more detailed write up here:

On the grill indirect:

About 45 minutes in:

90 minutes in and ready to come off so the steaks and shrimps can go on:

Once the potatoes were done I threw on some shrimps and a couple steaks:

No final pics of this meal. I was too hungry.  I dove into that porter house instead.

Here are some other interesting pictures from the trip.

Sunset on day one:

The single biggest thing I have ever seen that actually moved.  This was a coal ship on it’s way through a channel to pick up a load to take back to Canada.  I couldn’t get the entire thing in one shot:

A future Grillin Fool?  Watchout fellas.  This little cutie might be teaching you a thing or two on the grill before you know it:

Couple of sunset shots from day two.  After that we had clouds in the evenings:

Some swans and their babies that swam into the harbor after the sun set:

And let’s not forget the adventure on the way home.  Here we are waiting for some gas as we ran out.  Luckily we were able to coast into a weight station.  My son is giddy not to be strapped into the car seat anymore:

There is my little boy in the wooden shoes that his grandmother insisted she get for him:

And of course there was no way I was going to get out this without some ridicule for running out of gas:

To my credit, the Navigator is not my car and when the gas alarm dinged that we were empty I was told we could go for quite a while.  We lasted maybe 5 miles before we ran out.  Never in my life have I seen a car that when it chimes that the gas is gone, it’s really gone!!!

If you have any questions about any of the meals we grilled while on vacation feel free to email me at Scott@GrillinFools.com.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures.

]]> http://grillinfools.com/2009/08/25/the-grillin-fools-grillin-on-vacation/feed/ 5 http://grillinfools.com/2009/06/26/thinking-of-doing-ribs-for-the-4th-of-july-let-the-grillin-fools-help/ http://grillinfools.com/2009/06/26/thinking-of-doing-ribs-for-the-4th-of-july-let-the-grillin-fools-help/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:36:29 +0000 Greg and Scott http://grillinfools.com/?p=781

We have been discussing ribs a lot lately here at Grillinfools.com because we know a big BBQ weekend is coming up on the 4th of July.  We figured that a lot of our fellow fools would be looking for ideas for what may be the quintessential BBQ food.

This entry is not going to offer any new information that isn’t already on this site.  I just want to make it easier for everyone to find all the different ways we have done ribs to date here.  And maybe, if you aren’t planning ribs on the 4th of July these pictures and write ups will inspire you to give it a shot.  Click below to see six different ways to do ribs…

Old School Ribs

Let’s start off with the basics.  My dad has the smoking/indirect method for grilling ribs down to a science.  In this method one puts the coals on one side and the ribs on the other.  Get the temp to about 275, drop some smoke wood on the fire and cook for 2 hours.  That’s it. I know it sounds like an oversimplification, but it really isn’t.  Sure, you can marinade them or add a rub or add some sauce or do all three.  But this is the basic premise.  This method will yield these beauties:

A lot of people will talk about the the new 3-2-1 fad for spares and the 2-1.5-1 for baby backs.  The first number is the number of hours smoking between 200 and 225.  The second number is the amount of time wrapped in foil and cooked at the same temp.  And the final number is the number of hours out of the foil cooking (not smoking) at 200-225.

I’ve done the 3-2-1 method many times but I can produce the exact same results if not better results in 2 hours.  Some will argue that there is no way to get enough smoke into the ribs in 2 hours.  After 2 hours meat is not going to absorb any more smoke.  So why go longer?  Besides, if it’s not long enough to impart enough smoke how can the ribs above, that only cooked for two hours, have this incredible smoke ring:

So click here to see exactly how he produced those amazing baby backs…

Fall off the Bone Ribs

There are two kinds of people out there in terms of ribs.  Those that prefer fall off the bone ribs and those that prefer juicy, chewy ribs.  I fall into the latter category but don’t mind fall off the bone ribs.

If you want fall off the bone ribs there are two ways of doing it.  Smoke those bad boys for about 10 hours or put the foil on.  For you Slap Shot fans out there, it has nothing to do with putting foil on the knuckles.  The foil is wrapped around the ribs after a couple hours of smoking with some sort of liquid.  The foiled ribs are placed back on the grill to cook in the foil.  There is something about the steaming/cooking action going on in the foil that hyper accelerates the breaking down of the connective tissue that allows the meat to fall off the bone.

Click here to see just how to do it…

Peachy Sweet Spare Ribs

OK, now that you have the basics down, let’s take you off the beaten path a bit.  Let’s think outside the fire box a bit.  Inspired by a recipe my dad found in Dr. BBQ’s, Ray Lampe, book he decided to go with something we had never tried before.  The results were just amazing:

So if you are looking to try something new or just have a sweet tooth as well as a love for ribs click here to see how to make these sweet sensations…

Peach Smoked Jerk Ribs

So what if you don’t have a sweet tooth but love the spicier side of life as I do?  Well these are the ribs for you. I get an almost overwhelming craving for jerk ribs or chicken a couple times a year.  One knock on spicy food is that it can be so hot that you can’t actually taste anything.  That is not the case with jerk seasoning.  With that incredible taste bud heat wave comes a tidal wave of flavors.

Of course you don’t have to make them as hot as I make them.  And if you click here you can see exactly how to make them and then you can choose just how hot you want them.

Country Style Ribs

There are people that get frustrated when they buy a slab of ribs that doesn’t have a lot of meat on it.  It takes a lot of work to get a little meat.  The meat to bone ratio is all off.  If you love the taste of ribs but don’t like the work involved, well this rib is for you.  The meat to bone ratio is off the chart.  These things seriously bring the meat:

The other beautiful thing about country style ribs is that they have a high fat content, which, while it may increase the waist line, it will greatly increase the margin of error in terms of drying them out.  Click here to see how dad makes these meaty ribs…

Mighty Beef Ribs

Beef ribs get a bad rap.  Tough, not much meat, too much bone.  And it’s true they do have gigantic bones, the ample amount of meat more than compensates. In the pictures below realize that the cutting board they are sitting on is two feet by 18 inches:

When I say these things, if cooked properly, can be very tender, I mean it.  In the picture above that is not a steak knife next to my plate.  It’s a butter knife and that’s all I needed to cut the meat.

There is definitely some work that has to go into making these thing tender and juicy but they are worth the effort.  If you want to know exactly how to do it, click here and see how I did it…

Apple Pumpkin Ribs

This was originally written up as the perfect fall recipe but it doesn’t have to be fall to enjoy these.  Marinade in apple cider, garlic and black pepper, then cover with a rub that is equal parts pumpkin pie spice, granulated garlic and brown sugar, then smoke two hours at 275-300 with apple wood and you have some incredible ribs.  The full write up on how the recipe was developed can be found here.

Asian Baby Backs

And if you really want to change things up on the Fourth, try Asian Baby Back Ribs.  The flavors of peanut sauce, coconut milk and chili sauce form together to make an amazing rib that will impress your friends and family.  Think outside the box and give these a try.

Rendezvous Ribs

If you don’t want to spend all day over a hot fire on 4th of July, try this method.  Takes 60 minutes.  That’s not a typo.  Awesome ribs in 60 minutes.  In fact the ribs you see below were done in 55 minutes as I pulled them five minutes early.  It’s called the Rendezvous Method and you can find the full write up with more than 30 pictures and a video here and see step by step how to make them.

If you have any rib recipes you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below or go to the Grillin Fools Facebook page and post your own picture.

When most people think of grilling they think of ribs, steak, pulled pork, chicken, etc.  The Grillin Fools are very familiar with all of the above and love each and every one of those items on the grill, but sometimes we like to step outside the box and get a little creative.  Whether it’s crostinis, meatloaf, Romaine lettuce, or melon, we are always trying to push the boundaries of what most people think can be done on the grill. I realize that a lot of folks have tried grilled pizzas before or at least heard of doing pizzas on the grill.  But there are many out there that haven’t heard of it or have heard of it but haven’t tried it. My cousin Tom took the reigns on this one.  Click below so he can explain  just how easy it is to grill pizzas on either a Big Green Egg as in the first three pics above or on a grill manufacturer that shall not be named as seen in the bottom picture above… The Grillin Fools and their families got together recently at my house and decided to make some pizzas on my Big Green Egg. FYI – if you don’t have an egg, you can definitely make pizzas on a traditional grill.

***Editor’s note ~ check back soon as I plan on making these soon on one of my non BGE grills.  I will add the pizzas I cook to the bottom of this post.***

These are a lot of fun and get everyone involved.  They are a very social thing to make on the grill. If you are not into making homemade crust, just ask your favorite pizza restaurant to sell you some crusts. We decided to purchase crusts from our favorite local restaurant, Joe Boccardi’s Ristorante, located in Columbia, Illinois. All pizzas were cooked at approximately 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes on a pizza stone. As you will see in the photos, we cooked these on the egg, using a “place setter” which creates indirect cooking similar to an oven:

***Editor’s note ~ despite the roiling flame pictured above, the insert deflects all of that heat up and around the cook surface allowing for the fire to be that hot but still be able to keep temps relatively low as required for grilling pizzas.***

Here are the majority of the ingredients used for the three different pizzas outlined below:

BBT Pizza

The BBT is Basil, Bacon and Tomato. This original recipe from the Grillin Fools Kitchen is simply delicious!

The sauce:

One eight ounce can tomato sauce with basil, garlic and oregano

One small can tomato paste with basil, garlic and oregano

Four ounces red wine

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and stir until combined.

The toppings:

Eight slices bacon (cooked)

One bunch fresh basil

Provolone cheese (we purchased this very thinly sliced from the deli)

Fontina cheese (freshly grated)

Good quality parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Spread sauce generously over pizza crust :

Then layer basil, tomatoes, and bacon:

Then layer the cheeses:

Now onto the grill:

Roughly 30 minutes later at 350 degrees and the pizza is done with a delicious, crispy crust!

Looking for a way to use left-over grilled / BBQ meats? Try our Grilled BBQ Pizza! We had left-over grilled chicken, hence the following recipe.

Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza

Pizza Crust

BBQ Sauce

Provolone cheese (thinly sliced)

Provel cheese ropes Fontina cheese (freshly grated)

Grilled meat (all bones and skin removed)

Salt & Pepper

Good quality parmesan cheese (grated with a regular cheese grater)

Thinly sliced red onion

Sliced portabella mushrooms

Parmesan cheese (grated with microplane)

Our friend, Gregg Flannigan makes the best BBQ sauce in the world. He won’t share the recipe so generously provides to us by the gallon and this is what we used – Pig Potion #9:

So use your favorite BBQ sauce and spread generously over the crust:

Next, layer the cheeses:

The next step is to add the meat, then the seasoning, salt & pepper follow with onions and mushrooms:

And finally use the microplane and give a nice “snow shower” of parmesan over the entire pizza:

Grill per above instructions and it should look like this:

***Editor’s note ~ This was so good that after we made all three pizzas we went back and made this one again.***

Grilled Veggie Pizza

Crust

Two Vidalia onions, peeled and thickly sliced

Red peppers, cut into large strips

Two ripe tomatoes halved and sliced

Pizza sauce (from above BBT Pizza)

Provolone cheese (thinly sliced)

Fontina cheese (freshly grated)

Good quality parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Fresh basil

Sliced portabella mushrooms:

Grill onions and peppers until nicely charred:

Let cool and give them a rough chop. Spread sauce generously over pizza, then layer with the cheeses and the chopped onions and peppers:

Then lay down the fresh basil leaves, sliced mushrooms,  and top with another thin layer of freshly grated Parmesan:

Cook per above instructions:

Now back over to me, Scott – the Original Grillin Fool, and pizzas I did on my kettle.  For those of us not blessed with the spending power to afford the amazing BGE, I thought I should demonstrate on a kettle.

For the crusts I went with fresh dough from Trader Joe’s.  $1.19 per wad of dough:

Place some flour on the board and knead out the dough into a good basis for the toppings:

It takes a little bit of work but it is definitely worth is:

While you see four different pizza crusts above I am only going to show one pizza being made.  I made two on the grill and the other two in the oven just to get them all cooked in a reasonable amount of time.  And let me say it was pretty informative to do some in the oven and some on the grill to compare and contrast.  And there just wasn’t a comparison.  The grilled pizzas were light years better than the ones in the oven.

Now for the toppings of one of the pizzas I grilled.  This is not a traditional pizza.  No red sauce or meat.  Olive oil, cheese, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil.

First I brushed olive oil on the top of the crust:

Then out to my basil plant for some fresh basil:

I grow four things I cook with.  A basil plant in this pot every year.  A pot with rosemary.  Five tomato plants.  And this year two yellow bell pepper plants.  The first three things I mentioned absolutely thrive in the swealtering heat of the St. Louis Summers.  We’ll see how the peppers do.  This is my first year for them.  All that being said, I highly recommend growing basil yourself.  Loads better than the dried stuff.

Now I topped the pizza with a combination shredded of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, the basil leaves, some slices of a very ripe tomato and some grated asiago on top:

The pizza is ready for the grill.  So now it’s time to get the grill and such ready.  And of course a pizza stone is needed:

I need one more thing.  I need a way to elevate the pizza stone off the grill.  These two bread pans will do the trick nicely:

Keep it elevated and keep it stable at the same time:

I have coals covering pretty much the entire surface of the grill:

Here is the stone on the grill elevated by the bread pans.

The lid was closed to get the stone up to temp before putting the pizza on.

***Editor’s note ~ I realize that I am both the author and the editor here, but I wanted to add that the elevated pans are probably not needed at all here.  I was afraid with how hot a kettle can get that it would burn the pizza but the pizza stone will deflect the heat and making elevating it not required***

Here is where I ran into a little problem.  Having never worked with real dough before I had no idea how sticky it was.  I did not put that much flour underneath the dough on the cutting board.  So my pizza dough stuck to the cutting board when I tried to transfer it to the stone.  It literally took 3 people with spatulas to get the pizza transferred and my once somwhat circular pizza became a bit mishapen:

So be sure to have plenty of flour under the pizza when you are prepping it.  It didn’t effect the flavor but it was a bit of a pain in the butt.  As you can see here after 10 minutes at about 350 the pizza is looking good:

And here we have it after 20 minutes:

One a side note, make sure the grill is good and hot.  I did not add more coals after the first pizza and in the time between cooking the first and second pizzas the temp dropped quite a bit.  Despite leaving the pizza on for 30 minutes it wasn’t as good as this one.  So be sure to keep the temp up.

If you have any questions about the above dishes please feel free to comment below or email Tom or myself at Tom@GrillinFools.com or Scott@GrillinFools.com.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures.

On another side note, a member of the Grillin Fools is no longer with us.  I grilled the pizzas on a Thursday night and on Saturday the Grillin Beagle was put down.  After 15 years of never leaving my side the pain was too much for her to handle.  Two pain pills a day were not enough and thus we did what needed to be done.  This was the last time she grilled with me.  As you can see she really enjoyed being around the grill:

I lost a piece of my heart when she passed on.  She will always be missed but never forgotten.  I’m just happy she is not in any more pain even though my heart still is.  Good bye little beagle…

Sometimes we find ourselves seemingly strapped to the grills while the party goes on around us, only able to mingle with the people that wandered over to us to see how the food is coming along. We may be at a party but sometimes we feel more like hired help than party attendees. This post is all about ways to cook for a crowd and still be able to join in the festivities. To be able to feed the group but also have fun with them at the same time. Click below to find a number of possibilities for low maintenance high yield grilling recipes.

Brats and Dogs

The first thing that comes to minds of most people when it comes to feeding the masses at a cookout is brats and dogs. Both cook fairly quickly over high heat. But cooking 30 brats and 15 dogs can take quite some time. This is where the beer bath comes in. Grill your brats and dogs prior to your guests arrival. Buy a high sided disposable aluminum pan, pour in your favorite beer, some slices of onion, maybe a garlic clove or two, place directly on the grill, and put the brats and dogs in the new beer Jacuzzi you just made. Place the pan over enough of the coals to get a simmer going, or put it in the oven at about 200. Now, go get a shower and when the party starts the grilling is already done. If someone does not want the beer dripping off their brat, just throw the brat back on the heat for a couple minutes to steam that off.

How about taking those brats and dogs to the next level? Walk right past the meat cases with the Johnsonvilles and the Oscar Meyers. Go to the meat cutter at your local grocer and see if they have specialty brats and dogs they make in house. They will be better than the mass produced stuff in the cases. Even better. Go to a local butcher and see what they have. Throw a few Jalapeno brats on. Maybe a garlic brat. Try some Italian sausages or some other ethnic sausage like an Irish banger, Polish Sausage, Chorizo, Greek brat, Cajun brat, or Hungarian brat. How about my favorite the apple brat? Natural casing hot dogs are heads and shoulders better than what Oscar Meyer makes.

Now that you have your primo tubular meats, how about taking them to yet another level – at least for the brats. I have not tried this trick yet but Dad swears by it. While it may say that a brat is a beer brat do not believe that till you see it soaking in beer yourself. So pick your favorite brew and soak the brats in beer overnight. Sure that’s not all that interesting in terms of taking brats to the next level, and not my Dad’s trick, but this is. Take a needle and insert the blunt in into a cork from a wine bottle. Then use that needle to poke tiny holes in the brats. Some will scream that this will allow all the juice to run out when grilling them. That will happen if a knife is used to poke holes. But the pin prick will allow the beer to be infused into the meat over night but not allow the juices to leak out during the cooking process. Or so Dad says. But has he been wrong so far?

Burgers

Next up, Burgers. Everyone makes burgers. Everyone knows how to make a burger. But does everyone know how to make a good burger? First, don’t thaw out any meat for this. Go buy it fresh. The morning of the event would be best. Think of the hamburger meat as the vehicle to get all the extra goodies you can mix in with it to your mouth. Put the bulk burger in a large mixing bowl and make that boring meat into much more than a boring old burger. There are all sorts of things you can add:

Garlic
Onion
Diced bell or jalapeno peppers
Grated asiago/parm/romano
Blue cheese
Ground pork
Even better, ground chorizo
Herbs like basil or oregano
Hot sauce
BBQ sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Andrias Steak Sauce
And of course salt and black pepper to taste.

This is not an all inclusive list. Get creative.Just don’t spring a new combo of those ingredients on a group of people without trying it out first.

Check out these burgers that my Cousin Tom and his Wife did recently:

See how my Cousin Tom and his Wife kick up their burgers by clicking here.

Back to the burgers at hand.  Get your hands dirty. Mix it all together and then make the patties. Another big time saver is to make up the patties the night before and put them in the fridge.

Now that the burger is done right, don’t scrimp on what goes around the burgers. Next to the meat, the single most important item on the burger is probably cheese. Get exotic here. Don’t settle for simple American or Cheddar. Try smoked cheddar on a burger. It’s amazing. Or maybe a Lorraine Swiss? Pepper jack provides a nice kick. Blue cheese crumbles are incredible.

Don’t go with basic buns. Get a good quality bun. My favorite is the onion bun. Also, have good ripe tomato. If you have access to vine ripened tomatoes at you local grocer but still buy the cheaper ones, I beg you to try the vine ripened maters one time. You will not go back and gladly pay the extra. Even better, grow some yourself. I’m not much of a gardener yet I was able to grow them quite successfully the last 3 years. Here is the second year I grew tomatoes. They were so big the first year I helped my FiL build a trellis for them. Here they are on August 9th of 2008. The top of the trellis is 7 feet tall and these are 5 different plants:

Back to the burgers. Skip the iceberg lettuce. Get a leafy lettuce and go with some sweet Vidalia onions. Don’t forget the pickles, both kinds – the sweets and the regulars.

Top shelf compliments to the burgers (wine optional):

Tomatoes from my Garden:

Burgers are not as low maintenance as some of the other items I will mention in this post. But something can be done to make them lower maintenance. Again, the high sided disposable aluminum pan is your friend here. Place BBQ sauce in the pan and submerge the burgers in the sauce. You may want to cut the sauce with beer as to not overpower the burger. Burgers will not remain as juicy in the sauce bath as say a brat will but it will save some time to allow you to mingle.

With a relatively short cooking time cooking them during the party is not all that bad. One way to be more part of the party is not to throw them all on a platter and take them inside. Have people come to you. As you are cooking have the party guests get their sides on a plate and come to you for their burger. Do a little chit chatting while the cheese is melting.

While this is not low maintenance I do love a toasted bun:

Gotta love cross hatch grill marks on a bun!?!?

If you want the toasted bun but not the extra work of tending to two sides of a bun for every burger, throw the buns on a cookie sheet, bread side up, and put under a broiler till golden brown.

In the end here we have garlic, basil burgers on toasted onion buns with green leafy lettuce, fresh tomato and Loraine Swiss cheese:

Ribs, Brisket, Chicken, Fatties

If you have a relatively stable smoker that holds the temps fairly constant there is no reason you couldn’t smoke ribs, brisket, chicken, fatties or a combination of these. If all it requires is adding more fuel or smoke wood every 30-60 minutes and maybe a location adjustment of the meat then smoking these items is extremely low maintenance. Maybe go with a beer can chicken. Or even better the Grillin Fools new and improved beer can chicken – beer can chicken stew:

While ribs are not always the cheapest alternative they sure are divine and very easy to do.  Click here to see how these perfect baby backs were done in 2 hours:

Or maybe some brisket. How good does that smoke ring look?

Or ribs and a brisket – Brisket on the upper rack, ribs below:

Fatties

One way to cut the cost of ribs for a crowd is to supplement the ribs with a lower cost alternative. Instead of making enough to feed everyone ribs make less ribs and throw on a few fatties. Generally fatties take just as long as ribs to cook. As long as the space is there, go with a few fatties which are always a hit.

Rib Eye Steak Sandwiches

Something that is not all that common and will likely blow the minds of your guests – Rib eye steak sammiches. Go to your butcher, have him/her thinly slice a rib eye into 1/3-1/4 inch thick sliced of rib eye. Marinade in Adria’s (Worcestershire and emulsified garlic for those not able to get Andria’s), coke, garlic and black pepper. Grill over high heat for just a little bit and then throw then in an aluminum pan with more of the marinade to keep the meat warm and moist. This is not a cheap alternative to cook for a crowd but definitely low maintenance.

Grillin the rib eye slices:

In the pan to simmer. These will get a tin foil cover and be thrown in the oven on low heat. They could be left on the grill but this was shot the day of the 2009 Super Bowl so it was a little chilly outside:

After being in the oven a couple of hours they are ready to serve:

A bun, some cheese, a little mayo for me and I had heaven on a plate:

Pork Steaks

And now we come to the pork steak. What an amazing cut of meat. Not all that prevalent outside of the Midwest but this is a true gem of low maintenance BBQing. Click here to see how to not only ask for pork steaks at your local butcher but one of the many ways of cooking them. Speaking of the many ways to cook pork steaks, you can smoke them slow and low for many hours. You can BBQ them at a medium heat, indirect for a couple of hours with some smoke wood or you can grill them hot and fast. For me, I go the indirect route for a couple of hours on the side with no heat and some good smoke wood on the coals. Sort of the best of both worlds.

At the end, a BBQ hot tub in a (you guessed it) aluminum tray will keep them warm and juicy for hours. The high fat content makes it very difficult to dry them out and it also keeps them oh so tender. You can feed an army with pork steaks and do so really inexpensively.

Pulled Pork

Some would argue that pulled pork is a cheap and easy way to feed a crowd. Total work is less than 90 minutes but that is stretched out over 8-12 hours. It can be started the night before but if the smoker has a hard time keeping a constant temp then it will require some maintenance in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn or both. For the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend the GrillinFools will be attempting a quicker method for making pulled pork. Total time about 6 hours. Sorry, no pics just yet as we haven’t done it. But if you want to give it a whirl the method is this:

Rub the pork shoulders with your favorite rub and then head out to get the grill going. You could rub the shoulders the night before if you want to.
Get the grill up to 375-400 – the temp will drop down to the desired temp of around 350 once the meat is added
Place the pork shoulder(s), fat side down, in one of those disposable aluminum pans you’ve heard so much about in this post.
If the temp drops below 350 be ready to add more fuel to the fire
Smoke for 3 hours at 350
Cover the pans with foil
Cook for another 2 hours until the internal temp reaches 195
Remove from heat, wrap in foil and place in a cooler to rest for 1 hour leaving the thermometer in the meat
When the internal temp reaches 200 it’s time to pull
Cut the meat into large chunks and let cool a bit before pulling. This will make the pulling process much easier.
Or you can try another method my Dad just heard about. Place the cooked shoulders after resting into large ziplock bags and than smack the crap out of them a couple of times with the bottom of a large frying pan. Cast iron is recommended. The jolt seems to make the pulling process much easier.

I will try to update this thread with pics of the pulled pork process soon after the holiday weekend… But until then, enjoy the holiday weekend and happy grillin!!!

OK we did the pulled pork over the Memorial Day Weekend.  6 hours from the time it hit the grill till the time the forks hit the meat to shred it.  Click here to see the entire process.  Also there is a really cool video of the a new trick that will greatly help in pulling the pork apart.

Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures.

Let’s talk about wine. I’ve referenced wine on more than one occasion on this site. For some grillin and chillin means BBQ and beer. I completely agree. But it doesn’t only have to be beer. Wine can be an excellent way to accomplish the chillin aspect of this glorious hobby…

I pride myself on my wine knowledge, but I am by no means a wine snob. Sure I’ve met a Bundschu from the Gundlach-Bundschu winery. I’ve spent a few hours chatting it up with the Meekers who make some incredible stuff as well. And even met Todd Williams who is the Vintner of Toad Hollow. Todd has a very, very dry sense of humor which is a bit ironic since his brother is Robin Williams.

That being said I have two rules about wine.

1. Wine is not supposed to be pink. I know that Rose’s and Blushes are making a come back after the backlash against White Zin, but wine is just not supposed to be pink.
2. Wine is not supposed to come in a box. I know some boxed wines are getting 90 points from Parker and WS, but don’t go there. Inside that box is a plastic bladder full of wine. The only bladder wine should go through is yours!?!?!

Screw tops, synthetic corks, are perfectly OK. Pink and boxes are not…Find what you like and drink it. If it’s two buck chuck or a 1998 Rosemount Balmoral Syrah, enjoy it…

Now a little about pairing wines. Basically think of the food you are grilling and find a wine that will complement that food. For the most part what we cook on the grill is not mild and full of subtle flavors. Usually BBQ has powerful flavor. In that case you need something that can stand up to the flavor of the food and not get overpowered by it. So let’s talk about wines that fall into that range. For the most part we are going to be dealing with reds, but I will touch on whites as well.

But first let’s talk about a sort of continuum of red wine in terms of flavor. At one end of the continuum we have Pinot Noirs. Very light, flowery, delicate, with many subtle flavors. Next variatal along the continuum you have a Merlot. Very smooth and velvety with strong fruity plums, cherries, blueberries and blackberries mixed with black pepper tones. It has more zip than a Pinot but not nearly what the Shiraz and Cabs have. At the far end of the spectrum we have Zins, Cabernets and Syrahs/Shiraz’ (same thing). These wines are much more zesty, meaty, and spicy. These are often referred to as powerfully flavored and do well standing up against a very smoky slab of ribs or a beautifully done steak.

Pinot Noir is excellent with fish. Yes you can drink reds with fish. A Pinot can be consumed with fish or meat. Pinot is excellent with salmon, chicken and turkey. Here is a great Pinot we had with some Salmon in Michigan last summer. John Taylor Russian River Valley Pinot:

If you were to smoke that salmon, chicken or turkey and thus the flavor will be more intense, then a Merlot might be a better idea. Steak? Cab, Shiraz or Zin are all good choices. Ribs would be the same as steak. Here are a couple great Shiraz’. Epsilon Shiraz:

Schild Estate Barossa Shiraz:

For seafood, you want to go with a white for the most part. And which whites are usually highly dependent on the palette of the drinker. In my experience people new to wine tend to like the sweeter wines such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Semillon, Fume/Sauvignon Blanc (same thing). For me, if I’m going with seafood I want a buttery unoaked Chard. Pierano Estates fits this to a tee and for only $13/bottle.

A couple of notes. For those that start off liking the sweet whites I have noticed, for the most part, as they drink more and more wine the sweet wines are not as enjoyable to them. As their palette develops they tend to appreciate the dryer whites more and more. This is not the case for everyone of course…

Also, red wine is not supposed to be consumed at room temperature and white wine is not supposed to be consumed at the same temp as a Budweiser. I prefer my reds between 55-60 degrees. I prefer my whites around 45-50 degrees. Without buying a wine fridge how does one regulate the temp? The 30 minute rule. Keep your whites in the fridge. Pull it out of the fridge for 30 minutes to let the temp rise above 34 degrees. Reds should not be kept in the fridge. But when you are ready for a bottle of red, toss it in the fridge for 30 minutes to drop the temp below room temp. The time varies from fridge to fridge but you get the idea.

There are a few exceptions to the temperature rule. For example. In the summer I keep a couple bottles of Pinot Grigio in the fridge. If it’s really hot I crack a bottle of that and drink it ice cold. It’s a very light and refreshing wine. I’m probably committing some wine sin by doing this but that’s the way I like my Grigio in the hot summers.

Food makes wine better. That uber dry Chard that almost makes you pucker every time you take a sip is a whole different animal if you are munching on something while drinking it. A decent wine can become a great wine if paired properly. A great wine can become phenomenal if paired properly.

Not all Rieslings are sweet. Alsace Rieslings are quite crisp and citrusy. Great for hot summers as well.

Ever wonder why you see people spitting out the wine at wine tastings? Because after a couple of glasses of wine the taste buds start to numb and thus all the flavors cannot be truly realized. Knowing this, when I am entertaining I generally have one or two really good bottles of wine, depending on how many people are involved, and then some second tier wine after the first bottles have been polished off. Why throw out a $40 Argyle Nuthouse Pinot for people to drink after they have already had 2 or 3 glasses of wine? That Argyle will be wasted on them. I will talk about second tier wines a little later.

Along with the Pierano Estates….

….I mentioned above here are a few wines that I really enjoy for under $20:

Marquis Phillips Sarah’s Blend Shiraz:

Shotfire Ridge Shiraz:

I know it sounds nuts but Little Penguin Cabernet Sauvignon is a 91 point wine and I find it on sale all the time for less than $6/bottle. The Little Penguin Chard is my tier two white that I keep on hand. Also around $6

Castoro Cellars Chard and Zin. This is the Zin with a NY Strip and some scallops:

Milton Park Shiraz – Some say that this is actually made by Shotfire Ridge but the company (Thorn-Clark) won’t admit to it. Still a really nice wine for the price:

Piccolo Cru
Stelzner Claret
Yangarra Shiraz
Red Truck and White Truck. Both very decent and only $10:

Rosenblum Chard -Fool’s Pappy has been raving about this one
Pillar Box Red – Awesome for $10:

Vina Alabra – hard to find but GREAT!!
Ravenswood Zin and Shiraz are really good – And don’t go for the more exotic locations like Lodi that gets a 91 point rating for $30 when the $10 bottle gets an 89 rating. I’ll give you the extra 2 points and keep my $20
Penfold’s Koonunga Hill Cabernet Shiraz has been running around $8-10 all over the place lately in St. Louis and is a 91 point wine:

7 Deadly Zins Zinfandel
Benton Lane Pinot Noir:

McManus Cab makes a nice tier two wine at about $9
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

And here are a couple solid labels that makes good wine all the way around:

Rosemount
Yalumba
Wolf Blaas
Steele
Gundlach Bundschu
Meeker

If you are a wine person you will notice that I lean heavily towards Californians and Australians. I tend to avoid the Europeans because I don’t know anything about them and they tend to run more expensive than the Californians and the Australians. Every now and again I will try a European wine on the recommendation of someone who knows them, but I’m not one to dabble in the Europeans other than Alsace Rieslings. Maybe one day but I could die a happy man just drinking Californians and Australians for the rest of my life.

If you are having a hard time finding wines you like call your local wine stores. Most of them do tastings from time to time for little or no charge. Go. Sample. Find what you like and enjoy it…

As usual, if you have any questions, please email me at Scott@GrillinFools.com or simply leave a comment below.

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I realize that this is a grillin website but the Grillin Fools do more than just grill and at this time of year where we have all manner of holiday parties I thought I would share my Hot Buttered Rum recipe.   Wanna be a rock star at one of these parties? Then try this.  Sorry no pics of the process, but it so easy you won’t need them…

This is the perfect Holiday drink. I think this is the drink equivalent to comfort food. It’s a comfort drink. The fact that the drink is warmed plus the rum just warms the body all over.

2 cups of firmly-packed brown sugar
1 stick butter
1 pinch salt
3 sticks cinnamon
6 cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 quarts water
2 cups rum (more if you like)
Topping: Whipped cream, ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients (except rum and topping) in a crock pot.
2. Stir well to dissolve sugar.
3. Set crock on low for 5 hours – stirring a few times throughout the process.
4. After 5 hours add the rum. If you add the rum at the beginning most of the alcohol will evaporate out.  If you are going for a more virgin cocktail this might be the way to go but you will not evaporate out all of the alcohol so keep that in mind.
5. At this point just stir in the rum and get the mixture back up to heat.
6. Use a ladle to put the Hot Buttered Rum into cups, add a dollop of whipped cream and grate some fresh nutmeg onto the whipped cream. An extra stick of cinnamon in each cup is a nice touch too.

I’m telling you, if you take this to a holiday party you will be loved and adored by your friends and relatives. And if you serve this at a holiday party you are hosting your entire place will just ooze with the scent of the holiday season. This is better than any holiday potpourri on the market.  And after a couple of these you won’t feel like an idiot with a bow stuck to your head:

If you have any questions feel free to comment below or email me at Scott@GrillinFools.com.

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