Barbecue University™
Crash Course: 4 Ways to Control the Heat on a Charcoal Grill
How do you control the heat on a charcoal grill? Despite the volatile nature of a charcoal (or wood) fire, there are four effective ways to control the heat. Adjust the airflow: Most charcoal grills have vents on the bottom. Open the vents wide and you get more air and thus a hotter fire. Partially close the vents and you get less air and a cooler fire. Make sure the vents are open when you light your charcoal and set up the grill. If you have trouble starting a charcoal...
Read more →Spring Cleaning Your Smoker
There are people on Planet Barbecue who wouldn’t dream of cooking in an oven crusted with carbonized grease and spills, but who persist in calling the same detritus “seasoning” when cooking outdoors on their smokers or grills. No. Just say no. By-products of the smoking process—tar, creosote, soot, and so on—can accumulate to the point where they flake off on your food. Annual maintenance needn’t be a chore if you have the right equipment, not to mention some tunes and an adult beverage....
Read more →Barbecue University™
Crash Course: How to Light a Charcoal or Wood Grill
Photo by Rob Baas. 3 Ways to Light a Charcoal Grill In the United States, you often hear the complaint that a charcoal grill takes too long to light. The truth is that if you have the right tools, charcoal is quick and easy to light, requiring little—if any—more time than it takes to preheat a gas grill. Here are three tried-and-true methods. A chimney starter: A chimney starter looks like a large coffee can or an upright metal box with a perforated partition inside. The charcoal goes in top; a crumpled...
Read more →5 Recipes and 12 Tips for Grilled Jalapeño Poppers
Photo by Rob Baas. You may know them as jalapeño poppers, armadillo eggs, rattlesnake eggs, or even ABTs. Whatever you call them, stuffed smoked jalapeños rock the grill across the U.S. A bite-size variant of Mexican chiles rellenos, poppers have been around since the 1970s. Early versions were typically stuffed with cheese, then breaded and fried. Naturally, it didn’t take barbecuers long to discover these babies were even better when grilled. A Facebook query on the...
Read more →Revealed: Our 12 Most Popular Recipes
Left two photos by Richard Dallett. Right two photos by Ben Fink from The Barbecue! Bible (Workman). The headline says it all: the 12 all time most popular recipes on BarbecueBible.com. Here they are in all their smoky glory. It’s clear that this barbecue community likes meat, meat, and more meat! Especially brisket, ribs, and—no surprise—bacon. One vegetable made this list—the onion bomb—and even it has plenty of beefy, bacon-y goodness. What can I say, folks, but “Grill on!” And be sure to post photos of YOUR masterpieces on the Barbecue Board, my Facebook page, Twitter, and...
Read more →How to Buy and Cook a Dry-Aged Steak
What to Look for When Buying Dry-Aged Steaks Because dry-aged beef demands time, expertise, and specialized equipment, it can be tough to find. Few supermarkets carry dry-aged steaks or USDA Prime beef, making it near impossible for some Americans to get their hands on dry-aged beef from local retailers. Given the high costs associated with dry-aged beef, most consumers want to be sure that they’re getting the best. At Chicago Steak Company (which...
Read more →Tonight: Fabulous Fish Tacos
Whether you’re observing the last Friday of Lent by abstaining from meat or simply looking for lighter dining options now that spring’s officially launched, take a cue from south-of-the-border: serve grilled fish tacos tonight. (The community fish fry will get along just fine without you.) In coastal Mexico, from the Baja peninsula to the Yucatán, fish tacos are not so much a recipe as an appetizing equation: fish + wrappers + condiments = fish tacos. Consequently, they’re infinitely customizable. There’s the protein: impeccably fresh fish, minimally...
Read more →For Your Easter Table: Ham in a Hurry
Ham is hog’s leap to immortality. But that leap takes time. From a few weeks for your basic cooked ham to up to a year or more for a truly great dry-cured, cold-smoked ham like Italian speck or German schwartzwelder schinken (Black Forest ham). Even the “fast” version of the Smokehouse Shoulder Ham I demonstrated on Project Smoke last season requires a week of curing and 24 hours of smoking. But what if there was a ham you could cure in...
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