Mastering the Flame

How to Easily Homebrew Your Own Delicious Beers

Tom — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:58:02 +0000

I am a food and drink lover. I like to spend a lot of my free time trying out a new dish in the kitchen or manning the grill. What goes great with a perfect meal? Well of course, the perfect drink. And many times that perfect drink is a beer.

I am fond of many types of beers; there are probably not too many styles that I haven’t tried. It is my creative side and my desire to try new things that led me to the home brewing hobby. I’ve been brewing beer for over 10 years, and during that time I’ve made more beer than I can even remember.

It is a very rewarding hobby, one that you can share the fruits of your labor with friends and family. And when you brew your own beer you never seem to have a shortage of friends. Being very passionate about the hobby I decided to create a guide on How to Home Brew Beer.

The guide that I created is geared for those just starting out in the hobby to get their feet wet. Even If you know absolutely nothing about brewing this guide will get you up and started. It teaches the history of beer, the basic ingredients, the basics of how to brew, and it also contains 13 Delicious Beer Recipes. It comes complete with a resource guide, so you can easily obtain all the necessary ingredients.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to brew your own beer or someone in your family does, pick up the How to Brew Guide. It contains simple, easy to follow directions for making your own beers. And you know what the best part about the guide is? It is absolutely FREE.

Get Your Free Beginners Guide to Homebrewing along with 13 Easy and Delicious Beer Recipes Here:

How to Brew Guide

Thanks for checking out my Free beginners home brew guide.

Cheers!

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Smoking with a Gas Grill

Tom — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:46:12 +0000

Smoking food is no longer reserved for those of us with charcoal grills, or dedicated smokers. Just because you only have a gas grill doesn’t mean you can’t smoke with it. I’ll show you how to easily smoke with a gas grill.

As a big time griller, I have all sorts of different grills for different purposes, but I know not everyone does. You have a gas grill, but you’d love to smoke some foods; guess what, it is no problem.

It is actually very easy to smoke using a gas grill. If you’re lucky you might have a grill that has a slide out smoker box. Some grill models come with this smoker drawer that you pull out and fill with wood chips. Just follow the manufacturer’s directions on your specific model and you’ll be smoking with your gas grill in no time.

However, if you’re like me, your gas grill doesn’t have a smoker box. It doesn’t matter; you still can smoke with it. What you need to do is make a smoker pouch.

Soak your favorite wood chips for an hour or so.
Using a sheet Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil, place a handful or two of soaked wood chips in the center.
Fold all sides up to make the pouch. You’ll want to double-fold at the edges to create a better seal.
Using a knife, poke several holes on the top side of the pouch.
Place the pouch under the grate directly over one of the burners.
Heat the grill on high until you see smoke, then adjust the temperature to the level you want to cook at.

Pretty simple huh? If you can fold aluminum foil into a pouch you can smoke on your gas grill. Now, if you are smoking large cuts of meat or even a turkey you’ll want to make a bigger smoker pouch. Just add several handfuls of soaked chips to a larger sheet of foil. Another option is to use wood chunks. With wood chunks you can just place them under the grate directly over a burner just as you wood with the smoker pouch.

Now you have no excuse not to try smoking, since now smoking on a gas grill can easily be done.

Make your own Smoked Salt

Tom — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:04:09 +0000

An easy way to give any of your food that hot off the grill smoky flavor is to add a dash of smoked salt. You certainly can go out and purchase it, but you’ll have much more control if you make it yourself. Oh, and by the way, it’s easy.

Image by kevindooley

Smoked salt is easy to make and it keeps well in a sealed jar. Experiment with a variety of different woods to come up with unique flavors. Oak, mesquite, apple, and hickory are all great options when deciding on what wood to smoke your salt with.

What you will need:

2 cups of salt (kosher or sea salt)

2 cups of wood chips (soaked in water for an hour or so)

1 disposable aluminum pan

How to smoke salt:

Set up your grill for indirect grilling. Add the wood chips to the coals.

Spread the salt in a thin layer in the aluminum pan and place it on the grate away from the heat source. Smoke the salt for 1 hour at a medium heat level (350°F).

Let the salt cool, and then transfer it into a jar.

Yes, this can be done on a gas grill as well. It all depends on the model of gas grill you have. Some come with a smoker drawer to add the wood chips.

If your model of gas grill does not come with a smoker drawer a smoker box can be purchased for gas grills.

Another way is to pack your wood into some aluminum foil and puncture it with holes placing it over the heat source.

Smoking salt is as simple as that. Try adding it to a variety of different dishes for a unique smoky flavor.

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How to Grill Fish on the Skin

Tom — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:31:09 +0000

Grilling fish is a seemingly difficult task, with many horror stories of fish falling apart, and also sticking to the grate. It really is not that hard to grill fish with success. I wrote The 5 Essentials for Grilling Perfect Fish to tackle some of the problems holding would-be successful fish grillers back. Using the tips in that article will help you to grill some amazing fish.

Image by VirtualErn

However, we are going to drill down and focus on grilling fish on the skin side. You’ve picked up some nice salmon fillets with the skin on from your local fish market; guess what, that’s the hard part. That’s right, picking a good fish is more difficult than grilling it. Let me show you how easy it is.

1. Direct medium-high heat on a covered grill. Set up you charcoal or gas grill to produce a medium-high heat level. Make sure your grate is clean, and rub a bit of olive or canola oil on it. The cleanliness and oil will help prevent the fish from sticking.

2. Brush the skin side of the fish fillet with oil. A bit of olive or canola oil brushed on the skin side with help to prevent sticking. A bit of melted butter will work too.

3. Place the fish fillet skin side down over the heat source and cover. Grilling fish directly over the heat source will crisp up the skin and also help with sticking. Grilling the fish covered will cooking it evenly top through bottom.

4. Check on the fish periodically, but don’t ever flip it. Grilling fish this way requires no flipping, but you do need to check on it. Check to see that the skin is crisping, but not burning. You can do this by lifting the corner of the fish fillet with a spatula. If the skin is starting to burn, fold up a piece of aluminum foil and slide it under the fish fillet.

5. The fish will be done in 10 – 15 minutes. It doesn’t take long to grill fish on the skin.

See, I told you it’s easy. Get out there and try it. I personally love to grill salmon fillets this way. It is so quick, easy and delicious. And just think of the glazes you could also add. There are a lot of options for experimenting with grilled fish.

Time for Twitter

Tom — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:01:53 +0000

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now, but it has just basically been a place holder for all my Mastering the Flame blog posts. I see so many people using it now, that I’ve been thinking about seriously starting to use it.

I’m pretty much a rookie on how to use it, so any pointers or tips on custimization or how to better utilize it would be great.

I figured it was a great way to meet other foodies and food & drink bloggers. I basically started following other Foodies & Food Bloggers I happened to find on Twitter. If you are on Twitter let me know, I’d probably like to follow you. And if you’d like to follow me I’m TomFromMTF.

Also, for those of you on Twitter, who are your Top 10 Foodies or Food & Drink Bloggers to follow? I’d love to know who your must follows are.

Be sure to follow me: TomFromMTF

Mastering the Flame

How to Easily Homebrew Your Own Delicious Beers

How to Brew Guide

Random Posts

Smoking with a Gas Grill

Related Posts

Make your own Smoked Salt

Random Posts

How to Grill Fish on the Skin

Related Posts

Time for Twitter

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