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Charcoal briquettes.

Labor Day weekend marks the kick off to the college football season in most parts of the country – one of the biggest reasons to tailgate with friends and family whether it’s at home or in your own backyard. In fact, Americans love Labor Day cookouts so much that they fire up more than 55.8 million pounds of charcoal. This year, don’t put your grill away on Labor Day; keep it out for game day all season long to extend the summer fun.

Top 10 Cities for Labor Day Weekend Charcoal Use

City & Pounds of charcoal used

1. Los Angeles – 2,585,845
2. Chicago – 1,510,639
3. Houston – 1,357,731
4. San Antonio/Corpus Christi – 1,326,020
5. New York – 1,193,400
6. Atlanta – 1,147,297
7. Dallas/Ft Worth – 1,119,805
8. St. Louis, Mo. – 1,057,567
9. Baltimore, Md./Washington D.C – 951,129
10. Birmingham/Montgomery, Ala. -  865,977

Stacks of bags o'charcoal briquettes - pix by BBQGrail.com

How Heavy is 55.8 Million Pounds of Charcoal?

It’s the weight of more than 16,185 Sprint Cup NASCAR racecars! Plus, Americans use enough charcoal on Labor Day to go around the Talladega Superspeedway, the longest NASCAR oval, more than 464 times.

Think the Statue of Liberty is heavy?  Americans fire up more than 124 times the weight in charcoal of Lady Liberty on Labor Day.

Enough to Pack a Football Stadium

The amount of charcoal used on Labor Day is enough to…

• Cover more than 113 football fields.
• Fill the seats of the largest college football stadium (Beaver Stadium in University Park, Penn.) 32 times.

More Food for Thought

• The charcoal sold during Labor Day would measure up to more than of 224 times the height of Mt. Everest.
• The number of bags of charcoal used on Labor Day would measure up to more than 3,769 times the height of the tallest building in the United States, the Willis tower in Chicago.
• On Labor Day, enough charcoal is sold to fill more than 28 Olympic-size swimming pools (2,489,603 cubic feet of charcoal).

Thanks to our friends at Kingsford® Charcoal for these fun statistics.

Char-Broil CB940X - the classic backyard grill!

To learn about charcoal burning grills and cookers available from Char-Broil: CLICK HERE

Welcome to the cook-out!

Honest work is good.

We asked the question over several weeks and linked to the survey in the newsletter:

For most folks, the traditional end of summer is the Labor Day weekend.  What are your plans?

Here’s what you told us:

• 16% – Stay home! I plan to keep things quiet and simple!
• 26% – Stay home AND host a cook-out for friends & family.
• 07% – Go to a cook-out at another home.
• 23% – Go to the lake – river – shore – etc. to enjoy the weekend!
• 28% – No plans yet – will just let it all happen

What’s our take-away impression?  Most folks like to just stay home, chill-axe a bit and not worry, but about 1/4 like to head out and find adventure. Whatever your plans this weekend we hope you are safe and enjoy some tasty food with friends and family!

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cookout!

West Coast Customs version of a Grill2GO Ice

If you love hangin’ out in the parking lot before the big game – laughing and havin’ a good ol’ time with friends and family — and if there is a cooker of some variety, you are tailgating my friend.  Char-Broil has a grill just for you. Called the Grill2Go Ice it is portable, has two roomy insulated containers for cold or warm food and  let me tall you it can really heat up to sear & grill burgers, steaks and other tasty food because it uses infrared energy. Oh yeah …that’s what I’m talking about!

But this post is not a commercial for that great little product – it’s to let you know Char-Broil will be participating in a road trip like no other before. If you are planning to attend one of the games listed below – look for the Char-Broil display to win prizes and have some fun. And if you tailgate in the parking lot look for the one-of-a-kind customized Grill@Go ICE visiting the parking lot. That’s an early design version in the photo above – it was created by the famous West Coast Customs, you’ve maybe seen their TV show where they customize a car for some lucky winner? Well – they did it to the Grill2Go and we’ll be showing you pictures of the actual grill later next week.

Here’s the schedule as of 9/01/10 – but it is subject to change!

9/04 – Connecticut @ University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
9/11 – Florida State @ Oklahoma – Norman, OK
9/18 – BYU @ Florida State – Tallahassee, FL
9/25 – Alabama @ Arkansas – Fayetteville, AR
10/2 – Florida @ Alabama (rematch of SEC Championship)
10/09 – LSU @ Florida – Gainesville, FL
10/16 – Texas @ Nebraska – Lincoln, NE
10/23 – Oklahoma @ Missouri – Columbia, MO
10/30 – Florida v Georgia – Jacksonville, FL (Back up for Rain – Michigan @ Penn State)
11/6 – TBD (Games in consideration include: Clemson, LSU, South Carolina, Penn State)
11/13 – Georgia @ Auburn
11/20 –VT @ Miami – Miami, FL
11/27 – Michigan @ Ohio State (Columbus, OH)
12/4 – USC v UCLA (Los Angeles

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Her last email to me several months back contained an extra helping of grilling recipes with pictures.  I wondered why she would go to such trouble of stocking me up with posts.  Then last week I received a thoughtful note from her husband informing me of her passing. Even today, as I write this, my heart is full and eyes misty – because in this crazy modern world of virtual cyber friendships, Leslie connected with me on a very human level.  We never met in person but it seemed to me I got to know her a little bit. I thank her family for sharing her with me and all of us and look forward to many opportunities to share meals, in person or virtually, with “the goyles” as we all move forward.

Recently I commissioned a poem from my friend Meredith. Nearly every Sunday at the local Ballard Farmer’s Market Meredith perches herself on a wooden crate and balances a manual typewriter on her lap. For nothing more than a kind word (I do recommend a donation!) she’ll engage you in a short conversation and, as you walk about the stalls of freshly harvested vegetables, fruits and food vendors, she composes. When you return she will have written a poem for you.  Sometimes I’ve enjoyed being the patron for little kidlets who happen along with their parents in tow – delighting in their reaction to the experience of hearing a real person read aloud a poem written just for them.

I share the poem Meredith composed for me and dedicate it to Leslie and her family. I think she would like it. I hope you do.

Sizzle on the Grill

Lay out the last days
of late summer find
the perfect hours in them,
heat the grill ’till the flames
burn blue. Brush the cuts
of meat, cook them through
with sweet smoke, slowly.
The season is finishing well,
slowly in the backyard. The light,
the coals, our sticky fingers prove it.

©M. Clark
The Poem Store
All rights reserved.

The Big Easy Grilling Team proudly displays their "2nd place in chicken" trophy - won in competition with teams of traditional stick burner cookers! That's TMB, Steve and "Test Rocket" l-r.

Hey guys!!!!

Well I finely got back from the competition!!!    OK here is the low-down. First a BIG thanks to TestRocket and my friend Steve without them this weekend would not have been this good!!! TestRocket, Steve and I took on some pretty tough competitors this weekend. There were 15 teams and most were using pull type smokers, one of them was the 2009 Grand Champion at “Jack Daniels” the shade tree comp.  Now let me tell y’all TestRocket and Steve were a very big part in this team winning anything.

Here are the results:

2nd place Chicken
7th place Pulled Pork
6th place Ribs
4th place Overall

I had many competitors come over and ask questions and look around at the 3 SRG’s and couldn’t believe when I told them it wouldn’t take long to cook (smoke added) butts. I started at 3:08 am Saturday and pulled them at 7 am (200F degree IT).   Then all we could do is wait till 11:15 am to start the ribs and prep the chicken. So we stood around for awhile and the other teams were very busy but not us — we enjoyed our time (Big Easy makes life easy!) We cooked the ribs and had to hold them halfway till we could finish the chicken then we placed the ribs back in for the rest of the time need to finish. I cooked everything with 3 SRG’s but 4 would have been better. May be Kimmie will get me one for Christmas!

- TMB

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For more pictures and information about how TMB and his team-mates used the infrared Big Easy Smoker, Roaster & Grill to cook competition style BBQ – read the conversation thread on the User Forums Community.

“Huh?” I did a double take befitting Elmer Fudd in a Bugs Bunny cartoon and said: “Poach them first?”

He went on to describe a technique of lightly poaching, just a few seconds really, the shucked oysters in boiling water with aromatics in it, then immediately removing and plunging into cold water.  This firms them up, making it easier to dust them with flour or wrap them in bacon after drying them off.  I tried it. It worked and it got me to thinking. What if I cooked the bacon a bit prior to wrapping it around the oysters, scallops or steak?

NOTE: there are several brands of thinly sliced center-cut bacon available which work very well as wraps. I happen to prefer a brand of apple-smoked uncured bacon and it’s pretty thickly sliced.  So this post may be over for you if you buy that microwaved bacon or the center cut stuff!

Here’s what I did – perhaps it will inspire you to adapt it for your own cooking.

Thick slices of apple smoked uncured bacon in Dutch Oven, covered and placed in oven on warm --- about 1 hour while doing other chores around the house. Bacon throws off water and fat --- but isn't fully cooked. Remove bacon, drain and store in tightly sealed container in fridge for bacon sandwiches, morning breakfasts and use to wrap steaks, scallops, etc.

I wrapped a piece of the partially cooked and cooled bacon around a steak cut of beef tenderloin. I like to use cotton string because it kinda shapes up the steak and makes it uniform for cooking. Cotton string will not melt in the oven or in most grilling situation will not catch fire due to absorbing moisture from the meat.

I roasted the steak. That's right - roasted it. I placed it on the warming rack of the grill on the opposite side of the burner - and closed the hood. The steak roasted at about 400F degrees for 15 minutes and then I seared the ends on the hot grates. The bacon rendered and crisped - because it was already half-way there. The steak was juicy and had a nice crust on it. You can do this on just about any grill or cooker - gas, electric or charcoal.

I think this worked very well for me and I’m very interested to hear from you about any tricks or techniques you use to accomplish these same kind of results.  Do you have comments, questions, concerns or thoughts you want to share about this post? Take a moment to post in the comment section below (your comment will not appear immediately if it’s the first time you’ve made a comment.) or send them to me via email: CB@SizzleOnTheGrill(dot)com I also encourage you to join in the conversation at the Users Forums an active “community of outdoor cooks.”

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cookout!

CB prepares beer can chicken on the grill - before & after

For some time I enjoyed making beer can chicken in the oven, grills and smokers. BUT once I began using The Big Easy oil-less turkey fryer and The Big Easy Smoker, Roaster & Grill to prepare chicken this way — I haven’t turned back.  Infrared roasted chicken or turkey is simply DEE-LISH-US!   But, and I’ll be 100% honest about this, I never really got the beer flavors in the chicken. I could not taste it. After each cook I’d inspect and it appeared that most of the beer was still in the can.  I confess that, just between you and me, I started tipping the chicken over as I removed it from the can, in order to spill the beer inside the cavity of the chicken to ensure there was beer flavor – because I thought I was doing something wrong!

Earlier this year the conversation about Beer Can Chicken started up on the Users Forums and some members chimed in on why they thought it was better to cook beer can chicken than just about any other way, while others took the opposite view. Well – perhaps a recent test which attempts to maintain proper scientific method controls to perform and evaluate this technique will maybe-kinda-sorta be the last word on the subject. Or not.  After all what fun is it to always pay attention to facts?

My friends at the Naked Whiz gave me permission to re-post this excerpt to introduction their more extensive post about Beer Can Chicken, representing their methods, test results and conclusions.  Take a look – and make up your own mind. Or – you can always just spill the beer inside the chicken when removing it from the can, like I do, cause that does taste pretty darn good!

Do you have comments, questions, concerns or thoughts you want to share about this post? Take a moment to post in the comment section below (your comment will not appear immediately if it’s the first time you’ve made a comment.) or send them to me via email: CB @ SizzleOnTheGrill dot com

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cook-out!

~~~~~~~~

Sunday, August 22, 2010
Beer Can Chicken, We Hope For The Last Time….

Ok, we took the challenge again and re-did some of our testing, as well as adding some new testing. You can read all about it on our web page, Beer Can Chicken, Myth or Fact?.

What was the new challenge? Well, some folks said they can make the beer boil, so we felt we needed to try a few new things. We tested using different devices such as a cheap metal pan, porcelain chicken sitters, and a pricey Weber device made from heavy aluminum. Yes, we found you could make the beer boil in these devices with no chicken in place, so we then added a chicken and re-did our test of “beer vs. no beer.”

When we did our previous test, we used an expensive porter, but we didn’t document the brand. So some skeptics thought we should try a better beer. We used a strong and intense Imperial Stout (Czar Imperial Stout from Avery Brewery), added crushed garlic and tons of a strong rub. We cooked two birds side by side on two chicken sitters, one empty, one with the beer mixture, and then submitted them to blind taste testing.

The results? You’ll have to read the web page. Whether or not you choose to use this method of cooking chicken, you will find some useful information. Good luck, whatever your choice!

- TNW

~~~~~~~~

Here are two recipes for this technique – you may want to check out:

CB’s EZ Beer Can Chicken in The Big Easy

Drunk Chicken

Sear. Grill. Smoke.

Lamb Chop or any red meat - prepped by rising to room temp, seasoned with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper - placed on the hot grates to sear.

The chop has been seared on both sides and grilled on the fat flap --- to render and brown. Now it's ready to finish off of direct heat. I dropped some wood chips through the grates of my RED Urban Grill. You can also use a smoker box of a smoke bomb made of foil-wrapped chips. I use dry chips because I've never seen barbeque professional use wet wood for smoke.

The chop is on the side of the grill turned to LOW - on grates over wood chunks (Apple, Cherry, Mesquite) that are smoking and will add a layer of flavor over the grilled brown flavors on the meat surface.

Wait. I guess there is one more step that is critical…

Eat.

Do you have comments, questions, concerns or thoughts you want to share about this post? Take a moment to post in the comment section below (your comment will not appear immediately if it’s the first time you’ve made a comment.) or send them to me via email: CB @ SizzleOnTheGrill dot com

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cook-out!

I’ve received numerous emails and read posts on the Users Forums about how to create this style of grilled steak at home on the grill. Ahem. The bad news is – “You can’t.” Well, not exactly. Even the highest setting of a Char-Broil infrared grill will not be as ridiculously high as hot steel outta the forge. The good news is – “You can approximate Pittsburgh style on a grill.” Well, not exactly. You need a cast iron griddle or a skillet placed on the grates and the temperature needs to be in excess of 650F degrees. In some circumstances this is possible using a charcoal fire or one of the new Char-Broil infrared grills like the RED, Heatwave or Quantum infrared grills.

But what if you like a crusty brown seared surface and don’t want the steak raw in the center?

The Beef Council and USDA recommend you cook beef steak to at least 145F degrees internal temperature. That’s Medium-Rare. When cooking on a traditional gas grill you can achieve a decent sear and crust – but cooking long enough over direct heat to get  to that internal temperature may over cook the surface of the meat and dry it out.  Cooking over a hot hot hot charcoal fire is faster but wow, that’s a lot of charcoal to get enough hot coals to prepare steaks for a dinner of four adults!  So I prefer to use one of the new Char-Broil infrared grills to sear steaks and chops and produce a tasty brown crusty surface with a medium-rare interior that is still very moist.

That’s the catch-phrase don’t-cha-know: Infrared. Grilling’s Juicy Little Secret! An advertising slogan and claim that,  in my experience, is very true.  But I’ve wasted enough of your time chipping my lips on this subject – here’s the tip.

1. Super heat the very clean grates to at least 650F degrees – or higher in good warm weather.

If you have the capability of managing the actual width of the grates on your grill – some grill grates have two sides: one kinda thin and one kinda broad – I recommend you use the broadest grate you can find.

2. Dry the meat thoroughly – remember: “Dry sears and wet steams.”

Salt the meat and rub it in. The brown crust you desire is a product of what food scientists call the “Maillard Reaction” and our grandmothers simply referred to as “Browning.”  The Maillard Reaction occurs best when the meat is dry and slightly salty.  Trust me – it does and I can’t explain it any better than that.

3. Don’t bother spraying, wiping or otherwise applying oil on the grates before you heat them or once they are hot.

To my knowledge there is no food-safe oil that will not immediately incinerate (turn to smoke) when applied to grates that are hot enough to sear – mostly above about 375F degrees but for good results I go with above 450F degrees.  Likewise – don’t bother applying any oil on the meat either – the same reason.

By the way – did you realize that when you apply all but a few cooking oils to the grates – if the oil doesn’t smoke immediately as you apply it, it suggests you are grilling too cool for true grilling?

If you are grilling meat at temperatures less than 375F degrees then you are not getting hot enough to sear the meat and may as well be cooking using indirect heat – roasting.  AND if you apply most any cooking oil to the hot grate that is higher than 450F degrees it will immediately smoke and burn away – so that is a wasted step!

Applying a very light coat (as I call it “a spritz”) of high temperature neutral cooking oil like peanut, canola, safflower or such to the surface of the dry meat will help to ensure the heat conductivity of the grates is fairly evenly distributed to the meat.

Oil on the grates and oil on the meat does not make either slippery and that’s not the purpose of it.  Proteins align at certain temperatures according to the types of proteins they are and when the proteins align the will release from the hot pan, griddle or grill grate.

4. Use tongs to place the room temperature, dried and lightly salted meat on the grates.

Where it hits – it sits. don’t move it but do test the cooking time by using the tips of the tongs to gently lift the edge of the steak to see if the proteins are cooked to the point of release. When the steak is seared in places where it comes in contact with the grates – and the proteins are ready, they will release.

If you are adept at the super hero power of seeing through walls, doors and such – and can visualize where the meat has been in contact with the grates and where it is not – using your tongs to firmly grasp the meat….every so slightly move it and adjust it so the areas that have not been in contact with the hot grates are.  Once again leave it alone!  Like mom used to tell you kids in the back seat on long road trips: “Don’t touch!”

5. Ask yourself the question: “How done do I want this steak?”

If you are pretty certain you have grilled one side by the slight adjustment and the entire surface of the meat has been in direct contact with the super hot grates – you may not need to grill the other side on direct heat.  After all – only one side will be facing up when you present it.  If you want to finish the steak off of direct heat by placing it “un-grilled” side up in a pan or tray on the warming rack and away from direct heat, you can finish the steak to the internal temperature you desire. Remembering the USDA recommendations, of course. (How’s that Mark?)

When the steak reaches a few degrees below the desired internal temperature you have determined is the level of ‘done’ you want – remove it from the tray and place on a serving plate. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes or so, to enable the muscle fibers which contracted during cooking and squeezed out juices to relax and re-absorb those juices. If you allow the meat to rest after cooking – you will be happy with each moist mouthful of tasty steak.

Here's a picture of what your steak may look like when using this technique. This is actually a 10 oz. veal chop I grilled the other night. Crusty brown surface with lotsa complex flavors created by the browning, er "Maillard Reaction, and cooked to the doneness I prefer. The surface of the chop isn't perfectly flat so the searing isn't either. And I don't routinely press down on meat that is cooking on the grill.

Do you have comments, questions, concerns or thoughts you want to share about this post? Take a moment to post in the comment section below (your comment will not appear immediately if it’s the first time you’ve made a comment.) or send them to me via email: CB @ SizzleOnTheGrill dot com

Thanks and…

Welcome to the cook-out!