The Grilling Method

There is a difference between BBQ and grilling. What most of us do in the backyard is grilling, high heat, fairly quick cooking method BBQ by definition is low, slow and usually involves smoke; you know the meat was BBQ'd by the presence of the "smoke ring". Below are some grilling tips, rub recipes and a way to replicate BBQing without a BBQ rig.

Grilling tips:
- If you have a charcoal grill, invest in a chimney starter. This is the best way to get your charcoal ready without using starter fluid. This will also allow you to start more charcoal for extended cooking (ie roasting meats)
- Hardwood charcoal will burn HOT and fast, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit higher than briquettes. Perfect for steaks and fajita meats
- You can grill vegetables brushing them with oil then season with salt, pepper and your favorite spices to make different flavors (mediterranean flavors, etc). For onions, cut them thickly to make rings and keep them together with skewers. For the best salad in the world, cut romain lettuce lengthwise in half. Brush with oil liberally, salt and pepper and pack in grated parmesan cheese on the oiled surface. Grill on a hot surface and when done, put shaved frozen red wine vinegar on it
- If you have to use starter fluid, make sure all of it have burnt off before adding your food. Pile your charcoal in a pyramid shape, add starter fluid until the surface is covered and light. The flames will die down, but as long as you have enough white ash around all of your charcoals, it will keep burning. Your charcoal will be ready once most of them are covered in white ash. For cooking chicken, either leave them in a pyramid shape and cook around the edges or stoke them to one side of the grill and cook on the cool side. For cooking steaks and meats, stoke them to one side and cook on the hot side and then the cool side to continue cooking beyond medium rare
- Cleaning the grates is important, clean after cooking while the grate is still hot. The hotter the grate, the easier to clean. If possible, replace the stainless steel you have with an aftermarket cast iron one
- You can do roasts in the grill by making a cool side and a thermometer. Most grills can achieve 500 degrees F on the hot side and without any heat on the cool side, usually it will be around 350-400 degrees F (this is with a full load of charcoal or gas flames on high). To cook at a lower temperature, lower the gas flames or reduce the amount of charcoal and add more as they cook down
- For both charcoal and gas grills, you can add a little bit of smoke flavor by adding some soaked (at least 2 hours) wood chips/chunks to the fire. You can add directly to the charcoal or for gas flames, keep in disposable pans on top of the fire
- If the meats (chicken, pork, beef, etc) will be cooked on the hot side, try not to add BBQ sauce until at least halfway through. The sugars in the sauce will burn if cooked for too long or too hot. Rubs are better; season your meat with at least some salt before putting on the grill and add the sauce later

On rubs:
- Pork rubs can stand to be sweeter than chicken or beef. My base rub for pork is brown sugar based (50% brown sugar). Then use vinegar based sauce or mustard based
- Chicken rubs tend to be more aromatic with herbs rather than spices. Smoked paprika, thyme, garlic powder, salt and peppers make a good base. Use sweet BBQ sauce in the end
- Beef rubs are stronger in spices to bring out the beef flavors. Garlic powder, coriander, cumin, thyme, and chili powder/smoked paprika tend to dominate the flavors. No sauce is necessary, but if you must, use either sweet BBQ sauce or mustard based

On BBQing at home:
- You can replicate the BBQ experience (without the smoke) at home by using your oven. For example, rub your meat with your favorite rub and in a roasting pan (or even heavy duty aluminum foil pouch) add in 1/2 cup of apple cider and 3T of white wine vinegar, 2T worchestershire sauce, 2T honey and 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Cover the pan, or if using aluminum foil pouch, make sure to crimp all sides. 225 degree F oven, for 2.5 hours for baby backs, 3.5 hours for spare ribs. Check to see if they're done by taking a bone and if it rotates around the socket, it is done. What we just did is braise the ribs to doneness. Once the ribs are done, take out the left over cooking liquid and heat on high until reduced to a glaze. This is your BBQ sauce. You can then grill the ribs on high to make the crust or broil them after glazing them. Glaze well and watch the ribs lest they burn. Serve as a slab with glaze on the side or cut individual ribs and toss them in the glaze
- You can also BBQ low and slow on your grill. Best done with a gas grill as it is easier to regulate temperature. Turn on only one side of the grill on medium low, with an oven thermometer, make sure the cool side is about 200-250 degrees F. Add a pan of soaked wood chips/chunks on the fire side. Prepare and cook your ribs as above, but leave uncovered. Finish as above also. With a charcoal grill, use a small amount of charcoals on the one side of the grill. Again make sure the cool side is around 200-250 degrees. Add the soaked wood chunks/chips on the charcoal or on a pan. Prepare and cook the ribs as above, but leave uncovered. Finish as above.
- You can smoke chickens and turkeys this way also, but of course the time is much less, check after about 30 minutes

Pork rub recipe:
- 5 parts brown sugar
- 2 parts kosher salt
- 1 part chili powder or smoked paprika
- 1 part spices and herbs (I use thyme, onion powder, cayenne, black pepper, garlic powder, chipotle powder)

Beef rub recipe:
- 4 part kosher salt
- 1/2 part garlic powder
- 1/2 part black pepper
- 1/2 part spices (I use coriander, cumin and cayenne/jalapeno powder)
- 1/2 part brown sugar

Chicken rub recipe:
- 2 part kosher salt
- 1 part spices and herbs (garlic powder, black pepper, thyme, smoked paprika and cayenne)

Notes:
- Rub recipes are in parts/proportions so you can make it in any amount
- Adjust the spices portion to your taste, less peppers to make a milder rub, add your favorite herbs/spices or use your favorite rubs (old bay seasoning, etc)
- Adjust any of the portions to your tastes. Too sweet? Reduce the sugar. Too salty? Reduce the salt. Don't like garlic, omit the garlic powder. The rubs here are just starting points, you make your own with your favorite flavors.

The Clear Soup Method

There are many kinds of soups. Creamy, tomatoey, clear, cold, sweet, and many others. We're going to focus on the basic clear soup (as in we're not going to add cream to it, we're not going to start with tomato juice as the base or any other additional method). Simply put, the clear soup method is aromatics with flavorful liquid and filler chunks.


Hardware:

• Wide and deep pot, or a pan and a soup pot (usually soup pots are not too wide). We need the width for sauteeing

Ingredients:

• Aromatics. Onions, garlic, carrots, leeks, etc
• Spices and herbs.
• Flavorful liquid. Don't choose a strongly flavored liquid, stick with mild ones such as vegetable broth, chicken broth, flavored water (bring water to a boil, add herbs and spices and other flavors like vinegars or fruit juice like lemon juice).
• Chunks. Noodle, rice, vegetable, meat, mushrooms, potatoes. Except for the starches, it's ok to use left overs or precooked chunks. For the starches, if they're left overs or precooked, add it to the serving bowls just prior to serving and make sure the soup being ladled over is very hot
• Brighteners. To brighten the flavors, freshen it up a bit. Acids work best like lemon juice, vinegars, fresh tomatoes, etc

Procedures:

• Sautee aromatics
• Add spices and herbs until fragrant
• Add flavorful liquid
• Add chunks
• Add brighteners (fresh tomatoes, diced tomatoes, lemon juice, vinegars) either to the pot or to the individual bowls

Notes:

Almost every soup is started like this. A creamy soup will have milk and cream as part of the flavorful liquid. Tomato based soups will have a lot of tomatoes and tomato juice as part of the liquid and chunks.

The Braising Method

Braising is simply cooking somethng covered, low and slow in a simmering liquid. Pot roast and Coq au vin, for example.

Hardware:

• Cast iron dutch oven is best. If not, cast iron pan to sear the meat and sautee the vegetables and a pot/casserole/roasting pan to cook the roast in the oven

Ingredients:

• Meat. Bony is best, get a cut with lots of connective tissues. For beef, anything from the chuck primal is good, like 7 blade roast, blade roast, chuck blade roast. Make sure it's cross-cut like a steak
• Spices. Like thyme, cumin, chili powder, coriander, salt, pepper
• Flavorful liquid. Beef or chicken broth, wine, vinegars for example. BUT make sure the flavorful liquid isn't too strong. The end result will be concentrated, so watch out for the salts and vinegars. Should taste good without it being strong before you use it, like a good soup broth. Tomato juice is good too
• Aromatics. Like onions, garlic, celery, leek, carrots. For a pot roast, find something robust, leek would be too gentle and won't come through in the end

Procedures:

• Rub spices on meat, refrigerate up to 2 hours if possible. For red meat, try something like this: 4 part by volume kosher salt, 1 part ground pepper, 1 part spices (combination of 2-3 spices like cumin, coriander and thyme). Grind the spices fresh after toasting it dry if possible. Reserve some for the liquid
• Sear the meat on both sides, high heat 2-3 minutes per side
• Remove meat, turn heat down to medium and add a little bit more oil to the pan/dutch oven and sautee the aromatics until translucent and brown in the edges. If you have left over roasted vegetables, that will do also
• For pot roast, try this as the flavorful liquid to add at this point. 1/4 C balsamic vinegar, 1/2 C tomato juice, 1/4 C reduced sodium beef broth (or vegetable broth or chicken broth or even water)
• Simmer liquid until it's reduced to about half
• Add the meat back in, and put it in 200 degree oven for about 3 hours
• After 3 hours, remove from oven and let it finish cooking on the counter for 30 minutes
• Remove the meat and separate the fat from the cooking liquid
• Taste liquid and add seasonings if necessary, blend the chunks in a blender and add it back in for thickener. If not thick enough, take some of the fat and make a roux to thicken the cooking liquid into gravy
• Serve with roasted red potatoes and other roasted vegetables

Notes:

The same method can be used for whole chickens, ribs (reduce cooking liquid even further to make a glaze and grill or broil the ribs to get the outside crisp), short ribs, briskets, shanks, beef stew, swiss steak, chicken cacciatore, beef bourguignon, and Morroccan tagines. The above can be cooked the same way, just different aromatics, spices and flavorful liquids.