1. It’s very good
2. It’s very easy
3. Did I mention it’s very easy? And very good?

I was actually at a restaurant today in Cincinnati called Palomino’s, which is a nice place with a good menu selection. One of their specials today was called “Simply Prepared Salmon”. It was basically grilled salmon with salt and pepper and good sides to it. I didn’t get it, but I did try it when one of the people at my table got it. The thing about salmon is that, if you take the trouble to get fresh, wild caught salmon, it doesn’t need much to stand out. Forget the sauces and salsas and things that cover up the goodness that the salmon has on its own.

And, guys, it’s less than a month until Valentine’s Day… This is very doable for a romantic meal for your wife or girlfriend…

Cedar planking is similar to me. I don’t like to overdo any part of it. While some people put marinades and sauces and lots of flavors on it, I’m not willing to pay $16/lb for something that I cover up with other flavors. To me, that’s just silly. Cedar planking adds the sweet smokiness of the cedar, and, the way I prepare it, a bit of sweetness in the seasoning.

What do I put on my cedar planked salmon for seasoning? Just sea salt, black pepper and brown sugar. No tarragon sauces or dill paste or anything very heavy. The brown sugar adds a bit of sweet and forms something of a crust. The sugar melts as the fish cooks, so, even though I put a liberal amount on the fish, there’s just a thin layer left when the fish is cooked.
The whole process of cedar planking salmon is simple, but it does take some forethought. First, you have to have a cedar plank. You can either buy an expensive one sold for grilling, or you can buy an untreated cedar board and cut your own (or have Home Depot cut it for you at very little cost). I go for the latter; it’s a lot cheaper, and I can reuse the boards a couple of times.

You also have to plan for doing the actually grilling; the board needs to soak for a couple of hours in water. If the board won’t fit in my sink, I use an extra large, previously unused-for-its-purpose, kitty litter pan. This holds an 18″ board easily, and I weigh the board down with gallon jugs of water or vinegar (don’t use cans, as they mark the wood).

Once the plank is soaked, I get charcoal ready to go in a chimney and take the fish out and season it. I spread the coals when they’re ready (usually about 10 minutes or so). Then, with the coals set to a medium hot fire, I put the plank on the grill grate, directly above the coals, close the lid, and let the board start smoking. When putting the board on the grill, there’s usually a smooth side and a rough side on the board; put it smooth side up, as it’s easier to take the fish off when it’s done.
Once the board is hot and smoking, I put some vegetable oil on it and put the salmon on the board. I close the lid to the grill and wait about 15 minutes before checking on it. It’s done when the flesh of the fish starts to flake a bit. I remove the fish from the board, cut it and serve it.

One tip that I’ve found useful is to take a second board and char it beforehand. I use this board, once it’s cooled, to put the fish on for serving. It’s no longer smoking, looks good and charred, and makes a really great presentation.

Nothing but fresh fish goodness, with the addition of some smoky sweetness. The fish is the hero in this dish, not the sauce or seasoning. This is how fish is meant to be!

Plus, I get to play with smoke and fire along the way.

I wanted to do something a little different with these than just boil them and dip them in cocktail sauce, so I shelled them and added a strip of jalapeño pepper and some cheese down the back of the prawn, then wrapped the whole thing with bacon.

One lesson I learned making these was to secure the bacon better; it’s tough to put toothpicks in the prawns while they’re cooking! It’s much easier to do it prior to grilling.

So I lit a chimney of charcoal as I was prepping the prawns, and got a good fire going before spreading it out a bit and grilling these babies. I didn’t cook these over too much heat as I didn’t want the bacon to burn. The end result was fantastic, with a good amount of shrimpy-ness, with just a touch of heat from the pepper, and smokey bacony goodness all around!

I’ll definitely do these again, only with better secured bacon next time… As big as these prawns were, it took 2 strips of bacon for each. They took about 3-4 minutes on a side, and they were just perfect.

If that’s true, though, you’d be wrong in your thinking. Not only is pig candy fabulous, it’s also addictive!

Pig Candy is made up of simple ingredients… Nothing complicated at all. The result is one of those things that ends up being better than its parts. The ingredients are:

• Bacon. Nothing fancy here. Just plain old bacon, not too thick, not too thin, not peppered, not maple. Just bacon.
• Dark brown sugar. I don’t go overboard with muscovado or anything like that. If I don’t have dark brown sugar, I’ll use a bit of extra molasses with light brown sugar.
• Cayenne, chipotle and/or ancho ground chile. I like the flavor of ancho, and I think it mixes well with chipotle. Don’t use too much cayenne if you chose this, as it can overpower the rest of the flavors
• Nothing else!

How much simpler can the list be?

I made pig candy over the weekend in the oven, but it can easily be done on a grill or a hot smoker, too. The idea is the same. I use a baking grid on top of a cookie sheet, and I lay the bacon out in a single layer, but close together as it will shrink up quite a bit while cooking. Once the bacon is laid out, I put the pan (or pans if doing more than one) in a cold, yes cold, oven. I turn the oven on to 400, and I wait until the oven reaches temp before the next step.

Why do I use a cold oven for this? I really have no idea… I saw Alton Brown bake bacon this way once, and I’ve done it ever since. It works, so I keep doing it.

While I’m waiting for the oven to reach temperature, I put a bunch of brown sugar into a bowl, add what I think is an appropriate amount of ground chile and mix by hand. How much? I started with 2 cups of sugar, and I add chile sparingly, tasting for heat. Cayenne should be kept to less than 1/8 teaspoon; ancho gets more like 1/2 to 1 tablespoon.

Once the oven gets to 400, I take the pan out and turn the oven to 350. I take my time and try to carefully spread the sugar on the bacon. It’s hot by then, so I try not burn any fingers during this. Once the sugar is on the bacon, I spread it a bit more evenly and put the pan back in the oven, turned around from the position it was first in. At this point, I start timing. Every 4 minutes, I check the crispiness of the bacon, and when I think it’s crisp enough for my taste, I take the pan out of the oven. Every 4 minutes, though, I turn the pan around to help ensure even cooking.

I like the bacon to be crisp, but it can also get burnt easily, so 4 minutes is as long as I’ll go between checks. It generally takes about 20 minutes for the bacon to be done to my liking.

Once the bacon is done, I use a fork to pry it off the grid, break it into smaller pieces, and serve it as is! It also goes well with things like fresh figs and apples. For Christmas, a great tray would have pig candy, fresh fruit and some good cheddar cheese pieces. Yum!

I only wish I’d known about this when I was a kid… Santa would have gone nuts seeing a plate of pig candy waiting for him at my house!

I’ll sit back now and let y’all enjoy the photos…

My wife and I had 16 friends over Saturday night for a big party, and one of the meats I wanted to fix was steak au poivre. If you’re going to be a real grill guy, you’ve always got to be ready to cook on the grill. Usually, this means either on the grate as usual, or, if you’re doing an inside dish on the grill, you just put the pan on the grate.

I combined both worlds. I got tenderloin steaks to grill. I seasoned them heavily with crushed black pepper and added some grey salt. Along with the tenderloin, though, I also had a couple of thin slices of cubed round steak that I seasoned identically.

I put the steaks on the grill, and I put the cubed steak in a pan on the grill. This allowed me to have some fond (those bits left in the bottom of the pan when you cook) to make the sauce. The sauce is simple:

• 1/3 cup cognac
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon cognac for later

Once the steaks are done in the pan (this can be done by putting the filets directly in the pan, too, which is traditionally how it’s done), I removed them. These were just being used to get fond, but I put them in the fridge for later snackage. Then I added the cognac and, using a lighter, flamed the alcohol. This is where you have to be careful. In the house, this has to be done with a fire extinguisher handy. Outside, I wasn’t as worried, but it can get out of hand.

The alcohol will flame for a while, which is fine. As the flames died down, I added the cream and stirred until the sauce coated the back of a spoon easily. I added in the last bit of cognac for flavor, then put the steaks from the grill into the sauce.

The result is a traditionally pan-seared steak with pepper cream sauce that includes the flavor of cooking with wood. It’s a great twist on a classic.

(def.) Made by hand by a person skilled in an art.

I’ve been trying to categorize what I think I’m trying to attempt to kind of do. I found a book over the weekend called ‘Artisanal Cooking’, and, as I thumbed through it, I realized that I found the right word finally.

What is the art of barbecue?

The art of barbecue, in my opinion (and I’d love to hear yours!) is in the crafting of rubs and sauces, in the manual manipulation of fuel and flame and in applying the right amounts of woodspice (what I like to call the flavor from wood smoke). It’s knowing when to do what to a cut of meat that, without the right approach, wouldn’t be edible. It’s taking the ordinary and finding ways to use primitive methods to make it better.

The art of barbecue goes beyond the cooking. It includes sharing information with others that are interested in what you have to say (not trying to shove it down the throats of those not ready to hear it). It’s realizing that the cook has as much to do with the final product as do the ingredients. It’s a drive to always produce the best barbecue possible, no matter who is eating the end result.

What is Artisanal Barbecue?

It’s all of the above, with the added push to use base ingredients. By this, I mean making a sauce from scratch instead of doctoring up some Cattleman’s or KC Masterpiece. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but I’m trying to make a distinction between barbecue and artisanal barbecue here. I don’t see how opening a jar of rub and putting it on a pork butt is artisanal. Getting spices, figuring out ratios and what spices to use, combining them and applying them… That’s artisanal! The same goes for sauces. We all learn from recipes, but there’s a point where the artisan steps back and starts with a clean sheet of paper, combining ingredients that they have learned go well together until the sauce is their own.

The artisan barbecuer enjoys the process as much as the result, finding something in themselves during the event of barbecuing. Whether it’s knowing what temperature the cooker is running simply by watching the smoke or understanding the feel of a done brisket, the artisan gains something from just the doing of barbecue.

I’ll be honest; there are times when I’m doing a cook when I just can’t wait to get done because something else is drawing my time or attention. But there are other times when something in me is more awake when I’m up at 4:00 AM to start cooking or when I’m watching blue smoke rise from the smoke stacks on a cold December morning, warming my hands over the firebox.

The word ‘artisanal’ doesn’t mean that it’s better than someone else’s stuff; it just means it was approached a particular way. Yes, the title ‘artisan’ implies that the results should be good, but there’s more to it than that. The artisan is the one that really understand what they do, not just someone that repeats what was told to them by someone else. The non-artisan can make something that’s really good, but it’s more a copy of what they’ve been told, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

Yep, that’s the word I want to use. I don’t make barbecue, I make artisanal barbecue. They can use it for breads and cheese and chocolate, why not meat?

But on with the chili!

This is my favorite chili to make, as it combines several things I love: good chiles, smoked brisket and beer.

I start by taking dried chiles (none are hot but have good flavor), about 2 of each:

• Cascabel
• Pasilla
• Ancho

I put them in a blender (or food processor) until powdered. Then, in a dry pan over med-high heat, I toast the powdered chiles until they just start giving off a good scent. I add one bottle of Dos Equis Negro and one large onion (diced). I cook the onion with the chiles and beer until all the liquid of the beer is gone, leaving just the flavor.

While the onion is cooking, I cut up 2 pounds of brisket. This is the toughest ingredient because it means I either had leftover (hard to believe) or I cooked a brisket just for this. I actually like to use the point of the brisket, cut up after the initial smoking and put back on the smoker (just not with extra rub and sauce like burnt ends). If I use this, I don’t have to cut up any more brisket, of course.

I add the brisket to the onions, then 2 14-16 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes. I regulate this by how much liquid I happen to want in the chili. I prefer it less watery, so I’ll adjust by not putting as much tomato in. If you like it more water, add more tomato. Also add one small can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped.

To that, I add 2 tablespoons of chile powder and 1 tablespoon of cumin powder, both toasted in a dry skillet until pungent. This toasting will add a lot to the flavor, so don’t skip it! Once toasted, add the chili powder and cumin to the chili.

As it cooks, add salt and pepper to taste, though I rarely add any, as the rub on the brisket adds enough.

Simmer the chili for 30-45 minutes. While finishing the cooking, toast 1 tablespoon of whole cumin seeds in a dry skillet and add to 2 cups of creme fraiche.

To serve, top the chili with the cumin creme fraiche.

I love this chili. I’ve tried it by toasting all the powdered ingredients and by not toasting, and toasting really does add a level of flavor you can’t get without it.

Well, it’s great, but, as with most things, it can always be improved. I think I found one way to improve this class, though.

It all starts with the foundation ingredients. Sausage gravy is one of the simplest things to make, whether it’s done with sausage crumbled in a skillet or patties that are cooked and removed from the skillet. The ingredients are pretty standard:

• 3-4 cups of whole milk
• 2 tablespoons (or so) of flour
• Salt and pepper to taste (though I often leave out the salt as the sausage is generally salty enough)
• 1 pound of country sausage
• Maybe some sage, maybe not

That’s it… And a great thing about making this stuff is that none of this needs to be measured too closely. The sausage is simple; get a local sausage in a one pound tube, or ask for a pound of sausage from the butcher.

Here’s where mine is different from any others I’ve seen, and how it fits in with Get Your Grill On… I make fatties almost every time I do a long smoke. What’s a fatty? No, it has nothing to do with illegal substances (though some vegans I know would like to make it illegal!). A fatty is simply a roll of sausage that’s smoked instead of fried.

There are 3 obvious advantages to this method of cooking sausage:

1. I don’t have to clean up the kitchen after frying all that sausage (can you say ‘grease splatter’?). This also means I can, if I choose, make sausage gravy in the nude… But don’t worry, I only cook fully clothed!
2. A lot more fat is rendered out of the whole equation by smoking than by frying in a skillet and reusing the fat. This is easy to determine simply by weighing before and after cooking. Fatties are actually less fatty than their fried counterparts.
3. The wood smoke flavor added takes ordinary country style pork sausage and makes is sing! No, not literally, but ask anyone that’s had a well-smoked fatty what they think of it, and the vast majority will side with smoking a fatty as the preferred way of cooking sausage.

So I made a fatty on Saturday to use on Sunday for breakfast, which I then chopped up into small chunks and added to a hot skillet. This is mostly to heat the sausage than to cook it more. One thing I notice when I do this is that there’s not any fat in the skillet, which is a good thing. There’s enough fat in the sausage to keep it from sticking, but not so much that I have any puddles in the skillet. Once the meat is heated, I add a couple of tablespoons or so of all purpose flour and brown that with the sausage. It’s important to let the flour brown well, as the gravy will taste like raw flour if the milk is added too soon.

Once the flour is browned, the milk can be added. This is the part where beginning sausage gravy makers commit their biggest mistake… not adding enough milk. I add as much as I think I need, then add a cup or more extra. What happens is that the flour will thicken everything, and the gravy will be too thick if not enough milk is added. The good thing is that milk can always be added if the gravy is too thick, so it’s not like this is a mistake that’s not correctable.

Once the milk starts to thicken, I add a pretty good amount of black pepper, as I think the pepper really makes the gravy. With a pepper mill, I add a good dusting of pepper over the whole skillet.

The gravy will brown a bit and thicken, and then it’s ready! That’s all there is to it!

And there’s sweet corn!  One of the great gifts of the waning summer.  In the words of Heywood Banks, from a trip through Iowa:

  “Interstate 80 Iowa”

This way I attribute to Steven Raichlen, though I don’t remember which book.  I think it was BBQ USA, though.

Cutting off just the tip of the corn including the tassle, soak the ears in sugar water for 6-8 hours (maybe 1/2 cup of sugar per gallon of water).  Get a chimney of coals good and hot, and spread evenly in the bottom of your grill.  Wearing protective gloves and wielding a good set of tongs, place the ears of corn right in the coals, turning about every 2 minutes.  The husks will turn black, but that’s ok.

Remove the ears, pull back the husks, then do the obligatory butter slather, add salt, enjoy.  It’s simple; you just have to plan enough time to soak the corn!  The actual cooking only takes about 8 minutes.

What happens is that the corn basically steams in the husk, but, by cutting off the end, some good grill flavor gets in there, too.  This is currently my wife’s preferred corn eating method.  Pulling back the husk and grilling right on the grate is a no-no with her, as it tends to make the corn dry out and stick to the teeth.

Try it, then let me know how you like it.  Or, if you have another way of fixing fresh corn on the cob, let me know!

A great example of this is cedar planking. I’ve had cedar planked salmon with intricate sauces or spice mixtures on them, and they’re good, but I taste more of the additions than the base food. I like to keep my seasonings simple, especially when doing something like cedar planking… The main added flavor should be the cedar, not the rub.

I have two go-to recipes for cedar planking. For fish, I like a bit of grey salt, black pepper and muscovado sugar. That’s it! The sugar forms a bit of a sweet layer, but it still lets the cedar show through. Salmon is great for this, but trout is even better, in my opinion.

My other go-to is for scallops. This one is so easy bu oh-so-good. Simple wrap each scallop in a thin slice of Proscuitto ham. I use rosemary twigs, with half the needles removed and the top pointed a bit, to secure the ham in place. This also works as seasoning and a way to pick up the scallops. I take the extra rosemary needles and chop them up, then sprinkle them lightly on the scallops. Add some grey salt and black pepper, and they’re ready to go! I think the rosemary and cedar go very well together, but I don’t go too heavy on the rosemary.

To do cedar planking, you have to start with a cedar board. You can find them almost anywhere now, but I go to a lumber supplier, get a 1″X10″ board and cut it down to 18″ and 12″ boards. This gives me cheaper cedar planks that I can u se more times than the really thin grilling boards that are everywhere. Cedar shingles work well, too, and they’re cheap. Whatever cedar you use, though, make sure it’s not treated (most cedar isn’t).

The cedar needs to absorb some water, so I soak the board I’m going to use in water for at least 2 hours prior to using it. This helps the board smoke before burning. I then place the board over a medium hot fire, smoothest side up, and let it heat up. After it’s hot, I put a bit of canola oil on the top, then place the fish or scallops on the board, close the grill, and wait for 15 ore more minutes before checking doneness. When the scallops are opaque, they’re ready to come off, or when salmon just starts to flake, the fish will be ready.

The key to all this is the seafood. It MUST be fresh and as good quality as can be found. I’ve tried scallops from some places, and they just aren’t good. Really good scallops won’t taste fishy or off at all. They should smell like the ocean (the good ocean smell), not like a fishing boat. With salmon, I use wild caught salmon that looks nice and red. I look for firm flesh. A lot of salmon at the grocery will have a soft look to it, but salmon should be good and firm.

One trick I’ve learned is for presentation. I like the look of the scallops or salmon on a cedar plank, but there are 2 problems when cooking on a plank. The first is that it’s still smoking when you take it off, and will be hot enough to damage a table, or at least get soot everywhere. The second is that the board will look a bit messy from the fish cooking on it (not as big a deal as the first problem). So what I like to do is take a second cedar plank and char it a bit on the bottom and sides, until it looks good, then take it off the fire to cool. I don’t char it enough to have soot, but just to look good. Then the food can be transferred to the charred plank to serve.

Cedar planking is a great way to enjoy good seafood… Just don’t gunk it up with too many other flavors!

I didn’t go fancy, as I wanted to really taste the lamb. I started with a boneless leg, rosemary, oregano, salt and pepper. With one side of the leg having a thick fat cap, I seasoned the rest of the meat, leaving the fat cap to put on the grate to protect the meat from getting too much direct heat. I set up a fire with two halves, one on each side of the grill, and added some cherry wood (always grill with wood when doing meats!).

The grilling was easy and didn’t need much watching other than temperature. I didn’t want this to get overdone. I cooked it indirectly to about 125, then turned the lamb over and put it directly over the fire to char the meat just a bit, adding some Maillard effect taste!

The lamb was very tender and done just right for me. What I found when I tasted it was a much milder lamb flavor than I expected, better than New Zealand lamb I’ve gotten here in Ohio. I’ve had Colorado lamb chops before, and, with this leg, I’m sold completely on American lamb as being better than imported, due to its freshness, I think.

American Lamb Board’s web site lists where you can find American lamb.