Don't Burn the Burgers!

My very dear friend Dustin invited me down to Charlotte to visit him this past weekend. His original hook was that he was moving into a new place on Friday and having a cookout on Sunday. I was basically sold. He then told me he was going to Charlotte 49ers Baseball Saturday and tailgating before. DING DING, We have a winner!

The tailgating grilling was extremely basic, and nothing really worthy of writing about (though in the future, I intend to do a full writeup on grilling at a tailgate) but the real lesson was learned on Sunday.

The situation with Dustin was that he had moved into a house with a guy Jeff who was looking for a roommate. Jeff owns his home and had been there for some time. Jeff seemed to like to cook, but I noticed just a simple Weber kettle grill on the back deck - nothing fancy. I didn't think much of it, since many people cook charcoal on a regular basis, and well, I used to as well for things like burgers and hotdogs.

While Jeff was preparing the burgers, I was ready to be impressed by his skills. He had 73% lean ground beef, had mixed in chopped onion, garlic, jalapeños, some spices, and hand tossed it all to a good consistency. The prospect of eating what would presumably become most tasty burgers, and throwing back a couple cold ones on a warm-ish (55*) winter day had me excited. After the burgers were pattied, and brought outside, the grill was lit. Jeff, like many backyard chefs used Matchlight (not my favorite) and the charcoal was going.

What happened next however was a pretty big shock to me, since I had only met Jeff two days before. He asked me if I would cook the burgers! I personally consider a grill a man's sacred outdoor place, and declined. When he insisted I cook the burgers, I thought it an honor, and decided to give it a go.

Let me interject just a couple of things before I continue the story. Despite what people say - I never make burgers that are under 85% lean, I think too much of the burger melts away. Also, I cook things like burgers on gas grills unless I am at a tailgate, because it's cleaner - cooking on a big charcoal kettle is not something I have done with fatty burgers in QUITE some time.


So I spread the coals around the bottom of the kettle grill and began to put the burgers on. Right about the time I got the last burger on of this first batch, the flaming began. It was to be expected with fatty burgers on a charcoal grill, but I wasn't prepared for the extent to which it was going to attempt to thwart my cooking efforts. Once I realized the situation was only getting worse, not better, I asked Jeff for a spatula. My host only had a short pair of metal tongs outside (not great for flipping burgers) and to my chagrin, when he emerged from the kitchen, he had a short (read: dangerous) metal flipper for this large, flaming kettle grill.

Well, I put on some oven mits, and used this short flipper to get the burgers off the grill. In the meantime, a large flame up singed literally all the hair off a section of my right arm. The time from when we put the burgers on, until the time I got them off - no flipping involved - was probably 3-4 minutes, just long enough to get the spatula and get the patties off while fighting the flames.

The outsides were pretty charred, but not burnt to the point of being ruined. I knew however the other sides had experienced no heat and the burgers weren't cooked in the middle. I had to think fast, as we had no more charcoal, and about 10 more burgers to cook after these were finished.

I decided to do what I know best, and that was setup the kettle grill for indirect heat, and cook the burgers slow and low. I moved all the coals into one "corner" of the kettle, taking up probably 10% of the grill area. I placed the rest of the first round of burgers on the grill and quickly closed the cover.

Probably five minutes later, the burgers were done, slightly charred on one side, but done to perfection on the other - just beyond the point of having any pink in the middle. Without a meat thermometer, it's hard to tell exactly where they sat, but they looked - and tasted good.

While everyone started in on the first round of burgers, I began getting the second round on. Same thing this time - in the indirect heat configuration. These burgers took probably 45 minutes to cook, which is not ideal for burgers, especially if you are making a lot. Also, I will add that cooking burgers with the cover on a grill is so counterintuitive to me it's crazy, but that day I had to do what I had to do to make good burgers.

The surprise of the day - the burgers that had been cooked in the indirect heat the whole time! Their color was phenomenal, there were no burned spots, but the burgers were done to perfection. Their juice had been largely retained where during normal quick grilling it would have been lost. They looked like mini-beef roasts that had been slow cooked!

I'll close with these thoughts, for all you backyard burger enthusiasts.

1) Make your burgers with 85% lean meat - despite what your meat man tells you, anything more fatty just burns away, and flames up your coals.


2) If you are cooking for a [new] friend and they have really fatty meat, think about cooking on indirect coals to begin with. I know this is counterintuitive, but it's better than ruining a good set of burgers because they burn up.


3) EVERY backyard chef, whether you cook once a year, or every weekend needs a decent grilling set. You don't have to spend $100 at Williams Sonoma, but head down to Wal-Mart or Target or Big Lots, and get a) a long handled spatula, b) a long handled fork, c) a long handled set of tongs, and d) a nice grill scrubber / brush. All of that can be had for around $10-20 and is worth every penny.


That's all for now - I'd like to thank Dustin for inviting us down, Jeff for his hospitality, and Charlotte for a great weekend! That includes you too Jeff's Bucket Shop! I'll be back soon with my latest smoke!

Smoke Versus Fire

INTRODUCTION
The age old debate is in grilling is gas versus charcoal. While there are benefits and detriments to each method of cooking a cut of meat, large or small, I want to focus specifically on smoking meat with charcoal versus grilling meat with gas. Some of the comparison will bring to light deficiencies in charcoal and gas generally, but this is a specific comparison of smoking with charcoal and grilling with gas.

The reason for this is that you can modify this comparison any number of ways. You can smoke with gas, or grill with charcoal. Personally, I think if you are grilling items like hamburgers or chicken, charcoal should be reserved for portable situations, like tailgating. Likewise, I am a firm believer that if you are smoking something it should be with charcoal (or wood if you have the equipment) and that gas or electrics cheapen the process.

Below you will find an overview of each, and some detail on their application. I will close with my final thought on the comparison.

CHARCOAL SMOKER
The charcoal smoker is in some ways an evolution of cooking since the beginning of time. Charcoal is just a simple way to have a controlled wood fire, and putting it in a smoker helps you obtain a safe environment, and (semi) stable cooking temperatures. Smoking with charcoal is a great way to enjoy an entire afternoon or day outside with your dinner, watching it progress over time.

The Benefits
As previously alluded to, charcoal smoking is particularly good at cooking large cuts of meat. These include things like pork shoulders, beef briskets, beef and pork loins, whole chickens and turkeys, pork and beef ribs, and really, anything else that is over 5lbs and could benefit from sitting in a smoke filled chamber for 4-12 hours.

The reason that this piece of equipment is so well suited to these types of cuts is because of its ability to cook at a low temperature over time, and the ability to force a smoke flavor onto the food. Sitting somewhere between 200-250 degrees (I prefer 225, but opinions vary) you can hold that temperature and smoke the meet to the point that it is so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork for some things. For most cuts, you should be able to get a nice crisp outside, a smoke ring (I'll be doing a post on this soon) and a mind-blowing, juicy inside.

The Detriments
The downsides to charcoal smoking are almost as numerous as the upsides, depending on how you look at it. First of all, charcoal is not cheap. You could easily spend $20 on charcoal that you would use in a day with a fully loaded smoker and 12+ hours of smoking. By comparison, you could spend about $20 for a propane tank exchange, and it would last you for dozens of grilling sessions. Also, charcoal is dirty; you have to clean up the ash and you have to wait for it to cool down before you can do that. There may also be problems depending on your setup and duration of a smoke with ash interfering with oxygen flow to your coals. Finally, you have to wait for charcoal to be ready, which depending on your setup could take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour.

GAS GRILL
The gas grill is also an amazing innovation. The idea that without ever striking a matchbook or flicking a stick lighter, you can have a burning hot grill in 10 minutes is quite appealing. Whether it is a piped in natural gas unit, a sub-$100 unit from the hardware store, or a massive expensive ceramic lined unit, the general mechanics are the same. Gas grills are best suited to quick fires for hot items, and easy cooks during the week.

The Benefits
Gas grills are perfect for smaller cuts of meat, as well as items sensitive to charcoal or wood smoke. Gas grills are great for quick fire items, like beef steak (cook with the cover OPEN please) or more medium fire items like chicken breasts, drums or wings. It's also very good at fish like salmon, also shrimp, vegetables, hamburgers, hotdogs, and yes, even fruit!

Gas grills are substantially cheaper to operate than charcoal, create very little mess which means very little cleanup, and are usually ready in about 10-15 minutes. They are also extremely stable once the temperature is set, and very easy to change the temperature on if you didn't have it quite right to begin with.

The Detriments
The number one detriment to a gas grill, is that it isn't charcoal! What I mean by that is that it doesn't produce the smoke, the flavor, or the general experience that cooking with charcoal does. Most inexpensive home gas grills are also extremely difficult if not impossible to keep at a low enough temperature to cook even medium cuts, like a small roast or a rack of baby backs. There is also always the problem of running out of propane mid-grill if you are not prepared.

CONCLUSION
There you have it - a brief overview of the benefits and detriments of each cooking tool / method. For your big cuts, stick to smoking it low and slow. It produces better flavor, and you can make an entire day out of it with friends if you like. For an evening dinner, or an afternoon of burgers or similar sized fare, go ahead and fire up the gas grill. By the time your charcoal smoker would have been ready to put the meat on, dinner will be done!

Where Smoke Meets Fire: The Origin

How many backyard burger grillers are out there in the world? If you are reading this, you've probably fired a couple hotdogs or chicken breasts on a gas grill from your local hardware chain. What? This isn't you? You must be the hardcore enthusiast, who smokes his meat, low and slow, soaking up the flavor of burning hickory or mesquite.

I have found that these sides tend to be at odds. Charcoal vs. Gas. Hot and quick versus low and slow. These ideologies, the flavoring, the preparation involved with each, and everything in between is what this blog is about. I started out watching my dad cook burgers and steaks on the grill as a youngin', and moved on to trying my own hand as a teen. In college I bought a gas grill. Then a charcoal grill. After law school I was using gas primarily, but a friend opened my eyes to the world of smoking, slow and low - so juicy and tender it falls apart.

I thought I had found the mother load, and to be honest - I still love smoking large cuts. There is this primal instinct in every man (and many of you ladies out there) that makes us want to cook our food with some type of flame - from charcoal, or gas, or what have you - that cannot be matched by a frying pan or a kitchen oven.

Those backyard cookouts, whether they are once a year, or once a week are ingrained in our society. What I want to do here, is share my thoughts on grilling techniques, recipes, and the fruits of my labor on smoking with a cheap offset smoker. 

This is the place for the everyman. Whether you are just starting to smoke and/or grill, or have been at it for years, and still want to get that perfect steak, I want to help. After this introductory blog, I'm going to start by explaining Smoke versus Fire (charcoal smoking versus gas grilling) and what each is best suited for. So, stay tuned for that and much more to come soon!