Keep it simple!

I’ve messed with all types of burgers. From burgers with nothing but meat to burgers with everything including the kitchen sink. And not to brag, but I have even been told more then once (by maybe the same guy) that my burger was the best he ever ate. You can lie and say it was great, but you don’t lie and say it’s the best ever.

The problem I often run into is that I can’t repeat that same great taste every time. What and how much did I put into the burger? Was it the onion, honey, hot sauce, etc. etc..? I’m still looking to master the most popular back yard BBQ food of all time.

The burger I describe below may not be the best you have ever had because that’s a tall order and everyone’s taste buds differ (don’t let me get started on the Pizza Patrol again), but I’m getting to the point where I can continue to turn out a great product every time.

Let me start with the meat. I’ll keep this short and clean (well at least short, it may not sound clean to some of you health nuts out there). When you go to the super market you reach for the ground beef right? Ground beef; I don’t have exact details but a cow is beef and if you grind up a whole cow from tail to snout technically that’s ground beef?

Not exactly but you can use just about any part of the cows scraps to make up ground beef. More like gross beef! Do you really want to eat that shit? What do I do? That’s easy, find a butcher. I grew up a mile or two from two butchers and never stepped foot in one until this year. Why? Because I was the jerk who was buying ground beef and who needs a butcher when you have a grocery store! With the exception of a few celebrity meat purveyors (see earlier Pat La Freda post) fancy blends of beef, the foundation of a great burger is CHUCK. It is from one part of the cow and contains no fillers. It is a fatty piece of meat that is great for the grill.

You’re looking at about 70/30 fat content but that’s just how it is. And get this, Chuck cost about $3.50/lb at my butcher (as opposed to the 93% fat free revolting ground beef that my wife insists on buying for about $7.00/lb) and he grinds it in front of me. His store smells like shit but his chuck is sweet. One quick note, the sooner you get it on the grill the better it tastes. A bacterium starts to attack meat the second it’s messed with or sometime close that.

Now that you have the chuck, get the kosher or sea salt out and fresh ground pepper, turn around and put that Worcestershire sauce back in the fridge. This is not grade school.

Form a nice patty but do NOT pack the meat like a meat ball! It needs to be loosely packed.

Now it is time to get your grill rocking, you want high, hot, direct heat. Clean your grill grates and oil them up. Salt and pepper are the last things to go on. Pop that bad boy on the grill and let it rip. Flip once then put on your cheese. People get crazy with cheese and it masking the taste of beef, etc., but I can’t help it and people love it and this particular cheese will be your new secret weapon, Port wine cheddar!

I also went with the often under utilized toasted onion roll, a thick wedge of raw onion and a fist full of shoestring fries and “Voila”, a great simple burger. People will love the flavor and juiciness of this burger, especially since most people are used to eating scrap…

Stay tuned, my first attempt at smoking ribs has taken place and my famous pulled pork in a crock is soon to follow.

Enjoy!

Five Things Americans Need to Know About Barbecue

It's late July. The sun is beating down, and the backyard beckons. All Americans with a love of barbecue in their heart should feel a surge stirring them toward their grill. But, as a nation, we've been sadly misinformed about how to cook outdoors. Decades of overwrought recipes in glossy magazines, the marketing efforts of grill manufacturers and a cacophony of bad recipes and worse advice on the Internet have all combined to keep us confused about how to cook meat in our own backyard. It's really not that complicated. Here are the five basic things every American should know about how to barbecue:




1. Gas Is for Saps

I know, I know, it's so much more convenient. So why not just send out for pizza? The plain fact of the matter is that outdoor cooking shouldn't taste like indoor cooking. The characteristic taste of barbecue, real barbecue, comes not from propane gas but from the fragrant fumes of slowly burning hardwood. And all you need to produce it is one of the most common, cheap and simple cooking appliances ever invented: the basic black Weber grill. You'll need to use good lump charcoal — no insta-light briquettes, unless you want your food to taste like napalm — and you'll need to be careful about handling it. But that squat engine of meat-cookery will give you a better sear and flavor than you could ever get from gas. (Once you get addicted to the taste of smoke, you may want to get a real smoker, with an offset firebox, and then you'll really be on the varsity squad.)




2. Never Go from the Fire to the Plate

Meat needs to sear, and that's why you have hot-burning lump charcoal. But it also needs to cook slowly and to absorb smoke. So always put coals on only one side, so you'll have a "two zone" grill. One side is for attaining the burnished mahogany crust that looks so good and tastes even better; the other is for cooking to a juicy, tender interior. Grilling is just a small part of barbecuing. It's aggressive and fast, and meat needs some gentle, loving treatment as well. Basically, the art of cooking meat is the art of not doing things to it. As in, not burning it; not moving it around too much; not cutting it too fast, before the juices have had time to settle back into the muscle tissue; and not overwhelming it with weird sauces or seasonings or mostardas or compotes or chutneys or other things not made of meat. You want to draw it out, like an introvert in group therapy, and let it open up at its own pace.



3. If You're Looking, You're Not Cooking

Beginning barbecuers are often tempted to check in often on their meat, to make sure it's still there. Don't worry. It's not going anywhere. Ideally, you should leave it alone the whole time, but a kettle-style grill like a Weber requires you to periodically replace charcoal. The second you lift the lid, you lose much of the heat — and you don't get it back right away. Imagine trying to do your taxes and having to stop every 15 minutes to answer stupid questions about domestic issues like where the scissors are. That's what you are doing to your meat when you keep checking on it. Keep your interruptions to a minimum. Think of the great home cooks you know. Do they bustle nervously over every dish? No. The better they are, the less they seem to do. That's how barbecue is — times 10.



4. Salt Liberally — Then Salt Some More

It's almost impossible to oversalt meat that goes on a grill — that is, if you're using coarse kosher salt. Unlike table salt, which just makes meat salty, coarse salt doesn't melt; it becomes a crust. That crust tastes good. You know what also tastes good? Having coarse black pepper along with the salt. Both serve as flavor enhancers, rather than as competing sensations. Be careful, though. Unlike salt, it is possible to use too much pepper. Any other spices or rubs should be used sparingly, if at all. If your meat doesn't taste great with just salt, pepper, fire and smoke having been applied to it, you either need a new supermarket — or you need to step up your grill game.



5. Sauce Is the Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

There's a reason that the crappy barbecue you get in mall food courts is slathered with sauce. It's because the underlying meat has no flavor. Sure, it's easier to boil or microwave ribs than it is to patiently smoke them, just as it's easier to cheat on your wife than to be faithful to her. (In both cases, the shame of the crime is shown by the hasty, desperate lies that surround it.) Barbecue sauces should be used sparingly. They should highlight, rather than envelop the meat, and they should be part of the cooking process. You might also consider mixing some of the hot meat juices in with the sauce before serving it. As for which sauce to use? Just keep trying them. I steer clear of anything with liquid smoke — an evil fluid I try to avoid like dysentery — listed in the ingredients. (It's almost as unmistakable and nasty as truffle oil.) Maybe give the high-fructose corn syrup a pass too, unless you are overly fond of obesity, diabetes and the taste of Tootsie Rolls in your ribs. Try a simple "board dressing" instead, as demonstrated by my friend Adam Perry Lang in this video. His combination of meat drippings, olive oil and fresh parsley mixed directly on the cutting board is better than any sauce. But really, you don't even need a board dressing when you come right down to it.



Those are just the basics. But the basics matter the most. You don't need a 50,000 BTU gas grill, you don't need a water pan, you don't need foil and you don't need a remote digital thermometer. If you want to barbecue — and as an American in the summer, you really should want to barbecue — then learn how to cook meat with coal. The embellishments can come later. There are any number of superb cookbooks, such as the fine ones by masters like Lang, Stephen Raichlen, Michael Stines and Paul Kirk, if you start feeling adventurous. But for my part, if I've produced a rack of smoky spareribs, a perfect half-pound hamburger or an iridescently glazed prime rib, I rarely rue the absence of a complicated recipe or high-tech tool. And neither will you.



Josh Ozersky is a James Beard Award—winning food writer and the author of The Hamburger: A History. His food video site, Ozersky.TV, is updated daily. He is currently at work on a biography of Colonel Sanders.







Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2006684,00.html#ixzz0uvbHIVjA

It is the Shit!

Delorenzo’s in Robbinsville is hands down the best pizza in the state and we all know I have been to quite a few pizzerias in my day… What else do I need to say to convince you? Go ahead throw your comments out there, I am waiting... Star (bar pie made with cheap ingredients, but has a great taste), it’s not on the same level, not even close (my wife does not agree). In fairness to her Star does deserve credit where it is due and is the best of its type of pizza.

San Marzano this; wood fired that…. De Lorenzo’s breaks all the rules. This “Tomato Pie” as it’s known in that area of New Jersey is loaded with flavor. The crust is cooked to perfection; the cheese is nothing fancy but is damn good. As for the sauce, let me tell you something about this sauce, it is where things get tricky, the sauce is a chunky fresh out of the garden sauce stepped on a few times then put on the pie OVER the cheese...

You can’t beat this sauce! Yes it’s strange but my guess is that’s why it’s called a “Tomato Pie”. The crust is nice and crisp and the sauce on top keeps the cheese from burning (I am not sure if that’s true but it makes sense). There is nothing fancy about the oven, Delorenzo’s uses a gas fired Blogget Oven. You ask, what the hell does that mean? Well it’s the same gas fired oven they are using down the street and at many other places. So why can’t they get it right? Great question, Pizza takes time and love and you can taste the difference these two special ingredients make. They are not selling to school kids on lunch break who could give two shits what it taste like or how long something was sitting in the freezer or on the shelf.

They actually don’t even open till 4, so don’t even consider trying to beat the dinner crowds by going at lunchtime. You are sure to run into an owner at each of the locations they have. In fact on my last visit the owner asked how I been and I told him that each time I visit I sit waiting for my pizza and wonder if it will be as good as I remember and it is always better, which is a great feeling! Long story, short give this place a try it is worth the drive and the wait. If you don’t like it bring me the leftovers, in fact if you don’t like it you should stop eating za’ period…

On a final note, I had a special reason to make this trip, my brother Dylan, who I learned is a little lead footed (he drove) just graduated from HS and is headed to Villanova in August. Dylan is a great student and is an awesome brother who I am very proud of. I wish him all the best when he leaves the nest. What a rhyme! I’ve been raving about Delorenzo’s to him for years and all he wanted after graduation was for a true pizza expert like myself to take him to Delorenzo’s to talk him through the process and make sure we don’t slip up when we order. We went with a cheese pie or in this case a “Tomato Pie” and a half sausage/ half roni pie. BTW, the sausage is second to NONE.

PS-Don’t forget the pitcher of birch. Gook luck Dylan!

The Fowler’s Backyard B-Day.

Generally you go to a kids birthday party BBQ you don’t really get true “BBQ”. What you get in most cases are burgers, dogs and an occasional piece of chicken. If the host is getting crazy maybe you will see an occasional wing but at this party we had true BBQ. Don’t get my wrong I love a dog and burger at a Q as much as the rest of you but I have to give props to something out of the ordinary. It wasn’t the jumpy air castle or the swing set I was there to feast on some “award winning” Q. What awards you ask? To be honest I’m not quite sure, but Local Smoke BBQ turned out some great Q.

Steve Raab the “Pit Master” from www.localsmokebbq.com cooked up some good food that consisted of (I’m going of memory here so I may need to make some corrections later); ribs, pulled pork, mac and cheese, baked beans and the star of the show, pulled beef brisket. The pulled brisket was moist and had a nice but not overpowering taste of smoke to it. The BBQ’d meat was each accompanied by a different style BBQ sauce.

With the arrival of my Smokenator 1000 earlier this week this is the kind of Q that I’ll be turning out by mid summer. The food was outstanding and brought this particular kids party to the next level. Enjoy the pics and if you are looking for BBQ catering call 732-758-1227.