Grill Tips

Smoking Meats with Wood Chips

If you’ve ever tasted a pulled pork sandwich piled high on crusty bread and dripping with barbeque sauce you already know that nothing compares to the succulent results you get from smoking meats. And if you don’t just imagine incredibly moist cuts of meat grilled till they’re falling off the bone and deeply infused with a rich, complex flavor imparted by flavored wood chips. Smoking meats is incredibly easy, though time consuming and yield spectacular results. All you need is a smoker and a bag of wood chips to get started. For you down-home cooks experiment with all different kinds of chips from Cherry, to Sugar Maple, Pecan, Hickory, and Mesquite. And for the more gourmet cooks theirs cabernet flavored chips or the all time favorite, Jack Daniels chips made from authentic whiskey barrels. Serve smoked meats with a huge plate of corn on the cob dripping with butter, a big crusty loaf of French bread, and a sultry red wine.

Tips for Smoking Meats

For Really Intense Flavor...

• Brine before you smoke: often before people smoke meats they soak them overnight in a brine. A brine is a very strong saltwater solution, sometimes flavored with sugars, wine, or herbs and spices that prepares the meat so that it does not lose its moistness as it smokes. The meat should be removed from the brine just before smoking, rinsed under cold water thoroughly, and patted dry. At this point its ready to be smoked or rubbed with a meat rub and then smoked.
• Use a Rub: after you have finished brining you can rub your meat with a spicy rub. You can really load this stuff on because as the spices cook they lose their pungency. For really cool exotic flavors you can even combine rubs for various flavors.

To Create Exciting New Flavors, mix chips with different flavors to create amazing spice blends.

• Maple: this imparts a sweet, smoky flavor ideal for Poultry, Pork and Game Meat.
• Apple and Cherry: sweet, Fruity tasting chips which are excellent with Poultry, Pork, and Game Meat.
• Hickory: imparts a strong pungent flavor, much like bacon, perfect for Beef, Pork, and Ham.
• Maple: sweet, smoky flavor ideal for Poultry, Pork and Game Meat.
• Mesquite: sweeter than Hickory but still quite strong tasting. Works best when paired with strong flavored meats like Lamb, Beef, and Duck.
• Pecan: lends a subtle, rich flavor that complement Turkey and Poultry.

Barbequing Pizza

The latest and greatest from the Barbequing Front is grilled pizza. Nothing compares to a crispy grilled crust topped with a smoky tomato sauce and a mess of melted, bubbling cheeses. To be quite honest I am not new to grilling pizza; however, in the past I have found that without the proper pan the whole operation is quite a disaster. With cheese melting off the sides and setting on fire down in the greasy pit of the grill, the crust quickly turning a shade of dark brown and going from crisp to rock hard before the cheese melts I’ve never had real great results. However with the new ZaGrill Perfect pizza pan from Eastman Outdoors I get a truly perfect pizza every time. The Eastman Outdoors ZaGrill won the Vesta Award for best new Barbeque Accessories. With great features that pinpoint all the pitfalls of grilling pizza like a nonstick finish for easy cleaning and a double heat shield to ensure a perfect golden crust. You can also use the Za Grill to cook veggies and cut up meats that otherwise fall through the grates on the grill.