Tuesday, August 28, 2007

5 Tips To Picking Great Meat

The slow cooked aroma of meat will send anyone back to happier times. Slathered in your own top secret sauce and just ready to be savored this is what you have been thinking of all week. However once eating this would be succulent meal something becomes very clear. The meat is bland. Talk about a waste of ingredients and time! Hopefully this list will help you avoid this situation all together and only picking the greatest pieces of meat.

  1. Do your own tenderizing. Do not buy pre-tenderized meat. A plant that produces meat is on a fully automated system. Trust me when I say that there is not an employee being paid 15 dollars an hour to lovingly tenderize your piece of meat with a wooden mallet. This unnatural way of meat preparation will leave your barbecue flavorless and tough!
  2. Make sure your butcher is on his game. I would not trust the future of my barbecue meal to someone who could not point out some details about my cut of choice. They should not basic things about the cattle such as if they are grain-fed or grass-fed. But also take some liberty and quiz him about preparation. You might learn something and you can see his knowledge level.
  3. Make sure the facility you’re buying from is safe. While obviously signs of dirty floors and a warm temperature should be red flags. You should also look at the smaller details. You will see cooler vents in all the display coolers. Make sure the meat is not stacked above that point. That alone could save you the hassle of rotten meat.
  4. Quality grade does not mean quality meat. While starring at that leg cut you might be thinking it looks so tender! Not true, some cuts look tenderer than others. Just know that the less the muscle was used the tenderer it will be. For instance ribs will be tenderer than the shoulder. The tenderer always wins for my barbecue.
  5. Packaging! Want to have a great barbecue meal make sure you don’t have rotten meat. The easiest way to do that is by first checking to see if there are any cuts in the package. This is a serious health issue and should be brought to the attention of management if found. Secondly make sure there is no moisture in the package. This means that the temperature of the meat has risen to high and also should be brought to management’s attention.

Barbecued Vegetables

Well prepared barbecue meat is what drives us to the barbecue. However meat is not a full meal. And have even heard rumors of people not even eating meat. So when needing a side dish or to drive to your vegetarians friends to your barbecue party BBQ vegetables is your savior. Barbecuing vegetables taste great and takes a fraction of the time to meat. You will find your meal complete with a helping of barbecued veggies.

Without a doubt the most barbecued vegetable in the U.S is the bell pepper. This pepper provides a colorful add on to any meal. Bell peppers seem to have a natural relationship with the BBQ considering that there skin absorbs the smoke and provides it with an almost meaty texture. You may end up tasting your smoke more in the bell pepper than in any barbecued meat you served that day. Toss a variety of colors of bell peppers with a garlic clove or two and you’ll have a perfect side dish for any south western dish.

Corn is another barbecue favorite and for good reason. The intense heat of the grill caramelizes the plant sugars making the sweetest corn you’ve tasted. You’ll notice a sweet outer shell with a cool smoky after taste. Note however that cooking corn with the husks on will increase cooking time much longer than expected. This will lock in more of the smoke flavor though. Serve with butter, beans and pork cut and you will be good to go.

Just like cooking meat it is easy to get right if you start with quality produce. Make sure you’re vegetables are fresh. Things to look out for are dry and wrinkled skin and a general look of a dehydrated veggie. . Avoid these characteristics and you will be on the road to a delicious quickly prepared side dish.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Social Barbecue Preparation

Barbecue is not just cooking it’s a relationship building exercise. When barbecuing you can involve your whole family in this fun cooking process. This article will show you how to make dinner time family time that everyone will enjoy. The great food is just a bonus.

But what is barbecue. Barbecue consists of many diverse types of cooking. Its as varied as smoking a turkey on your grill to spitting a whole hog! Barbecue is the root of all cooking. Without a doubt when people first had to cook meat they had a barbecue. Every society on earth has a unique barbecue preparation. Popularized by slaves in America (where they were given the worst pieces of meat) it quickly grew to a popular form of cooking amongst all people. The most common kind is a free standing barbecue with about 350 inches of surface area. And that is all you really need to bring your family together in an amazing meal.

Right now your probably wondering how a Barbee dinner brings people together. The magic is in the preparation. Assigning jobs to individuals in your family for different aspects of the barbeque's preparation will prepare them for working together for a common goal. These are valuable life skills that can be transferred to a workplace and school. Another magical aspect of barbecuing is that people want to get involved even if they normally take no interest in usual meal preparation. It deviates from the monotony of normal dinners and thus people are more likely to jump on board. Having the family cooperate is worth its weight in gold but then making an awesome meal out of it makes it a good time.

Barbecues benefits can’t be counted in the healthy delicious meals that are so easy to create. But also in the relationship building exercise which is barbecuing.

An Introduction To Barbecue Sauces

Nothing is more renowned is the barbecue world then sauce. Barbecue sauces are the most guarded and reverenced aspect of barbecue. They can single handily turn a mediocre piece of meat into a great tasting feast. But are we forced to use the run of the mill sauces decorating our store shelves. They contain harmful processed ingredients including high fructose and other nasty elements. Not to mention the bland tastes that unfortunately has come to be known with barbecue sauce. By following these aspects we can make our own barbecue sauce that is a source of pride and great food.

First of all it is important to figure out which barbecue sauce you actually enjoy. Barbecue sauces have two main categories: thick and thin. And between those two categories there are also tangy, hot, sweet and spicy. Finding which variation you want to use. Right away there were a probably a couple of variations of barbecue sauce that jumps out at you. Start with those by trying to create a couple of sauces for them. Then deviate and throw some of the other element in there. Pretty soon you will strike gold and have an amazing sauce to show off.

When it comes to the base for your sauces they are many different types to choose from. Tomato is the mostly widely used barbecue sauce and is easy to prepare. To drive tomato sauces home prepare them a day in advance. Vinegar is another great option when wanting to really penetrate the meat with that acidic flavor. And when preparing pork it is also a great idea to experiment with mustard based sauces. To any of these sauces you can add a heaping of cider vinegar, red pepper, chili, sugar, salt and even chocolate to add that extra flavor in your barbecue sauce.

Creating a good BBQ sauce that you really enjoy is one of the most rewarding experiences. It will take a lot of experimenting before you find the perfect one. But once you find your perfect barbecue sauce recipe you will always have a sense of pride knowing your true culinary prowess.

Product Review

Product review

Top Secret BBQ Sauce recipe

They say that this was the sauce that the original cowboys used. I don’t know about that but it is damn good. The best thing about this sauce is that it really does come from out of the box in a good way. The recipe isn’t one that is commonly seen and it honestly tastes great. It works with just about every type of meat I can get my hands on. With chicken it isn’t the greatest but with some tweaking it does well.

The BBQ sauce ingredients are cheap and its decent on prepares time. With the sauce aside another good bonus is they give you access to their free BBQ recipe directory. It has a decent amount (100 or so) of entries and is great for beginners or pros who want some stimulation with original recipes.

WWW.TOPSECRET-BBQ-SAUCE-RECIPE.COM

Bottom Line

8/10
+ Awesome Directory

+Great Tasting Sauce
+Low Price Tag
+Must Buy For Newbie
- Takes Adjusting For Chicken