Tips for tasty barbecuing
Barbecuing has been our main form of cooking during the last month. It is a popular way to bring families together and entertain. The word barbecue may be derived from the Spanish word barbacoa, a wooden grid placed over a slow fire, or it may be a variation on the West Indian Carib word brabacot, a grill of green sticks placed over a low fire, or it may be taken from the French phrase barbe e queue – from head to tail.
What most of us call barbecuing is actually grilling. Barbecuing is slow cooking over an open or closed pit. Grilling is faster cooking on a rack over hot coals. Here are some general hints:
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- The barbecue should be at least four feet away from any structure, including overhangs.
- Heavy duty foil helps keep food items from burning.
- A water-filled spray bottle should be part of your barbecuing safety set-up to douse flareups. Use a flameproof apron and oven mitts.
- Use long handled barbecue tongs and a turner to turn meats; forks pierce, causing juices to escape.
- Use the palm test (how long you can hold your palm steady over the coals) to determine the required level of heat needed. About five seconds are needed for pork, four seconds for poultry and fish, and about three seconds for beef and lamb.
- Baste quickly, since opening the barbecue lid causes a major heat loss of 35 to 50 degrees, which takes about 20 minutes to recover.
- Make a flavorful and handy basting brush of herbs. Gather a bunch of rosemary, thyme, sage and marjoram and tie with string.
- Brush on sweet marinades or sauces in the final stages of barbecuing, so your meats don’t have time to stick to the grill or burn.
- Never reuse the sauce or marinade in which raw meat has been marinating because this may lead to food poisoning.
- Trim excess fat from meat to prevent flareups. Score fat edge of chops and steaks to prevent curling.
- Brush meat with vegetable oil prior to cooking to cook it more evenly and help seal in the juices. Or brush oil on the metal grill.
- Never add salt until after cooking. Salt draws out moisture, and meat may become dry and tough.
- Pay close attention. Cooking time will be influenced by temperature outdoors, wind, the barbecue itself, size of meat and even by how often the lid is raised.
My sister-in-law, Sandra, cuts up a pork roast and marinates the meat in Italian dressing, before threading it on the skewers. The name shish kabob comes from cube-shaped food – kabobs -threaded on a skewer – shish. Meats and vegetables with different grilling times should be threaded on separate skewers. Slow-cooking vegetables such as onions should be partially cooked before adding to skewers.
Leave a small space between the food threaded on the skewer to allow heat to penetrate and cook food evenly. The following recipe is from Saskatchewan Pork.
Porkabobs
Yield: 6 servings
1 kg lean fresh pork 2 lb.
shoulder, cut into
2.5 cm (1″) cubes
125 mL red wine 1cup
or apple cider
75 mL honey 1Ú3 cup
2 mL marjoram 1Ú2 tsp.
Combine wine, honey, marjoram. Place pork cubes in shallow glass dish or in a heavy plastic bag. Pour wine mixture over pork. Refrigerate four hours or overnight, turning meat occasionally. When ready to cook, remove pork from marinade; pour marinade into small saucepan. Thread pork cubes on six long skewers. Place on well-greased grill and barbecue over low-medium heat. Turn often, brushing with marinade until the meat juice is no longer pink.
Hot dog
While working on the cabin we enjoyed hot dogs as a quick, easy mealtime fix. Of interest to me was the following information from Fletcher’s Fine Foods Ltd.
The term hot dog was coined by a vendor at the 1900 St. Louis World’s Fair who created excitement for his hot sausages in a bun by yelling the popular exclamation “hot dog!”
The first real hot dogs were referred to as Frankfurterwurst – meaning frankfurter-style sausage – from its origins in Frankfurt, Germany. Europeans quickly dubbed it Wienerwurst – German for Vienna sausage – which became shortened over time to wiener.
Regular sized Fletcher’s wieners, on average, contain at least 4.2 grams of protein, comparable to an egg.
Pressure cooker parts
Dear TEAM : My mother-in-law recently gave me her old pressure canner. It is in excellent condition, but needs a screw-in pressure gauge and a new seal. The label reads: National Pressure Cooker Co. (Canada) Ltd., Wallaceburg, Ont., No. 5. Do you have knowledge of a source for these parts? – L.A., Hilda, Alta.
Dear L.A.: We have had no luck in our search. Even the internet didn’t help. Is there a reader who might have this information?
Bountiful Berries
The Summer ’98 Issue of Pick of the Season, published by Certo, has delicious summer berry recipes. To receive the free newsletters, send your name, address and phone number to: CERTO “Pick of the Season” Program, Box 5161, Paris, Ont., N3L 3W5, or call 1-800-268-6038.
