BBQ Equipment: Wilmington Grills.

Since I was so verbose yesterday, I'll keep it short and sweet today. Here is a picture of the Ed Mitchell designed and constructed by Wilmington Grills pig cooker that will be used on Saturday. Look at the size of this beast! I can't wait.

The Butterball In-door Turkey Fryer

Well - lookey here, just in time for thanksgiving, a tabletop indoor turkey fryer. Great idea. I love fried turkey

I haven't had time to try mine out yet, but for a limited time, Masterbuilt is offering their top-quality fryers to Butterball customers for an exclusive price of $119.95 plus free S&H. For a select few Butterball Turkey Lovers, they are reduced just in time for Thanksgiving.

So, hurry and get the perfect accessory for your festivities – a Masterbuilt deep-fryer. Go to butterballtrurkey fryer.com for more details. Use coupon code BBETF when ordering.

This thing is pretty sweet. First cook and pictures coming soon.

► Uses 1/3 less oil than traditional turkey fryers ► Cooks a 14 lb pound turkey under an hour ► Built in grease filter ► Drain valve for easy cleaning ► Cooking basket with drain clip ► Adjustable thermostat temperature control ► Porcelain-coated inner pot ► Dish washer safe ► Only turkey fryer approved for indoor use ► Also steams and boils all of your favorite foods

BBQ Equipment: The Auspit

I was recently given an exclusive demo of the Auspit and I'm intrigued. What is an Auspit? Well, "AuspitTM is an easily portable stand-alone battery-powered rotisserie system from Australia that can be used from the mountains to the beach to your backyard, serving five-star meals to 1-16 people at a time. The motor runs for over 90 hours on just two D-sized batteries, and the spit can handle up to 18 pounds of mouth-watering meats, vegetables, etc. -- you name it!"

I really like this little rotisserie. Simple, clean, and it works as advertised. It uses very little fuel and cooks like a machine 10 times its size. The Auspit breaks down and packs away into a small duffel bag and cleans up in minutes. The standard version retails for $139 and the all stainless sells for $172. You can check out their website here.

I wonder if I can get my kids to get me one for my birthday?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry. Sorry for the poor quality of the photographs. I forgot to take my camera with me that day.

BBQ Equipment: The Grill Wizard Barbecue Brush

Yes folks, a barbecue brush. I know it's a mundane piece of equipment, but every good cook knows that you need clean grills to produce great food. Towards that end I bring to you The Grill Wizard Barbecue Brush.

This brush was sent to me back in the fall for review. The Grill Wizard Barbecue Brush does not use bristles like my current brush, the Brush Hawg by Charbroil, but instead uses a nested scrubber, which is very much like a scouring pad or a Brillo pad. After my review of the Brush Hawg, I received many emails warning me of the dangers of a bristle brush, so I really wanted to check this out.

The Grill Wizard Barbecue Brush sells for $11.98 and is available at Barr Brothers. It's 18" long, and made of a pretty thick and strong handle and is guaranteed for two years not to break. I gave this brush a good workout by cleaning the grill grates of my Weber Smokey Mountain that had been left sitting dirty in an abandoned smoke house for the last couple of months.

I have to say that this brush worked like a charm. It easily cleaned away the cold, baked on grease, sugars and food remnants from my last 24 hour cook. The thick handle didn't bend no matter how much pressure I put on it.

The cleaning pad however took a beating. It clogged fairly quickly and I had to replace it before I finished. I have to admit that this cleaning was not a normal cleaning. This grill was filthy and the grease and gunk were allowed to solidify on the grates.

The manufacturer claims that the scrubbers are dishwasher safe, which would allow a longer life but I don't have a dishwasher to test this theory. Simply rinsing the pads under running water failed to dislodge the grease and gunk.

Thankfully the pads replace easily and you can use the scrubbers available at your local supermarket. The scrubbers that the Barr Brothers sell and supply with the brush are much heavier and stronger than what I can buy locally. You can double up with the cheaper scrubbers, but that defeats the purpose of using cheaper replacements.

So has the Brush Hawg been sent to the junk pile replaced by the Grill Wizard? Sorry, no. I'll take my chances with the bristle brush. The Grill Wizard did a great job cleaning, but the pads clogged quickly. Rather than replacing the pads, I prefer being able to clean the bristles of the Brush Hawg.

BBQ Toys: The Orion Cooker

I picked this up yesterday at Lowe's. $37 - regular price $139. The original Orion Cooker. How could I say no?

While this isn't really a barbecue toy, it's more of a Dutch oven, it does involve live fire cooking.

Let the experiments begin!

BBQ Equipment: Brush Hawg

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I had received a goodie box of grilling accessories from Charbroil. I've already reviewed the Hedge Hawg and now I'm moving on to the Brush Hawg.

I don't know about you, but I don't like cleaning my grill. After cooking, I usually remove the meat and let the grill sit, dirty and festering until my next cook. What usually happens is that the meat juices, sauces, sugars and spices are burnt to a crisp by the time I return to the cooker.

When I'm ready for the next cook, I light a fire in the cooker, knock the big stuff off the grill and let it heat up with the fire. Just before the meat hits the grill, I hit it with a brush cleaning off any remaining food nasties.

While this is an effective way to clean the grill, it's hard on the brushes. It's hard on the cook too, since you're cleaning a hot grill in a hot cooker. But its not so hard on the Brush Hawg. Like it's little brother the Hedge Hawg, this brush can clean. I guess that's due to the cleaning heads on both brushes having "maximum count stainless steel bristles" whatever that means.

Unlike some of the cheaper brushes on the market, this brush has a nice thick handle that stands up to elbow grease as you clean. It also has multiple blade scrappers, one of which arrived bent on my brush, and a convenient hook for hanging or to my surprise, grill lifting. A very nice feature is that the brush heads are replaceable.

The Brush Hawg retails for $ 12.99 and is available from Home Depot®, Sears®, Kmart®, GrillLovers.com®

BBQ Equipment: The HedgeHawg

It's been a good week here at WhiteTrash BBQ. Not only did the lamb find it's way to my grill, but my friends over at Charbroil sent a huge care package of barbeque tools and accessories for me to try out. There were so many toys in the package that this boy's gonna be busy for a long long time.

The first piece of equipment I used was the HedgeHawg. I first saw this little brush last October at Charbroil's product roll out in Bryant Park and I didn't think much of it. I was told that it was designed for a woman's hand and I openly questioned how often a woman cleans a grill. I won't tell you what happened after that, but it wasn't pretty.

I used the HedgeHawg to clean the grates of the grill before cooking the lamb on Saturday. I tell you, this little brush can clean! Most grill brushes that I've used in the past don't last more than one or two uses, but after the first use and a rinse under some running water this brush still seemed brand new.

One great feature is that the pads of this brush are replaceable with either steel bristles or nylon scrubber pads. A big drawback to the HedgeHawg is that it does not have a long handle so it can not be used on a hot grill or over a live fire, but Charbroil has an answer to that which I will reveal in another post.

So do yourself and your grill a favor, go buy a HedgeHawg. They're available at Target and Grill Lovers. Suggested retail price is $7.99.

BBQ Events: IWSMSD

IWSMSD? WTF?

It's that time of year again boys and girls, Saturday May 26, 2007 is International Weber Smokey Mountain Smoke Day. It's time to break out your trusty Weber Smokey Mountain and join all your fellow Weber-heads and cook!

Don't have a Weber Smokey Mountain? Shame on you, but you can still join in the fun. Just be sure to barbecue something on May 26th.

This year's gonna be big. My brother-in-law and family will be up from Austin, so it's a great excuse to invite the neighbors, pack the smoker, the egg and the Weber Smokey Mountain full and cook away.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend!

BBQ Equipment: The Solar Grill

I stumbled across The Solar-Grill today. It's an interesting concept, using the sun's energy to cook your food. But in no way can you create BBQ or even grill on this piece of equipment. Basically you put your food into a metal tube and the heat from the sun steams the food to cook it.

From their website: With the new Solar-Grill you can barbecue fish, chicken, vegetables, juicy steaks or other tasteful meals. An all this can be achieved without: electricity, coals, connecting or fire lighting.

Just unfold aim at the sun put the meal into the barbecue cup and grilling starts immediately

The Solar-Grill has a flexible mirror, which focuses the sun beams on the barbecue cup allowing it to heat up. Your meal is cooked in the self contained barbecue cup an heated evenly from all sides, without direct irradiation by sunlight.

Because of the intelligent construction of the Solar-Grill your favorite dishes are cooked thoroughly by it self well-done, without burning. Everything keeps icy (?) and you can enjoy other activities.

Solar-Grill is ideal for camping and spare time, in the garden, on the balcony, at the swimming pool, beach or lakeside resort. Anyplace where open fire is forbidden or clouds of smoke are not welcome; no smoke no open fire no turn of meals just pleasant smell of fresh barbecued dishes. (How can it smell like barbecue when the food is steamed and there's no smoke? It will smell like steamed meat!)

Telescope features and a foldable mirror enables easy handling and space-saving storage. Because of it's extreme lightness you can easily take the Solar-Grill to your favorite place.

Back to me now. I really think this is an interesting concept and the Solar-Grill looks like a fun gadget, but why do they insist on calling it a grill? Damn, they just don't understand BBQ.

It Was A Good Weekend

Ahh, it was a good weekend. Even though NYC was drenched with 8" of rain, I got some time on Saturday to grill. Yes, I actually cooked over a live fire. Hmm, I wonder if I pissed off Mother Nature and that's why she sent the Nor'Easter on Sunday?

A while back I mentioned that I was attending the Charbroil roll-out for their new TEC grills. One of the perks of the roll-out was that Charbroil was going to send me, and anyone else who attended, a TEC grill for evaluation. I only agreed to evaluate the grill if Charbroil would accept criticism as well as praise. Their response, "Bring it on."

You may have seen reviews about this grill already at The Hampton Smoker, Men In Aprons and at The BBQ General. My grill was delivered last week. It was unpacked and assembled and christened on Saturday.

I'm doing taxes today, so I don't have time to post the full review yet. I will be giving you the nitty-gritty during the week but to sum it all up, I like this grill.

BBQ Spices: The Baron's List

A while back, The Hampton Smoker and I brought Paul Kirk, The Baron of BBQ, to NYC to teach his School of Pitmasters to us crazy Yankees.

The Baron taught us his secrets for developing our own rubs, or what he calls a flavorprint. Paul brought a treasure trove of spices for the class to use and Matt and I dove right in. With the Baron's help we created a new rub for use on pork and ribs. I can't tell you what's in it, but I can tell you that after some initial skepticism, we impressed the good Baron.

Paul Kirk's Barbecue Flavorprint

Here's the barbecue flavorprint, as described in Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces:

allspice barbecue spice bay leaf Cajun spice blend cayenne pepper celery seed chili powder cilantro cinnamon cloves coriander crushed chiles cumin seed curry powder dill weed dry mustard fennel seed garlic ginger

lemon MSG nutmeg onion orange oregano paprika parsley pepper poultry seasoning rosemary sage salt seasoned salt sugar sweet basil tenderizers thyme

BBQ Around the World: Pakistan

I found this in the Daily Times, A New Voice for Pakistan. I don't know much about Islam, but if eating barbeque is part of the religious holidays, I've got to get to know more!

The Eid mentioned in the article is Eidul Azha when the faithful slaughter a goat, sheep, cow, buffalo or camel to emulate the example of the Prophet Abraham and his son, Ismael or Ishmael. Affluent Muslims perform Hajj a day before Eidul Azha by traveling to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage.

Sharpening knives and barbeque grills, all set for Eid

By Imran Naeem Ahmad

ISLAMABAD: In a small shop, sparks fly off Tahir Mahmood Qureshi’s grinding wheel as he sharpens knives and choppers all day.

With Eidul Azha approaching, Qureshi is overworked in the busy Aabpara Market. Hundreds of knives of all shapes and sizes lie next to him on the floor, and after grinding each, he holds up the respective knife to see the end product. The knives he sharpens will soon be used to slaughter animals and chop meat.

The workload in the run up to Eidul Azha is such that Qureshi expects to sharpen between 3,000 to 4,000 different knives in the last two days before the event. “It is a lot of work but this is the time of year when we make good money,” he says as a meat shop attendant arrives with four big choppers. “I worked on 700 knives today and this number may increase to about 4,000 later on,” said Qureshi.

As he continues with his work, elsewhere in the market brand new knives, skewers, barbeque grills, coal and wood chopping blocks are up for sale. Qamar Zaman manages one such shop and says, “The business is good and knives and grills are selling well.”

With sacrificial meat being distributed and exchanged in abundance for Eid, there is barely a household without a surplus of mutton or beef. Hence people like Amir Raza and Iftikhar Khan, both government employees, opt for barbequed meals.

“We look forward to this every year. The children particularly enjoy it and it is good fun for them,” says Amir, while Iftikhar narrates how his family went to Simly Dam last year to grill the meat: “It was a day out my children still remember.”

However, for those wishing to avoid this hassle, some restaurants also offer to roast meat. This is a good bargain for those with a few hundred rupees to spare. “We have many people bringing in their meat,” says a restaurant manager.

Indeed Eidul Azha provides a good chance for many to earn quick money, be they cattle owners selling their animals at the H-11 Market, shopkeepers at centres like Aabpara, coal sellers or butchers.

BBQ Equipment: Char-Broil's TEC Grills

You might remember that back in October, which seems like yesterday, I attended Charbroil's 2007 product roll-out in Bryant Park, New York. It was a beautiful day, and I got to meet some new friends including Adam from Men In Aprons and the fine team from The BBQ General, Wiley and his lovely wife Janet, while we all poked, proded and kicked the tires of Charbroil's latest and greatest equipment.

I've already talked about their new quick light charcoal, grill cleaners, smart probe thermometers, and the double door smoker, bbq and grill (yeah, the name still sucks, and I owe you a review from my cooking experiences on it); but the real star of the show was the new line line of Charbroil's TEC gas grills.

Now when it comes to barbeque, I'm a purist at heart. I still like building a fire from wood and charcoal. But I am also a realist. I've accepted various levels of technology as cooking tools if they truly make my life easier. I've never bought a gas grill and always said that I never would, but the new TEC grills are making me question that stance.

Why? Well, one reason is that I've come to understand the differences between grilling and barbecue. If you read this blog you should know what I mean by now. If not, I'll save that for another day. Different cooking methods require different equipment.

For grilling, these new grills look like they could bring me over to the gasser's camp for an extended stay. Talking with the award winning chef Marvin Woods who prepared our meal, I could tell that he was impressed with the grill. His passion about the features and ease of use sold me on this very powerful grill.

Take a look at these specs for the four burner grill...

CHAR-BROIL FOUR BURNER GRILL

• Model Number 4632684 07
• Lowe's item number 242337
• Duel Fuel equipped, LP or Natural Gas
• BTU's – 48,000 main, 13,000 side burner, 8,000 rotisserie
• Two TEC burners 2-brass tube burners
• Total cooking surface is 900sq in
• Total primary cooking surface is 660sq in
• Secondary cooking surface is 240sq in
• Constructed with 304-grade stainless steel

Charbroil also makes a three burner edition that's just as impressive.

The TEC infrared technology was completely foreign to me before I looked at these grills, but basically it will provide extremely high heat without allowing enough oxygen between the grill and the meat to cause flare-ups. In layman's terms, that means no more burnt food! Whoo Hoo!

Take some time and visit Charbroil's new website for the TEC grills. They get into all the details about the construction, design and use of the grills with much more detail than I can here.

Unfortunately, you can't go out and buy one of these marvels for Christmas. They'll be available at Lowe's in the early Spring 2007. I'm looking forward to it.

EDIT::: NOW WAIT A MINUTE! You can buy these grills for Christmas! I just got this in my email.....

These grills are actually available right now at select Lowe's stores in certain markets, most of which are year-round grilling hot spots. So it's not too late for a last minute Christmas present.

Select Lowe's stores in the following states now carry the Char-Broil TEC Series:

• Alabama
• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Texas
• South Carolina
• Utah