Archive for the ‘Carnivore!’ Category

NOT MY MOM’S PORK CHOP

Posted: April 13, 2014 in Carnivore!, Food, frying, pork, Recipes
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Pork chops were a favorite of mine growing up, but my Mom cooked them only one way: breaded and fried in a pan full of oil. They were good, but they were greasy, and my Mom was not big on seasonings. It was time to improve on the original.

chop 1

 

Ingredients:

2 Berkshire pork chops

1 egg

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

olive oil

 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Set up 2 bowls. In one, crack and scramble the egg. In the other, combine salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, granulated garlic and onion powder.

Place an oven-proof pan on medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. Once the oil is hot, cover the pork chops in the egg wash and then coat with the bread crumb mixture. Place in the hot pan to brown and sear. Do this with both chops.

After a few minutes, flip the chops over in the pan and place the pan in the oven to finish cooking.

chop 2

Remember, good pork does not need to be cooked until well done!

 

 

 

BURGER VIA ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Posted: March 16, 2014 in beef, burgers, Carnivore!, Food, frying, grilling, Recipes
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Ernest Hemingway loved his burgers…and he loved to put all kinds of crazy ingredients in them. Following the basic guidelines of his recipe, seen below, I put my own spin on it.

Hemingway's burger notes

Hemingway’s burger notes

I skipped the India relish. Didn’t have it in my pantry.

Beau Monde Seasoning is readily available, but I made my own at home:

1 tablespoon cloves

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon Bay leaf powder

1 tablespoon allspice

2 tablespoons black pepper

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 tablespoon white pepper

Combine all these ingredients, grinding to a powder whatever you have as whole pieces: cloves, bay leaves, nutmeg, etc. Store in a tightly sealed glass jar.

And Mei Yen Powder can be replaced with equal parts salt, sugar, and MSG (which I leave out.) To this I add some soy sauce.

So here’s my take on it:

Ingredients:

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef

2 garlic cloves, squeezed through a garlic press

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1 tablespoon capers

1 teaspoon dried sage

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon homemade Beau Monde seasoning

1/3 cup white wine (I use Alice White chardonnay)

1 raw egg

Combine all ingredients and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. The meat may be a bit mushy, but you can form 4 equal sized patties. Place them in a hot ovenproof pan that has a little oil and sear on one side. Flip burgers, and sear on the other side. Place pan in a 350-degree oven and cook until desired doneness.

The verdict: Hemingway was crazy! Though the burger had some exotic flavors–it tasted almost like a burger from the Middle East–my personal choice is still to go with a relatively plain burger of exceptional quality, season it lightly, and cook it to medium-rare. Toppings like caramelized onions or sautéed mushrooms are always welcome, but in many ways, less is more. Hemingway clearly thinks more is more…but maybe his burger meat wasn’t all that good and he need to mask the bad flavor. Anyway…a fun experiment!

CITRUS MARINATED PORK LOIN

Posted: March 10, 2014 in Carnivore!, Food, pork, Recipes
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Many of my recipes come from the fact that I live just a little too far from the nearest supermarket to simply jump in the car when I’m out of a certain ingredient. OK…actually, I’m too damn lazy. So I stand in front of the refrigerator, doors open, looking at my inventory, and when the fridge alarm sounds telling me to shut the freakin’ door, I’ve usually decided on what I’m going to do.

This is one such recipe. It works with whatever cut of pork you like, and with whatever citrus you have on hand. I’ve used blood oranges, grapefruit, you name it.

citrus pork

Ingredients:

1 5-lb. pork loin

2 garlic cloves, through a garlic press

3 cloves, crushed

1 large lemon, juice and zest

1 orange, juice and zest

1 8″ sprig fresh rosemary, cut into pieces

2 teaspoons fennel seed, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon juniper berries, coarsely chopped

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

To make the marinade, combine garlic, cloves, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, rosemary, fennel, juniper berries, bay leaves, and some salt and pepper in a bowl.

Place pork loin, fat side up, on cutting board and gently slash diagonally through the fat, creating a diamond pattern.

Place pork loin in a non-reactive bowl and massage well with marinade mixture. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, let the pork loin come to room temperature. Wipe off the marinade, especially the larger chunks. Season again with salt and pepper.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

On the stove top, heat an ovenproof pan. Place pork loin fat side down and sear. Flip the loin over so that all sides sear nicely, then place in the oven. Cook with fat side up. Cook until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.

CORNED BEEF AND PASTRAMI BASICS

Posted: February 26, 2014 in barbecue, beef, brining, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, Recipes, salt, smoking, Uncategorized
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St. Patrick’s Day is about 3 weeks away…just in time to make your own corned beef!

It takes about 3 weeks to make corned beef, but it’s not difficult to do. Doing it yourself gives you a better quality product than that nasty slab from the supermarket that is full of chemicals and preservatives.

Corned beef has nothing to do with corn. ‘Corning’ is a technique for preserving raw meats for long periods by soaking it in salt brine. This method was used before the days of commercial refrigeration. Back then, the large salt kernels used in the brine were called “corns.”

Brining is a time-honored way of preserving and it prevents bacteria from growing. Both pastrami and corned beef are made by this method. Both corned beef and pastrami usually start with a brisket of beef. Corned beef is then cooked–usually boiled–and served. Pastrami is made when the brined meat is rubbed  with more spices and smoked to add extra flavor. So corned beef and pastrami are the same meat, just treated differently.

Saltpeter is an ingredient that has been used in brining beef for years. It adds the traditional red coloring to the corned beef and pastrami meat. But since saltpeter can also contain carcinogens, I leave it out. The meat may not be the usual bright red color, but the flavor and texture of the meat will not be affected.

Brining the beef brisket

Brining the beef brisket

Step one: corned beef…

Ingredients:
beef brisket (about 8-10 pounds)
2 tsp. paprika
1/4 cup warm water
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices
3/4 cup salt
2 quarts water

Place the brisket in a large container made of non-reactive material, like glass or plastic.

In the 1/4 cup of warm water, dissolve the sugar, minced cloves, paprika and pickling spices.

Dissolve the 3/4 cup of salt in the 2 quarts of water. Pour in the sugar/garlic/paprika/pickling spices mix and stir everything together. Pour the mixture over the meat in the container. Make sure the meat is totally beneath the surface of the liquid. (You may need to weigh it down to do this.) Cover the container.

Refrigerate the container and contents for 3 weeks, turning the meat once or twice per week. At the end of the third week, remove the container from the refrigerator and take out the meat. Soak the meat in several changes of fresh cold water over a period of 24 hours to remove the excess salt.

At this point, if you want corned beef, prepare and cook it using your favorite recipe. But I’m all about the pastrami!

Step two: making Pastrami…

pastrami

Ingredients:

Brined and rinsed corned beef brisket from above recipe, patted dry with paper towels

1/4 cup Kosher salt

1/4 cup paprika

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons black peppercorns

2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

1 tablespoon white peppercorns

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

Combine coriander seeds, black and white peppercorns and mustard seeds in a spice grinder and grind coarsely. Place in a bowl. Add salt, paprika, brown sugar and granulated garlic. Mix well.

Rub the mix into the brisket well, covering all sides.

Heat smoker to 225 degrees and smoke for several hours using a less intense wood, like oak. When the internal temperature of the meat has reached 165 degrees, it’s done. It isn’t necessary to smoke pastrami as long as you would a regular brisket because the long brining time makes the meat tender.

It is very important that absolutely everything that comes in contact with the meat is very clean. (This includes your hands.) Also, make very sure that every inch of the meat reaches the 165 degrees before it is removed from the smoker. The corned beef is now pastrami.

REVEALING MY SOURCES

Posted: February 17, 2014 in bacon, beef, Carnivore!, chicken, Food, lamb, pork, potatoes, scallops, seafood, shrimp, wine
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I’ve been asked to list my sources for the organic, pastured, wild-caught or grass-fed foods I use in my recipes. I’ve had many successes as well as many failures with purveyors of foods over the years, but I’ve been able to find a handful of websites that deliver what they promise.

Of course, I support my local farmers. And if they’ve got the product I’m looking for, I will buy from them first. But the convenience of ordering from home is unbeatable…and sometimes you don’t live anywhere near a farm that can supply you with what you’re looking for.

My philosophy is simple: I will pay top dollar if the quality is there. I would rather eat exceptional quality meat and seafood rarely than antibiotic-laced, hormone-injected crap every day.

When it comes to seafood, I buy wild-caught (line-caught in the case of fish) American products. I’m OK with some farmed fish, like USA catfish and trout, which are of high quality. I buy Pacific cod, not Atlantic cod, which has been depleted in its numbers. I don’t buy orange roughy or Chilean sea bass because of overfishing. Same with swordfish unless it’s local and line-caught. I never buy farmed shrimp from Asia or South America, where there are no rules about what they feed them and how badly they crowd them in nets. I don’t buy Atlantic salmon, which is farmed and comes from Norway, Canada or South America. I buy wild-caught Alaskan salmon and halibut. Farmed oysters and mussels are fine, because their habitat is about the same as in the wild, and we have great sources for them here in Rhode Island.

It’s expensive to eat well. My family is worth it. I cut corners elsewhere.

TALLGRASS

www.tallgrassbeef.com: Owned by TV journalist Bill Curtis, they sell a variety of 100% grass-fed beef steaks, burgers and dogs. Just recently, they started selling my favorite cut: the porterhouse. But more than anything, this is my go-to website for grass-fed hamburger. They sell them in 1 lb. bricks, and I’ll buy about 24 lbs. at a time. I prefer the bricks over the pre-formed burger patties, because I use them for meatballs and tacos…not just burgers. Best burger I’ve had.

pork

www.heritagepork.com: A great website for Berkshire heritage pork. This is not the pale, flavorless stuff you get in a supermarket. Berkshire pork is known in Japan as Kurobuta pork, and is considered the “Kobe” of pork. Excellent quality, beautifully marbled fat, and delicious. I’ve bought the pork chops, the ribs, pork loin and the pork belly, and none of them has disappointed. Excellent service.

salmon

www.vitalchoice.com: If you’re looking for incredible wild-caught Alaskan seafood, this is the site. Wild salmon, tuna and shellfish. Frozen right after it’s caught. Rare treats like wild Pacific spot prawns, some of the tastiest shrimp you’ll ever eat. Hard-to-find organic grass-fed Wagyu beef. (Wagyu is American Kobe beef.)

 

www.westwindfarms.com: Without a doubt, some of the best chicken I have ever had in my life comes from this family run farm in Tennessee. Delicious not-too-big (about 4 lb.) birds. And their chicken wings are the best ever–period. No scrawny wings here: they come with breast meat attached, making them a real treat. They also sell grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, organic products and more. I’ve tried their other products, but for me, it’s all about the chicken. If you’re in Tennessee or Georgia, they have many pick-up locations to choose from. I go the mail-order route, and I think I might be their only online customer! But their service is top-notch.

 

www.cajungrocer.com: My trusted go-to place for any Cajun food you could want, from Turduckens (excellent quality) to alligator sausage, to live crawfish (in season.) This is where I get all of my wild-caught American gulf shrimp. Even with shipping costs, their prices are so much better than any local seafood store. Excellent service.

Burgerssswww.smokehouse.com Burgers’ Smokehouse has been around since 1952 and they’ve got it down to a science. You won’t find grass-fed or organic products here, but you will find great bacon, ham, turkey and other smoked products. Their Thick Original Country Bacon Steak is what I always buy…12 lbs. at a time. Their cooked and spiral sliced country ham is a real treat. Not only is their service awesome, but unlike other websites that surprise you with crazy shipping costs after you’ve spent an hour getting your order together, all of Burger’s price include shipping. That rocks!

http://www.mcallenranchbeef.com: Beef of the highest quality and outstanding flavor, although not grass-fed. This historic Texas ranch, established in 1791, has been dealing with droughts which have limited their supply of beef, and their website says their beef supplies will be back to full speed by June of this year.

www.grassfedbeef.org: This is the website of Tendergrass Farms, a supplier of grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and organic meats. We’ve had some success with the beef, and we also purchased a very tasty turkey from them for Thanksgiving last year.

www.drinkupny.com: It’s time for as drink! And these guys, based in Brooklyn, NY, have just about anything you could want. It may seem silly to order your spirits online instead of going to your local liquor store, but these guys have the high-end things my local guy doesn’t…and they’ve got better prices on the stuff he does have. Shipping is fast and reasonably priced.

www.empirewine.com: Need wine? These guys are based in upstate NY and they’ve got a huge choice of excellent wines at great prices. Shipping is FAST, but make sure they ship to your state to avoid disappointment.

Coming in a future blog: my sources for the gardening season: seeds, plants and more.

THE BEAUTY OF BONE MARROW

Posted: February 12, 2014 in beef, Carnivore!, Food, Recipes, Uncategorized
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I don’t exactly know when my love affair with bone marrow began, but suffice it to say that if I see it on a restaurant menu, I have to order it.
A 2 ounce serving of beef bone marrow has over 500 calories, so diet food it is not. But it has some calcium and “good” fats, especially if the cow was grass-fed.  Each 2 ounce serving has over 54 grams of fat, although most of it is unsaturated. How much protein it has depends on the marrow, but there are those carnivores out there that swear by bone marrow’s almost magical health food properties.
But whether it’s good for you or not, the main reason to eat bone marrow is taste. And I’ve found that when it comes to eating it, there are no gray areas…people either love it or are grossed out by it.
marrow
 
Bone marrow played a very important role in the development of mankind as a species. Long before we had the skills to hunt for our own food, about 2 million years ago, we feasted on the bones of fallen prey…or more accurately, what was inside the bones of fallen prey. A diet of fatty, high-calorie bone marrow meant that early man didn’t have to rely on the digestion of roughage alone to survive, and it allowed for the “luxury” of the development of larger brains.
Fast-forward to today, where the only critters that appreciate bone marrow are our dogs—if they’re lucky enough to get a bone—or foodies like us!
Aside from higher-end restaurants, bone marrow might be difficult to find at first. But you can certainly ask your local butcher for some—he’ll even cut them lengthwise or into short cylinders for you for easy access. I get mine online, with bones from grass-fed cows.

Cooking bone marrow couldn’t be simpler: a little salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, then bake in a hot oven until bubbly and caramelized. Spread it on toast in the morning with your eggs, smear it on top of your steak instead of butter, or just scoop it right out of the bone.

THERE’S PORCHETTA…AND THEN THERE’S PORCHETTA!

Posted: February 8, 2014 in Carnivore!, Food, Italian, New York City, pork, Recipes, restaurants, travel
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Porchetta is a savory, fatty, herby, delicious slab of pig that is slow roasted…a favorite in Italy. Porchetta is also the name of a small eatery on the Lower east side of New York City, the baby of chef Sara Jenkins, where they serve this Italian classic almost exclusively, with lines of people winding down the block, waiting for their taste of pig heaven.

porchetta1

Traditional porchetta is made from a hog that is butchered, boned and roasted. Porchetta in New York City takes the pork loin, wraps it with the belly and skin, and slow roasts it in their special Combi oven. The result is nothing short of fantastic.

porchetta2

Both methods are way too big for my kitchen, so I took a page out of one of my favorite cooking magazines, La Cucina Italiana , where chef Jenkins described how a homemade version of porchetta was possible using boneless pork shoulder.
Well, I didn’t have a boneless pork shoulder, dammit! I had two beautiful pork tenderloins…not nearly as fatty, and no pork skin to wrap them with. I knew that I would have to be extremely careful not to totally dry my pork out.

Before...

Before…

Ingredients:

10 small fresh sage leaves
3 fresh small rosemary sprigs, leaves only
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons wild fennel pollen (see below)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 pork tenderloins (2 1/2 to 3 lb total)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine

Heat oven to 250 degrees.

Finely chop the sage, rosemary and garlic. (I place them in a food processor.) Place mixture in a small bowl and add fennel pollen, salt and pepper. Stir together well.

Rub the herb mixture all over the 2 tenderloin pieces. Tie the tenderloins together with butcher twine. (Usually one end of the tenderloin is fatter and the other thinner. Line them up so that one fat end is tied with one thin end, making the pork package of equal thickness.)

Set pork fat side up in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil.

Roast the tenderloins, basting with the wine and pan juices every 15 minutes. Cook until pork has an internal temperature of 140 degrees.

After!

After!

Despite that it came out somewhat awesome, I plan on using a pork shoulder next time. Leftovers make great sandwiches!

MAKIN’ BACON

Posted: January 27, 2014 in bacon, breakfast, Carnivore!, Food, frying, pork, smoking
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I’ve made some changes to my bacon blog of over a year ago, taking many more steps toward true bacon greatness. Scroll down for my updates…

There are few foods as magical as bacon. Add bacon to just about any dish you’re preparing, and it elevates it to incredible new heights of flavor. The BLT is possibly the greatest sandwich ever invented: just a few simple, fresh ingredients, when placed together, transforming into one of the most amazing treats on planet Earth.

And it all depends on the bacon.

For many years, I’ve bought my bacon on-line from Burger’s Smokehouse, a family run business in Missouri that not only sells some great bacon (get the thick-sliced country bacon—my favorite), but also smoked turkeys, ham and more. The prices are excellent and they include shipping.

But it was time to take the next step: I had to make my own bacon!

Bacon comes from the pork belly. So I bought a few slabs of insanely good pork from my friends at Fire Fly Farms in Stonington, CT (www.fireflyfarmsllc.com), and followed the simple curing techniques outlined in a great book about making all kinds of prepared meats (sausages, salamis, and of course, bacon): “Charcuterie,” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn.

To cure bacon, all you really need is some salt and some sugar, and what they in the curing biz call “pink salt,” which is not to be confused with salt that happens to be pink, like Himalayan salt you would find in a spice catalog. Pink salt is bright pink—to let you know that this is special salt that should only be used in small quantities for curing. And the reason for that is because it has nitrites. Nitrites delay the spoilage of the meat, and help keep the flavors of spices and smoke. That’s good. But nitrites can break down into nitrosamines, which have been known to cause cancer in lab animals. But let’s face it: you would need to eat a ton of cured meat to really worry about this.

To make the basic dry cure:

1/2 lb. kosher salt

4 oz sugar

1 ounce (5 teaspoons) pink salt

Combine these ingredients well. You won’t need all of it unless you’ve got a lot of pork belly. An important note: kosher salts do not all weigh the same, so that’s why I go by the weight and not a cup measurement.

Once you rub the pork belly with the basic dry cure, place it in a Ziploc bag, squeeze the air out of it, and seal it well. Place in the fridge for about a week, flipping it over a few times to let gravity do its work. You’ll see that the salt will draw moisture out of the meat and form a brine. This brine will continue to cure your pork belly, so leave it in there.
Once the pork belly has been cured, wash the brine off the meat, pat dry with paper towels. Now it’s time to cook. You can simply cook the pork belly at 200 degrees for about 2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, or do what I did: place the pork belly in a digital smoker, cooking it at 250 degrees for 1 hour, then adding hickory chips and smoking it at 250 degrees for another hour.

That’s it. You have achieved bacon!

Bacon, straight out of the smoker.

Bacon, straight out of the smoker.

Let me tell you…that first slice you cut off that bacon and toss in a pan to lightly fry for a few moments will be the best bite of bacon you have ever had in your life!
The reward is so worth the effort. If you don’t want to bother going online or if you don’t have a local farm to buy your pork, simply go to your favorite butcher and ask for pork belly. It’s usually available. And if you’re making one slab of bacon, why not make it three or four? It freezes well. And…you will eat it. You know you will!

Sliced, and ready for frying.

Sliced, and ready for frying.

Since I posted the above information, I’ve had the opportunity to tweak my bacon curing recipe. The result was a more balanced, less salty bacon with tons of flavor…

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of the basic dry rub (recipe above)

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine these ingredients and rub on all sides of the pork belly. Place in Ziploc bags and squeeze all the air out of them. Place in a container in the fridge and turn them over every day to let gravity do its work. A brine will form inside the bag…this is good. It will cure the pork belly. After about a week, remove the pork bellies and rinse them with cold water. Pat them dry with paper towels and then proceed to the smoker.

Bellies in the smoker

Bellies in the smoker

I use a digital smoker, so I set the temp for 250 degrees and cook the pork bellies at this temperature for one hour. I then add hickory chips and smoke the bellies at 25o degrees for one more hour.

Smoked bacon

Smoked bacon

At this point, you have achieved bacon! While the bellies are still warm, you can easily slice off the pork skin off the belly. I discard it. Slice the bacon into whatever thickness you like, and fry some up immediately! Once the rest of the bacon has cooled to room temp, cut them into chunks, wrap individually, and freeze until ready to use.

Frying in the pan!

Frying in the pan!

PORK CHOPS WITH CRISPY FENNEL

Posted: December 12, 2013 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, garden, grilling, pork, Recipes, Uncategorized
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Inspired by a garden full of fennel and my fanatical love for all things pork, this recipe just happened this past fall. I use Berkshire heritage pork when possible, a far tastier and healthier choice over standard pork you find in a supermarket. I get it at: http://www.heritagepork.com.

pork chop fennel

 

Ingredients:

 

4 Berkshire pork chops

4 tablespoons finely chopped fennel bulb

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage

4 teaspoons garlic salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

extra fennel bulb and fennel fronds

extra olive oil, salt and pepper for sauteing

 

Combine the chopped fennel, sage, garlic salt, black pepper and olive oil in a bowl. Mix well and spread it all over the pork chops. Let them stand for an hour at room temperature.

Light a hot grill. Grill pork chops until done…with quality pork, that does not mean cook it to death!

Chop extra fennel bulb into thin strips about an inch long. Remove fennel fronds from their stems. Saute bulb strips in olive oil, salt and pepper until they are almost crisp. Toss in fennel fronds and cook until fronds and bulb strips are crisp.

Serve pork chops with crispy fennel and fronds on top.

ROASTING A TURKEY ON A WEBER GRILL

Posted: November 20, 2013 in barbecue, Carnivore!, CHARCOAL, Food, grilling, Thanksgiving, turkey
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The concept of a deep-fried turkey sounds pretty cool. But for me, it’s just too much damn work: finding a safe spot in the yard to blast the propane-fueled fryer so that you don’t burn your house down, standing outside and freezing your ass off while it fries, and then disposing of gallons of used oil at the end of it all. And making sure the oil is at the right temperature so you don’t get a scorched turkey on the outside and raw turkey on the inside. Sure, they now have indoor turkey fryers, but I’m not crazy about that idea, either.

I get great results by cooking my turkey in my Weber grill. The standard Weber allows you to cook up to a 15 lb. bird–big enough for my purposes–and it comes out crispy, smokey and delicious. If you’re afraid to try this for the first time at Thanksgiving when it really matters, wait a few months and buy a turkey when you have the craving and try it out.

The charcoal chimney with hot coals awaits.

Although I’ve stopped using charcoal briquettes a long time ago, and now strictly use natural hardwood charcoal, this recipe works best with Kingsford. The idea is for the coals to cook slowly and evenly. And never use lighter fluid…always start your fire with a few pieces of crumbled newspaper under a charcoal chimney.

Needed:

Weber grill, with the dome top

Kingsford charcoal briquettes (do not use Match Lite or other pre-soaked briquettes)

Heavy duty aluminum pan (disposable)

Ingredients:

Whole turkey, up to 15 lbs, thawed and previously brined (see my blog about brining a turkey)

Olive oil (to rub on turkey)

2 yellow onions, chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

½ lb (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

1 tablespoon onion powder

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon pepper

Spreading the coals away from the center of the grill.

If you want stuffing, make it separately and cook it separately. (A great recipe in my next blog.)

Light 8 to 10 lbs of charcoal in the grill…depending on the size of the turkey and how cold it is outside.

Remove the giblets from the turkey. Place the bird in the aluminum pan.

In a small bowl, mix granulated garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper Add any other seasonings you like.

Coarsely chop onions and celery. Place in a another bowl. Mix with the melted butter and 1/3 of the salt/pepper/garlic powder mixture. Place a small handful of this “stuffing” mixture in the neck cavity of the turkey. Place the rest in the body cavity (where the stuffing would usually go.) You can fasten the bird with turkey skewers if you like. This “stuffing” is strictly to flavor the turkey…you don’t eat it!

The rubbed, stuffed and seasoned bird.

Rub the outside of the entire turkey with the olive oil and sprinkle the rest of the garlic/onion/salt/pepper mixture on the outside of the bird. Make sure you get the bird on the bottom as well.

When the coals in the grill have ashed over, spread them to the outside edges of the Weber equally. Put the cooking grill rack in place. Place the aluminum pan with the turkey in the center of the grill, keeping it away from the direct heat of the coals. If using a meat thermometer, insert the probe into the thickest part of the breast, being careful not to hit the bone. Place the lid on the grill. (You may need to bend your pan a bit.) Open the vents on the bottom of the Weber as well as the lid. Important to get air circulating!

My meat thermometer calls me from as far as 100 feet away when the turkey reaches the optimum temperature that I pre-set. Time for a drink!

No basting is necessary.

Now here’s the tough part: DO NOT OPEN THE GRILL TO CHECK ON THE TURKEY! (If you must look, shine a flashlight into the vent holes on the lid to take a peek at the pop-up timer, if there is one.) The whole point is to keep the heat inside the kettle. You’ll know your turkey is done when no more smoke or heat rises from the grill, and the turkey inside stops making sizzling noises.

Remove the turkey and let it rest at least 15 minutes before carving.

Beautifully grilled, cooked to 180 degrees in less than 2 hours!
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