Saturday, May 07, 2005

Outdoor Cooking

Seeing as how the weather is warming up, the cook's mind drifts outdoors where some real cooking can get done. As people learn more and more about different styles of outdoor cooking, and find different products to help them succeed at different methods (giant deep fryers and burners come to mind), you can find more varied types of cooking going on out-doors today than ever before.

Meet the Weber Gasser


A backyard Warhorse, 1998 model Weber Genesis Silver

To paraphrase Patton, this is the most lethal outdoor cooking battle implement ever devised... This is one junk-yard dog of a cooker, and a long-lasting cooker to boot. Don't skimp and buy a cheap one, pay up-front for a good unit that will offer lasting results. And the bonus is that you won't be replacing the burner every year or two, this one has stainless burners that last a decade or more.

It is so versatile, and so powerful, you'll use it three nights a week. Mine has cooked hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of meat and vegetables, and the occasional pizza.

Today I'm using the rotissiere to cook a couple of birds. One note: these chickens come from HEB, they are called "Smart Bids", they are organically raised, air packed (not packed into a tight cyrovac package with a cup of water) and pre-trussed, making them ideal to cook whole. They cost a buck or two more a bird, but they are wholly worth the extra expense, as they are more flavorful, less fuss and easier to cook.


Two "caged" birds. Use a pliers to tighten the screws or your birds will be on the fire!

The rotisserie is a wonderful way to cook chickens. It is primeval, in a sense, turning a bird on a stick over a flaming heat source. Good thing about today is the technology of stainless steel and an electric motor turning at a blazing 2 RPM gets the job done without hardly any work from you. The turning action of the spit slowly bastes the birds in their own juices as they cook. Yummy.

4 Comments:

Blogger prairie biker said...

Robo-Grip Rotisserie?

I'm really fond of the 'beer can chicken' myself.

Now if you were a real man, you'd have connected that grill to the gas line from the house......

10:34 AM  
Blogger Mark A. said...

Matt,
My house has no gas service. Honestly!

I wish it did.

11:12 AM  
Blogger prairie biker said...

Wow. In West Texas even? That's nuts. I don't envy your utility payments.

5:56 PM  
Blogger Mark A. said...

Matt,
That's a fact, and we're still using a septic tank.

At some point the city will make us hook up to a sewer, and as cities do, they will pass along the cost ($3,000-$5,000). Right now our little neighborhood is so far flung, I don't think they are going to annex us to the sewer system anytime soon.

When I moved in here, I asked to have a phone hooked up, and Verizon (our local phone carrier) said the neighborhood didn't have the trunk capacity, so we just never got a landline hooked up.

Now I'll never have a landline phone again, no phone is great! We just use our cells.

8:46 PM  

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