Can you remember when almost all barbecue grills used charcoal briquettes? Okay, some of you may be too young. I remember Sunday afternoons when my dad would fire up the three-legged Char-Go grill using a tin can of gasoline to start the charcoal. The boys would toss a ball around while listening to the Cardinals on the radio. My Dad sat in one of the heavy iron lawn chairs under the shade tree in the front yard tending the grill.
My sisters and I set the home-made barbecue sauce to simmer earlier so that the can of beer would cook through as the sauce thickened. We would make potato salad, baked beans and sweet corn as sides and of course a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, as it was our youngest brother, Daniel’s favorite. Dad loved to grill over real coals. It took four young fryers to feed all eight of us so that grill was loaded! The grill-rack itself turned, so that Dad could sit and slowly rotate the rack to baste the bird with seasoned butter and mop on the sauce. He took his time so we were all starving when he finally would call out, “taste testers!” He cut off the tender sections of the wings and passed one to each of his hungry offspring. I can still see my younger brothers smiling with barbecue sauce around their mouths as they gobbled down those first delicious bites! When the “taste testers” were done that meant that the main course was almost ready and we would gather around the long wooden table and eat, laugh, and stuff ourselves.
Happy memories and grilling seem to go hand-in-hand. We now grill all year long thanks to the modern gas grills found on back patios and porches. My gas grill finally started leaking gas so off I went to Buchheit to find a replacement. What I found was a much wider range of choices than when I purchased my last grill 10 years ago. Now we have smokers and wood pellets grills along with three and four burner units large enough to handle a suckling pig! Amazing! And of course, there were choices that use only charcoal briquettes or another natural source of fuel.
For flavor, nothing stands the test of great grill masters like real wood but the modern gas grills give you even temperatures and constant results. It’s up to your personal preferences but for ease of use in the middle of winter, it’s a gas grill for me!
The buyer for the Grilling section at Buchheit has a great understanding of the needs of passionate aficionado of real barbecue. They are the top of the line units that can use wood pellets and briquettes as well as smokers. The bulk of their line of grills is for the serious griller not a propane tank to be found.
I was curious as to why all the fuss so I did some research. The master chefs are after the “Maillard Reaction.” Serious pit-masters all have a working knowledge of the Maillard reaction named after the French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard who first researched it in 1912. The Maillard reaction is the chemical reaction, which occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars in the presence of heat that results in the browning of foods while forming new aromas and flavors. When you apply heat, amino acids and reducing sugars found in our case, meat, has a chemical reaction that gives the meat the signature brown color as well as tons of rich flavors. When the proteins and sugars in meat are grilled it forms hundreds of very potent flavor molecules that affect its aroma and taste. The longer you grill the deeper the flavors! You do need to be careful not to exceed a cooking temperature beyond 355 degrees Fahrenheit as that will result in the chemical reaction known as pyrolysis, which is commonly known as burning.
So, my dad was doing it right to slow cook the meat over a bed of coals! I can’t wait to purchase a new grill so I can start grilling some of the garden vegetables I am harvesting now! Hope you do the Maillard reaction during your next barbecue! Have fun! Make memories!
Be blessed! Ann May
