TOCC is Live and in Beta!

The Outdoor Cooking Channel, originated and spearheaded by Kevin Bevington was released into beta earlier this week. The young Internet based Channel sports shows from 7 providers and will be adding as many as 3 more before the end of the month, but they are still looking for more. This project has been a long time coming, and looks to cater to all Outdoor Cooking. You can visit the site by going to www.outdoorcookingchannel.com

The Best Barbecue Starts with Food Safety

Cooking barbecue, or grilling has become a year round activity, according to HPBA more than 56% of Americans say they are cooking outdoors year round. So it’s important to follow food safety guidelines to prevent harmful bacteria from multiplying and causing food borne illness. Use these simple guidelines from the USDA for cooking food safely.

From the Store: Go Home first

When shopping, buy cold food like meat and poultry last, just before your ready to checkout.  Separate meat and poultry from other food in your shopping cart. To prevent cross-contamination (this can happen when raw meat or poultry juices drip on other food), put packages of raw meat and poultry into plastic bags.

Load meat and poultry into the coolest part of your vehicle, and take your groceries straight home. If your drive is more than 30-minutes away, bring a cooler with ice and place perishable food in it for the trip.
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The HPBA Has Some Interesting Statistics of their Own

After enjoying the report given by Weber, that had some great information about our obsession. I decided to see if HPBA had anything for me to talk about, and they did! HPBA posts an annual report called “state of the Barbecue Industry”.

The most notable statistics, to me were as follows;

*More than 15,000,000 grills shipped in 2010, a staggering figure, but gas grills held 57% of sales, while Charcoal had 41%, while electric barely chimed in with 2%.

*82% of North American households own a grill or smoker.

*The majority of grill owners use their grills year round, this was 56%

*The meats that were said to be cooked (we have some work to do here), burgers a whopping 85%, steak 80%, hot dogs 79%, followed by chicken at 73%. What about ribs? They came in at 53%, and no statistics reported for boston butt, or beef brisket.

* The last, and most notable one for me was, Dry Rub usage was up to 44% from 36% 2 years earlier (this means a crusade for dry rub usage needs to be launched!).

In all seriousness, this is some great information provided by HPBA, and this was just the highlights. You can see the full report by going here: http://www.hpba.org/media/barbecue-industry/2011-state-of-the-barbecue-industry-report

It’s almost Easter!

And by the way,by using the coupon code “april” (without quotes) at checkout, you can get 15% off at the HomeBBQ.com online Store (www.bbqstore.co), until the end of April.

HomeBBQ.com Fresh Ham Recipe

Ingredients:
7 to 10lb Fresh Ham (shank portion, if whole ham increase the amount of brine by 50%, and go to max brine time)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
HomeBBQ.com World famous Rib Rub

Brine
8 quarts water
2 cups course kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup HomeBBQ.com World Famous Rib Rub
Easiest way to prepare the brine is to heat the water, dissolve ingredients
and cool the brine before using it.

Glaze
1 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1- 1/2 tablespoons Rib Rub

(mix until rib rub and brown sugar is dissolved)

This is a quick brine method.

The day before, score all sides of the ham, and place it into
the (cooled or cold) brine, submerged for min 4 and max 12 hours.
I find a 5 gallon bucket works best for this, you can then place
the bucket into a can cooler and surround the bucket with ice.

Remove the ham from the brine, and rinse thoroughly, and pat dry.

Coat ham thoroughly with extra virgin olive oil, then a liberal coat
of HomeBBQ.com World Famous Rub.

Heat smoker to 250 to 275 degrees, place the ham in the smoker, and cook to an internal
temp of 160 degrees. About 15 minutes before pulling from the smoker, coat
with glaze.

Let sit for a minimum of 10 minutes, slice and serve.

Wholesale Inquiries Please call 407-347-4738 and choose Option 1

Look for HomeBBQ.com Products in Embers Fireplaces & More

Winnipeg, MB Canada; Embers Fireplaces & More Locations will be selling HomeBBQ.com products very soon!

If you are looking to buy HomeBBQ.com products in a store near you, please have your Specialty Store Retailer
Contact us at 407-347-4738

Weber Says we are Grilling More

As many already know, Weber publishes a survey every year called the GrillWatch Survey, in fact this is the 21st anniversary of the survey (published in March). In the survey, there is usually some interesting statistics, and in this years, there were some interesting points again. Now, before I begin, as we all know the Weber grill, whether charcoal, or gas grill, has been one of the most popular brands of grills over the years, and this is their survey.

But as usual, I felt this survey had some real interesting points to share, for those of us, that love outdoor cooking. The first and most important point is they say we are using our grill more. Another notable point is we are spending more on our grills, meaning more features, and higher quality grills are starting to get the nod over lower quality grills, driving this statistic. But it is also important to note that 58% surveyed still preferred the taste of food cooked on a charcoal over food cooked on a gas (no surprise here). Maybe one of these years they will include some statistics including smokers.

If your interested in downloading the survey yourself, you can see the results of the survey here http://weber.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=154

Learning your Smoker

By Kevin Bevington

There are many types of smoker you can buy, which include many shapes and sizes. When you’re purchasing a smoker there are only a few things that you really need to keep in mind.

1.            How many people do you need to feed?

2.            How much money do you want to spend?

3.            How much work you want to do?

Just like you see on TV you can actually build a smoker for very little money however, you’re not going to want to use a very low quality smoker to cook for many people. If you plan on cooking professionally as a caterer or as a competitor, you will want to buy a smoker that will allow you to cook a lot of food at one time. If you’re looking to cook in your backyard perhaps for just your family or a few close friends a smaller cooker would be your best bet.

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The Mystery of Controlling Heat

By Kevin Bevington

This is probably the single biggest obstacle to many beginner bbq’rs, in fact the unfortunate thing is many start out with the cheapest smoker they can buy, and don’t understand that they have just purchased a cheap piece of equipment, loaded with design flaws. However, they are fairly easy to overcome if you understand the basics to controlling heat.

First, heat is produced by fire, whether it is wood, charcoal, or gas (we will talk about electric in a minute). A fire needs air to stay lit, right? Most of us somewhere in life have attempted the experiment of putting a candle in a jar, and watched it go out, as soon as it ran out of air.  The same applies to a smoker. We can now control the size of the fire, with the amount of air. Increase the amount of air, and you can increase the intensity of the fire (assuming you have enough fuel). Decrease the amount of air, and you reduce the intensity of the fire.

Second, you need to have somewhere for the smoke, and heated air to go. If you put an air tube in the jar with the candle, pushing air in, the candle would still eventually go out, suffocating from it’s own smoke. The same applies to a smoker, you need an escape (or vent) for the smoke and heated air.

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Happy Memorial Day

As smokers and grills literally get the cobwebs cleaned out, and with others, it seems to becoming a weekend ritual, except there is an extra day. There are a few things we need to keep in mind, first what this holiday is all about.

Let’s take some time think about those who gave their life so we can enjoy a weekend like this.

Next, let’s talk about grill/smoker safety, there will be literally thousands of out of control, on fire grills/smokers today, mainly because they are not kept clean.

A great idea is to line the bottom of the smoker with aluminum foil, and after each cook, just remove and throw away. Those using a gas grill, and using ceramic briquets, if you use that grill frequently it is a great idea to change those out every couple of months, for those not so frequently once or twice a year.

Most of all, enjoy the time off, enjoy the day..

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and it’s Time To Cook!

Kick-off is in a few hours, and I have been busy getting things ready.

My guests will not be here for a few hours but on todays menu will be as follows;

St Louis Spares, and there is only one way to cook those, and tht is with HomeBBQ.com World Famous Rib Rub! They are already on the cooker. Next we will be cooing wings, brine is ready to go, and we will be making them with 3 different rubs today. For the sides, its Baked beans, and potatoes, both our cooking class classic recipes.

Clara is getting in the act as well, she is cooking her classic Bannana Cake, and there are many who have tasted that and know what that is all about.  I know we can’t be the only one cooking today

I actually don’t really care who wins, since the Dolphins didn’t even make the playoffs, so I want to say good luck to both the colts and the Saints, may the best team win!

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