Grill Maestro

Working with lighter fluid can be especially tricky because most people misuse it so often, from both a safety and from a general cooking perspective. Ever have a burger that tasted like lighter fluid? Yeah, I have too. Have you ever seen someone spray lighter fluid directly into the fire? Yeah, me too and I [...]

The other day I was over at a friend’s place for some grilled pizza. That’s right, we grilled homemade pizza pies atop of ceramic plates designed especially for the purpose and they were delicious. It was the first time I’d ever grilled pizza so I’m going to share with you some tips that I picked [...]

Ever wonder how “doneness,” that is medium-rare, medium, and well-done ratings, correlate to the internal temperature of the meat you’re cooking? Yeah, I have too (even though the only times I ever use a meat thermometer is when I’m cooking roasts in the oven) and it wasn’t until some research today did I find out [...]

You’ve just cooked up a bunch of burgers, a couple steaks, and some chicken and you are starving. The steaks are a perfect medium rare, the burgers smells great, and the chicken tastes wonderful because you already ate a smaller piece that strayed from the pack… you and your guests are ready to chow down, [...]

The key to improving anything is to track your progress, everyone knows that, so I’m going to start keeping a grilling, barbecue, and smoking notebook that tracks the decisions I make, good and bad, and the results that are produced, good and bad. By keeping a log of what I’ve done, it lets me look [...]

This weekend we had some friends over and decided that we’d make some shish-kabobs. Shish-kabobs are always a fan favorite because everyone loves meat and everyone loves food on a stick (just go to a Renaissance festival or two to see what I mean), so shish-kabobs are always a fun time.
For the vegetables we stocked [...]

Nothing’s more frustrating than when you’re grilling for a large group and your propane tank goes belly up. Your hungry crowd is left staring at tepid hot dogs while you rush out to get a refill.
Sure you can get one of those magnetic fuel level gauges, but they’re not as precise as they could be. [...]

Creating your own rub is actually quite simple if you have a rack of spices, some brown sugar, and the desire to experiment just a little bit. Most BBQ rubs consist of brown sugar and chili powder (or paprika) with a few other spices thrown in for some added flavor and so it’s much more [...]

Last night I tried firing up the grill to put on a couple ribeyes I bought from Costco when I noticed the fire seemed a little on the weak side. Remembering my experience with purging the gas lines, I tried to run the gas and then hit the ignition a few seconds later to purge [...]

Ummmm … so I advised that using your oven’s cleaning cycle to burn clean your grill grates sounded like a really good idea, at the time, but I’ve since changed my mind. See, we’ve seen some unseasonably nice weather here in Baltimore so I’ve decided to open up my Charbroil grill for business and my [...]