Barbeques are popular for events such as the 4th of July, birthday parties, receptions, and going away parties. No matter why you have decided to plan a barbeque party, the memories that will come from it are sure to stick with your guests for many years to come, provided that you plan ahead. Alternatively, a new popular type of barbeque is a barbeque clambake. Clambakes are typically held in a pit on the beach, but if a beach is not available, you may want to consider holding your clambake right from your grill.

1) First, no barbeque would be complete without guests. Plan ahead of time, checking with your potential guest for scheduling conflicts and issues. Finding a date and time that is suitable for everyone should not be to far as long as you everyone enough advanced notice. Remember that not everyone will be able to come, no matter how much notice you give them, so do not get discouraged if you do not get as many RSVPs as your originally hoped for.

2) Be sure to check the weather for that type of year. If you live in a climate that cannot be predicted, then you may want to have a backup plan just incase unusual weather comes. You cannot predict things like rain and thunderstorms ahead of time, but you can make sure that you hold you barbeque during the time of year that will be pleasant to your guests. A barbeque in cold weather may hold more negative memories of trying to keep warm rather then good memories of family and friends.

3) You will need to purchase the items for your clambake. The traditional items you will need is Clams still in the shell, seawater(if available), corn still in the husk, and potatoes.

Side dishes can also be bought, but are not necessary since the potatoes and corn can act as such. If you feel that you need other side dishes, the simplest approach to side dishes is chips and dip. Chips and dip do not require any cooking on your part, and will still be loved by the majority of your guests.

4) Depending on the theme of your party, you may or may not want to purchase decorations. Festive decorations can be found at any local party or general store. You may also consider purchasing decorations that can be stored and reused at a different time, such as reusable tablecloths and Tiki torches. Give your clambake a beach theme by adding tropical music and you may even consider adding some sand.

5) The day before you party, you will want to make sure to thaw, prepare, and marinate the meat you will be cooking. Store the meat stored away, soaking up the marinate until it is time for it to go on the grill. Prepare any side dishes that you can ahead of time.

6) The day of the party, get up early and start preparing for it. You do not want your guest arriving while you are still cooking or hanging decorations. It should only take you a few hours at most to prepare the area in which you will be having the party, but the reactions from your guest will probably seem as if you have been planning this for weeks.

Place your clambake on the grill, layering your already cooked potatoes, corn still in the husk, and your clams on the grill. Then grill these until the corn and clams are complete.

Depending on the time in which your guests arrive, you may want to include you guests in the actual cooking of the clambake. Enjoying a few drinks around the pit or stove will not only give you time to gather and converse, but will also make your guests hungry, as they smell the wonderful aroma coming from the steaming or boiling vegetables and clams.

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As humans, we all make mistakes. It is human nature to do so, and cannot be prevented each and every time. When it comes to barbequing, this rule is no different. We often make mistakes that we do not even realize until we taste our food, or something potentially dangerous happens.

Some mistakes just mean that the food you cook is not going to taste very good, while others could potentially mean a trip to the hospital, or a visit from your claims representative on your home insurance policy. No matter the severity of the mistake, you should do your best to try to avoid them whenever possible.

Cooking Mistakes

You must properly prepare the meat you are cooking, before cooking it. You should never attempt to cook meat on a grill when it is still frozen, or even partially frozen. Thaw your meat by sitting it out about 12 to 24 hours before you plan on cooking it, or by thawing it in a microwave.

Once meat is cooked, never put it back in on the same plate you had it on when it was raw. This could cause the spread of many unwanted illnesses.

Cooking with charcoal lighter fluid can be good or bad. The lighter fluid will cause the food you are cooking to taste different then with other types of grills. Alternatively, attempting to not use lighter fluid may cause a lot of frustration due to the fact that charcoal can be difficult if not impossible to light without lighter fluid.

Never poke you meat while it is cooking. Poking holes in meat will cause the juice inside to leak out into the bottom of the grill. Not only will this make your food dry and unappealing in the end, but it also could potentially ruin your barbeque grill. At the very least, it will cause a buildup of unwanted grease and juices on your grill, which will make cleanup harder.

Once the meat is on the grill, try not to open the lid to many times. Each time you open the lid, you change the temperature in the grill. The constant change in temperature and the air flow will cause your meat to dry up quickly.

Remember that the higher the heat is not always the better. While it is ok to quickly cook food, turning the heat up will just cause the meat to dry up and potentially burn.

While using tin foil or aluminum foil will make cleaning easier, it will cause your food to have more of a fried taste then a grilled taste.

Dangerous Mistakes

Never, under any circumstance, should you leave a grill alone when it is in use. Grilling does have fire involved, and accidents can happen. Fire spreads quickly, so being aware of your grill could mean the difference between a small fire that is quickly extinguished, and a visit from the fire department.

Never place a hot grill against a wall, even if the fire is already completely out. A hot grill can heat up an exterior wall to the point of combustion. Also, do not put the grill cover back on until you are sure that the grill is completely cool.

You grill should be cleaned after each and every use, no exceptions. While no one likes cleaning the grill, it is essential for the life and safety of your grill. If you allow your grill to sit dirty, not only are you causing a potential fire and health hazard, but you are ultimately making it harder on yourself when it does come time to clean your grill.

Make sure that your grill is completely cold before cleaning it. Spraying oil and cleaning agents on a hot surface could cause it to ignite. Be careful, because the grill may seem cool, but may still be hot in certain areas. You do not want to sustain a burn.

Related:

How to Clean Your Outdoor Grill

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Barbequeing has been around as long as the caveman have. The first people in the world quickly realized that food tasted good after being cooked on an open fire. In recent history, barbequing has become a family tradition. While the majority of families in the United States own a grill, only a few view grilling as a sport or hobby, rather then just another way to cook.

The easiest grill to use is by far the natural gas grill. Natural gas grills are designed to hook directly into your homes natural gas line, eliminating the need to provide the fuel source. This cuts out all trips to the grocery store for more charcoal or propane.

Another advantage when using a natural gas grills is the ability to control the temperature in which you are cooking. Natural gas grills have burner controls which allow you to produce different temperatures for the different cooking areas on your grill. This allows you to cook your meat on one side while keeping your side dished warm on the other.

Natural gas grills, have the ability to come with many different types of cooking surfaces. These different cooking surfaces include a BBQ surface, a flat grill, and a ribbed grill. Some grills even offer these types of surfaces as none stick, which allow you to cook a whole array of foods that you would not be able to cook on a grill otherwise. Some gas grills even contain a Wok type surface for cooking pasta and rise dishes, or a full rotisserie set that allows you to cook rotisserie chicken.

Natural gas grills are by far the easiest type of grill to clean. With other grills such as charcoal and smoker grills, you have to remove the wood and charcoal briquettes each time. Natural grills only have to be wiped down. Some natural gas grills even have a none stick feature.

Grilling can be a fun or serious hobby depending on the person at hand. There is a certain level or patience and practice needed if you are wanting to achieve a higher level of grilling. For those that are especially interested in the sport of grilling, owning a Broilmaster gas grill may have certain benefits that other grills cannot provide.

It is up to you as the shopper to become the most focused of buyers to try and resolve the discrepancies between various brands traits, and even within the Broilmaster array of products, allowing even for certain customizations to be utilized.

There are many different kinds of grills within the multitude of options and features that you can get your grill to be able to handle many situations of immediate importance, and sometimes it can be overwhelming to wade through all of these options to the final product that will revise your take on one of the most unique ways to prepare food, you shouldnt need to be the master of making meals even though that does help you adapt to any new grilling experiences. Making you accustomed to the particular state of grilling food.

One of the most popular brands of natural gas grills is the Broilmasters. This company has been around for a long time and prides itself on creating great grills, even in its companies early years. If you are looking for a reliable name, Broilmaster would be the way to go. One of the most popular Broilmaster grills is the Super Premium Series, which puts out 40,000 BTUs of cooking power, and has a cooking surface area of over 695 square inches.

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Pork Loin on Weber Kettle Grill

Last night I decided to smoke a pork loin on our Weber Kettle. The kettle design and air vents work well for low and slow as well as traditional high heat grilling. We have some smokers too, but I know pork loin doesn’t take a long times especially since I cut it in half and saved the other half for later.

First I rubbed the pork loin down with some Traeger dry rub for pork. They have some really great rubs. I have the variety sample pack, and when it arrived and I opened up the box, yum. These Traeger rubs are fresh and very wonderful smelling. They taste really super too. You can, of course, use any rub you like (Emeril is good from the grocery) or make your own. I just enjoy playing around with different brands and recipes on rubs and barbecue sauces.

Normally I grill by sight and touch, but it’s kind of hard to tell on bigger cuts of meat. I finally did what I should have done long ago and got a grill thermometer. It’s a Maverick Redi Chek Remote. It makes sense to use a thermometer, because you can’t really tell about the center of a bigger piece of smoked meat.

My Maverick meat thermometer has two probes to check either two types of meat cooking (one in a steak and one in a piece of chicken etc), or (in my case) one on each end of the pork loin just out of curiosity. In additon to the two probes, the unit has a remote beeper. So, I just plugged in the Redi Check and went inside where it was cool and did other fun things like laundry.

There are auto setting for types of meat on the thermometer, but I used the manual setting and pressed in 140 degrees F. That’s low for pork, but I wanted to be sure I didn’t overcook the meat. I just wanted to check at 140F.

Around 40 minutes, the beeper went off. It is definately loud enough to hear. The two ends were about 8 degrees apart on temp. So, I respositioned the pork loin and brought it on up to 150 degrees F.

Really, you want it about 160 degrees F on pork to be on the safe side, but I knew I’d sauce it and put the lid on to smoke it down about 10 more minutes. Also, I’d rest the pork loin for a half hour. It continues to cook while wrapped in aluminum foil, so you go lower on the off-the-grill temp when letting the meat rest (which allows the flavors to meld).

Generally my pork loins run closer an hour to get up to temp, but since I had the thermometer probes in and the lid cracked a bit so as not to crimp them, the fire ran hotter than usual.

Note also in the top photo that the coals are offset. In other words, I had hot coals on one side and one side with no coals. The meat went over the side without coals – the cool side. The heat and smoke then circulate for slow cooking on bigger pieces of meat like the loin. You can do similar with a gas grill by having one side on and one side off and the meat on the side that’s not lit. Then, grill low with the lid down.

Pork Loin off Grill and Ready to be Wrapped in Aluminum Foil to Rest

Once the pork loin was close, I lathered on some Jack Daniels Barbecue Sauce. This is a brand name from the grocery store. It’s a thick tomato based sauce but darker than most with a little zip from the whiskey flavor.

Once the sauce was on the pork loin, I put the lid on the Weber and shut down the vents to cap the fire. There was plenty of heat to kind of bake on the sauce without burning it. If you put sauce on too early, then the outside of your meat burns. Sauce is always a last step. Mop or marinade (thinner products) can go on before, during, and after – but not barbecue sauce.

The guys loved the pork loin. They had some last week made by the Leonard brothers. My guys asked why I never made pork loin. Well, when they were little, I made one. My oldest thought it was a pig leg. Sigh. He doesn’t get out to the farm often. Can you imagine the size of a pig with legs that big? Anyway, the boys were suspicious of that “leg,” so I gave it a rest for a while. Glad they discovered that they do like pork loin. When it’s not overcooked, it’s like a good steak – very moist, juicy and full of flavor.

The rest is here:
Barbecue Master: Grilled Pork Loin with Jack Daniels Barbecue Sauce

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