Nunya Bidnits wrote:
> In news > Desideria > typed:
>> Y'all know I'm a grilling newbie, and I purchased Steven Raichlen's
>> "How to Grill" book because it was my impression that his books are
>> highly recommended.
>>
>> I'll agree that his how-to techniques are helpful. But does anyone
>> else find his recipes a bit over-fussed-with?
>>
>> For instance, the first thing I made with his recipes was hamburgers
>> with garlic butter inside, so you've got a fat burger with something
>> in the center. Admittedly, my garlic butter was only about
>> half-frozen, but when I put them on the grill I had terrible flareups,
>> to the point where the outsides were black and the insides were still
>> raw--and that was quite a bit after the time that Steven said to cook
>> them on each side.
>>
>> Today I tried his basic (?) chicken breast recipe. Calls for
>> sprinkling sea or kosher salt, cracked peppercorns and hot pepper
>> flakes on both sides of each breast, then pressing chopped garlic and
>> chopped rosemary onto each, then marinating them for 30 to 60 minutes
>> in lemon juice and olive oil.
>>
>> Again, I made a mistake in cooking them today instead of yesterday, so
>> they marinated for a bit less than 24 hours--but until now, I always
>> found that the more marinating, the better. I grilled the breasts and
>> tried some, and I can't even taste the chicken, much less the
>> smoke!!!! The flavor is so intense that I have to eat slices of the
>> breasts in salad to be able to handle them.
>>
>> What's the opinion here? Am I causing these problems myself, or are
>> Raichlen's recipes too zesty for even a zest-lover like myself?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> Desideria
>
> He's not my favorite TV cooking host by quite a ways. I also find his
> recipes overblown, incorrectly seasoned, not well thought out, or lacking in
> the fine details. And notice that if you watch his shows carefully he's not
> exactly achieving pristine well-practiced results all the time.
>
> I agree his seasonings are sometimes over the top, although I did enjoy the
> recent steak episode which featured Argentinian style steak, served with
> chimichurri, but that was only because he showed how to make the stuff. But
> beyond that, nobody has one of those smartass special gaucho grills, so
> demonstrating Argentinian style steak on an obscure, odd, rare, and
> expensive piece of equipment is pretty much a waste of time compared to
> showing how one might do it on a common home grill. I guess it's cool that
> he has forty-eleven different cookers and grills scattered around the yard
> with smoke coming out of every one of them, so he can play little boy gaucho
> if he wants to on TV, but the everyday person who might watch the show to
> pick up some tips isn't going to have all that crap.
>
> And his shows are about grilling and barbecueing, which IMO means it should
> be concentrating on simple direct flavors of foods as they are enhanced by
> cooking on an open fire or in a pit, but he is forever smothering everything
> with so much weird sauces and seasonings that it just doesn't seem like he
> remembers what the shows were about in the first place. I'm all for knowing
> how meat is grilled in different ethnic environments, but I don't buy into
> the notion that authentic ethnic grilled foods are produced in a way such
> that the seasonings and sauces obscure the basic flavors of the food being
> grilled. He doesn't enhance foods with his seasonings and ingredients, he
> hides them.
>
> And he's got a pompous, know-it-all attitude and hoity-toity demeanor that
> puts me off, frankly, especially since his execution and some of his recipes
> really don't match up to his arrogance. That "vacationing with the Duke in
> the south of France" snottiness doesn't do much for me. I can't watch his
> program without the words "arrogant twit" crossing my mind multiple times.
>
> The burger stuffed with garlic butter is just stupid. I've tried stuffing
> burgers and it's downright difficult, and that's without using ingredients
> that are going to melt away, leave a big hole in the middle of the burger,
> and make your grill flame on. Stuffing a burger has a built in pitfall since
> all burgers tend to shrink inwards on the grill, and you need to compensate
> starting off by putting a depression in the center of the burger after you
> mold it, so as to get a nice uniform thickness in the finished result
> without the edges splitting. It's kinda hard to stuff something that needs
> to be thinner in the center than at the edges. So stuffing the burger and
> producing something that doesn't fall apart or otherwise get weird is a real
> engineering challenge. I've only had luck stuffing them with ingredients
> that didn't melt away, and than includes using little or no cheese in the
> stuffing. However a nice mix of chopped mushrooms, seasoned bread crumbs,
> and grilled onions is always nice.
>
> I take it from your comments that the garlic butter was supposed to be
> frozen going in. So what does he expect, that it won't melt when the burger
> is cooked, or maybe that nobody will mind if the center of the burger is
> cold greasy tartare? Cripes. I didn't see the butter stuffed burger
> demonstrated on TV, nor have I read the recipe, but I don't think I need to,
> it's obviously a really stupid idea and he's wasted your time and money. And
> with a buttload of butter dripping out of the burgers, he's probably made a
> nice mess for you as well.
>
> Now as far as the marinade, well, that one's on you. Those are strong
> marinating flavors, and after an hour with mashed in garlic and rosemary,
> and lemon juice and olive oil, that meat should be seasoned to the max. It's
> important to realize that acidic components in marinades cook foods
> chemically, altering not just their taste but also their texture. I would
> have expected pretty much what you described when leaving chicken in such a
> strong marinade for that long.
>
> But that doesn't change my opinion that Raichlen's a DH.
>
> MartyB in KC
>

LOL!

Raichlen is a non-acquired personality taste. But he has some uniquwe
recipes and he's good overall on techniques - gas vs. charcoal, etc..

I agree with you on the obscure BBQ rigs, he also has a 55 gallon oil
drum cooker.

Ever see the California cowboy grilling show on RFD TV?

http://www.rfdtv.com/shows/cowboy_flavor.asp

This guy has a unique approach and a mustache that reaches around his ears.

http://www.cowboyflavor.com/

And check out some of his sponsor merchants - good tools and
acccessories to be found.