Desideria wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:13:12 -0600, Cleatarrior >
> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>
> I'll definitely grant the 'unique' on those recipes. And I DO like
> beer-can chicken, so I'll just keep on trying!!!
>
> (really wish now I'd had the chance to study chemistry in school, to
> learn about all these chemical reactions under heat)...
>
>
> Desideria

If you have cable/sat with Food Network, Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show
is great on food chemistry 101.