"outdoor cooking" news and stories

I tend to think of Memorial Day Weekend as the time when the summer grilling season really starts to heat up. While the weather has already been nice for as much as a month in some areas, by the end of May, nearly everyone is having a surfeit of warm, sunny days and is ready to move the bulk of their cooking outdoors (so as to avoid heating up the kitchen).

Here at Slashfood, we're going to spend a lot of time focusing on all this summer outdoor cookery. We'll have a bunch of posts up for you this week, to get you ready for the weekend, but we'll be writing about grilling, barbecuing and even what to do if you don't have any outdoor space in which to grill, all summer long. Our friends at AOL Food are also featuring grilling this summer, so make sure to check in over there often for fresh tips, tricks, recipes and bbq related quizzes.

To get you started, here are some grilling links from past years:

1. Seven kabob recipes from Real Simple
2. Bobby Flay's grilling for Dad's Day
3. Maple Chipotle Glazed Grilled Corn
4. Maple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
5. How to grill corn on the cob
6. Cook outdoors in style with this Barbecue Belt
7. No room for a big grill? Try this tiny, bucket-styled one.
   
8. Slashfood weighs in on the gas verses charcoal debate.

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When grilling season starts, the simple act of being able to stand outside without a coat and cook a meal is thrill enough. But then, as the Summer progresses, it becomes old hat, and you start to look for ways to spice up your hot dogs, hamburgers and steaks. Enter the BBQ Sword!

This barbecue fork is designed to look like a swashbuckler's trusty blade, and harkens back to the days when men cooked their raw dinner by impaling it on the end of their sword and extending it out over the flames (much like Brazilian barbecue). The package is also printed with a cut-out eye mask, so you can pretend to be Zorro while grilling up your kids' turkey dogs.

[via Geekologie]

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I look at this picture, and I swear I start to smell the charcoal burning and the chicken charring. It gets me excited for a season of outdoor festivals, street fairs and the occasional grilling session in my cousin's backyard. You can see other images from this event here. Thanks, Ohad, for adding your image to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

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Raise your hand if you're ready for warmer days and cooking outdoors! I, for one, certainly am. Sadly, I don't actually possess any outdoor space in which to grill (the downsides of living on the 20th floor) but I partake in the outdoor cooking of others whenever possible. This image of grilled skirt steak reminds me about all things that are good about summer, grilling and eating al fresco.

What's your favorite thing to throw on the grill?

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Every year people get it in their heads that it would be a good idea to deep fry their Thanksgiving turkey. Although some folks pull it off without injury to themselves, many others end up in the hospital with burns (there was a reason that people used to pour boiling oil on their enemies) or the fire department has to make a special trip to put out the smoking rubble that was once their home.

Thankfully, there's another option if you want to cook your turkey outdoors quickly and safely. It's called the Orion Cooker and it cooks with the power of convection, steaming and smoking the food at the same time. A 20 pound turkey takes just over two hours to cook, a huge improvement over all day in the oven. You can also cook ribs, roasts and fish in the cooker.

I can hear the sounds all over America of people putting those deep fat frying kits back on the shelves at Target or Home Depot even now.