Cooking the ever popular wet cured ham is pretty easy, but there are some tricks. When you cook it conventionally the smoke flavor is barely noticeable and it dries out easily.

So we'll cook it a lot lower and slower to keep the moisture in, add just a little fresh smoke, wrap it in foil, then sizzle on the glaze, and make a thin sauce based on Chris Lilly's Spicy Apricot Glaze that will penetrate the meat and add back moisture. Here's the recipe for great Hamming it Up on the Grill. 

This is a killer glaze for ham created by one of the best barbecue cooks I've ever met, Chris Lilly, Executive Chef of Big Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur Alabama, consulting chef for Kingsford Charcoal, contributor to their website Grilling.com, and author of one of my favorite cookbooks, Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book. Click here for Chris Lilly's Spiced Apricot Glaze. 

It finally spring and that means it is asparagus season! Grilled Asparagus develops rich flavors you just can't get by boiling or steaming. Seasoned, grilled, drizzled with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and topped with curls of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, this is by far my favorite prep. 

When I launched AmazingRibs.com in 2006, the idea was that it would be a great way to get feedback on my writing and then compile it all in a cookbook. Sort of a first draft. Over the past 4 years, something wonderful has happened. I am now making a living from AmazingRibs.com thanks to advertising and referral fees from Amazon. But I had not given up on the idea of a book.

Well, I met recently with Lisa and Sally Ekus, literary agents and widely considered the best in the game for cookbook authors, and they told me what I kinda suspected: If I do a cookbook, the publisher would want me to remove the (ahem) meat of the website reasoning that people will not pay for the book if they can get it free online.

Of course we know that this is only partially true, but it just crystallized my planning. I have decided that I won't be producing a cookbook in the near future (notice that I did not say "ever"). I will continue to give it away for free!

The good news is my agents and I agreed on a really kewl book concept that we both feel certain will be published, no sweat. It is not a cookbook in the traditional sense, and I'm very excited about it. I'll announce it here soon.

NEW Amazon Link Helps Me a Lot, Please Use it!

You may have noticed in the Buyer's Guide section that I have links to Amazon.com. If you order from Amazon, they pay me a small finder's fee that in no way changes your price. This is a great way to help support my efforts and allow me to give it to you for free. In fact, Amazon will pay me the finder's fee for anything you buy there. So if you shop at Amazon, if you save this link and click on it first, you keep me supplied with charcoal and propane! By the way, this is a NEW link, so if you have the old one bookmarked, could you please change it?  

http://tinyurl.com/3rlglce

The first step to becoming a great outdoor cook is to master your instrument, and the best way to do this is to calibrate your grill or smoker with dry runs. No food needed!

The goal is to give you a feel for how your cooker responds to you, but most importantly, how to hit target temps in recipes. When you are done with these dry runs, you want to know what to do when a recipe calls for cooking at 225°F or 325°F on the indirect side of the 2-zones and 425°F on the direct side. These are common targets in my recipes. At 225°F you are cooking low and slow, at a temperature that muscle fibers don't seize up and squeeze out all the juices, perfect for tough cuts of meat like ribs and pork shoulder. At 325°F you are cooking hot enough for the maillard effect to brown the surface proteins, caramelize sugars, render fats, and crisp skins. This is the temp I recommend for most turkey and chicken skins. At 425°F you are cooking hot enough to deeply brown burgers, steaks, and chops.

Steve Sando is the man behind Rancho Gordo, a great source of every type of bean imaginable, and my go-to-guy when I have a bean question. As I was working on creating a list of the classic American bean dishes, I asked him for feedback. He told me about one I had never encountered, and now it ranks among my faves. His Drunken Beans (Frijoles Borrachos) is one of the best recipes with beer that I know.

In the past couple of months I have been adding some really interesting and educational professional quality short videos I have reviewed and selected from 5Minute Life Videopedia. More than 100 so far, and almost all under 5 minutes! No, they do not star Meathead (I have a face for radio), but they star some faces you probably know and respect: Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Tyler Florence, Guy Fieri and some others you may not know but they know their stuff. Here are some highlights You'll find more vids on other pages.

Meat science & the Maillard reaction - This is one of the best pages on the site, and the video makes it even better. 

Butchering a hog and pork cuts - This is a great series of vids and it shows you the same kind of stuff people pay $100 to see happen in person. While you're there notice that I've added a whole lot of new content to that page.

Classic cocktails & bartending technique - There are a lot of cool techniques and recipe videos here on this new page. 

I get some very gratifying email and posts on the site, and they really pick me up. This may be the best ever, from somebody named Vern (and no, I didn't make it up):

"Meathead, you have literally saved my life! For 20 years my wife handled all the cooking, but sadly she passed away two years ago. Left to my own devices, I hit the internet in a bid to learn how to feed myself... Eventually I discovered amazingribs.com and I pretty much became a success overnight! Two years on and I am healthier than ever, and known as the BBQ King among my family and friends, even coworkers. Now that I am remarried, thanks to your ingenious yet simple approach to outdoor cooking I do at least 90% of the family cooking ALL ON THE BBQ! Thank you so much Meathead!"

Shop for the barbecue lover at the AmazingRibs.com Gift Shop or just drop in for a chuckle. There are more than 30 BBQ-themed designs, about 30 steak-themed designs, about 20 hotdog-themed designs, and more than 30 wine-themed designs. Order aprons, hats, shirts, sweatshirts, intimate wear, and other apparel for men, women, kids and pets, beer mugs, posters, and other tschotschkes.