|
|
About Smoke Signals
|
|  Smoke Signals is the free email newsletter from AmazingRibs.com's Barbecue Whisperer & Hedonism Evangelist, Meathead Goldwyn. I use it to tell folks about new stuff in Riblandia. If you like my work, please click here to . And remember: No rules in the bedroom or dining room! |
New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburgers
| | 
"Why do green chiles, cheese, and burgers taste so good together? Why do vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream taste so good on a banana split? Nobody can explain it. It just works." John Eckre, Bobcat Bite Restaurant in Santa Fe, NM
The New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger is one of the few truly authentic regional styles of burger in the nation. It seems as if every bar and burger joint in "The Land of Enchantment" has a green chile salsa with which they adorn their burgers, fries, chili, chips, beans, soups, stews, chiles rellenos, enchilladas, and whatever else is in the kitchen.
|
Smokenator Tips
| | 
The Smokenator is so simple and amazing that when it arrives you slap your forehead and say "Why didn't I think of that?"
Well there are so many red foreheads out there in Riblandia that I have created a whole page devoted to tips on using it. If you are not familiar with the Smokenator, for $60 it lets you easily convert a standard $89 Weber Kettle into a smoker capable of making restaurant quality smoked ribs, pork shoulder, brisket, turkey, salmon, whatever. If you have a limited budget or limited deck space, there is no need to buy a standalone smoker. If you have a Weber Kettle you absolutely need a Smokenator.
|
Cook Today Serve Tomorrow
| One of the most frequently asked questions I get goes something like this "I agreed to serve pulled pork for 50 people at the company picnic on Sunday. I plan to cook it on Saturday at home and bring it to the park on Sunday. What's the best way to do this?"
You're not gonna like the answer: This is called serving leftovers. Don't do it. But if you must, here are some tips.
|
The Best All Purpose Kitchen Measurements And Conversion Tables
| |  If you haven't noticed, I have been beefing up my weights, measures, and conversions page, and I've added a nifty conversion calculator. Just type in the number, click on the units, and bingo, it tells you that 4 tablespoons equals 1/4 cup or 59 ml.
You'll also find salt conversions ( 1 tablespoon of table salt is NOT the same as 1 tablespoon of kosher salt). You'll also find out that 1 pound unshelled almonds makes 1.5 cups shelled almonds.
Bookmark this handy page for reference when you are cooking anything, even if it is not barbecue.
|
The Truth About Corn Syrups
| | 
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) appears high on the ingredients list of many barbecue sauces. It has also been the subject of a lot of hate lately. Here are the facts as we know them today.
|
Massive Changes To The Product Review Section
| |  Until recently I have been a one man band doing everything on AmazingRibs.com, including washing the dishes. Well a few months ago I made my first full-time hire, the talented Max Good.
Max is now the man in charge of finding the best products for the AmazingRibs.com Buyer's Guides. He has been busy adding reviews of the many new grills and smokers that have come on the market.
In order to support him and help you rest assured that we are straight shooters, we have locked in a firm policy: We will not accept ads from products we review. That means we are leaving big money on the table from grill manufacturers, charcoal, etc.
I have also hired a database team to create a searchable database of these products so if you are in the market, before long (I hope), you'll be able to ask the Buyer's Guide to find you all Gold Medal Gas Grills with three or more burners! Now that will be helpful!
|
Mythbuster, Teacher Extraordinaire!
| |
 "Give a man a fish and he will probably get it stuck to his grill. Teach a man to grill and he will be a hero." MeatheadDr. Greg Blonder, is an amazing polymorph and the new AmazingRibs.com resident science advisor and mythbuster. He has a physics BS from Harvard and a physics PhD from MIT. In his life as a physicist he rose to become the Chief Technical Advisor at AT&T's legendary Bell Labs and he holds more than 80 patents in the areas of optical disk recording, integrated fiber optic devices, displays, computer systems, software, and user interfaces. He has designed furniture, electronic window treatments, and some very cool toys. As an entrepreneur, he has been a partner at the Morgenthaler Ventures, a technology centric venture capital firm that has supplied funds to Apple among others. He has also lectured at Columbia University and Wharton, written a number of articles for Business Week, and teaches Scenario Planning part time at Parson's The New School for Design. His love of food, especially barbecue, has brought him to food science where he conducts original research for this website, and patiently answers my dumb questions. He has already added previously unknown facts to the body of barbecue knowledge, exclusively on AmazingRibs.com: He has debunked the myth that "If you're lookin you ain't cookin'".He has overturned the myth that you should let your meat come to room temp by describing how thermophoresis attracts smoke. He has thrown new light on what happens when you baste, mop, or spritz. He was the first to describe in detail with experimental data why pork shoulder and brisket seem to stop cooking at around 150F. He has shown how brining really works (and it is not osmosis). His fingerprints are on many of my articles, even those written years ago and recently revised to conform to the latest science. Watch for more great stuff from the Dr. Blonder on such interesting topics as beer can chicken and resting meat after cooking. |
Recipe Testing Kicks Into High Gear
| |  I have also hired a Sous Chef to help me prepare and test recipes. Marietta Sims graduated second in her class from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Since then she has worked for prominent caterers, hotels, and private companies. She is the mother of two, and beaming grandmother of one, and a huge help to me!
|
Editing Help
| |
 As many of you have noticed, I'm not a very good typist, ironic since that's pretty much what I do for a living. I also occasionally have problems making nouns and verbs play nice together. Well, I've added help there too. I got a really good price on a retired school teacher who is red-penning her way through the entire site, hundreds of pages, underlining and making marginal notes on all my typos (that's what I call them) and grammar errors. Thanks Mom! And in case you're curious, that's her just last year, unretouched. I'm 63 so you do the math. |
Professional Steakhouse Knife Set
| |  There is just something about those big beautiful steak knives that the best steak houses use that I have always admired. There is something about the crappy cheap steak knives in my kitchen that I have always hated.
So I set out to get a set of the real deal. Not just for steaks, but for ribs, chops, even veggies. When I found access to the company that makes them for the best NY steakhouses, much to my delight, I learned that I could not only buy a set, they would emblazon them with the AmazingRibs.com imprimatur and sell them through Amazon. I set my table with them every night now. Even the toughest meats turn to butter beneath these elegant blades.
These are the same knives used at the best steakhouses (Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's and others). Machine washable, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, full-tang blades with excellent cutting edge retention, beefy hardwood handle, rust and stain resistant, and they stay shiny without polishing. And now they have the AmazingRibs.com imprimatur. Click here for more info on these wonderful knives. |
Fun Gifts for the Barbecue Fan
| |  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. 
|
Help Keep AmazingRibs.com Free
| | |
The Amazon link below helps me keep AmazingRibs free! Just type or paste this link into your "favorites" or "bookmarks" and use it to take you to Amazon. It will tell Amazon I sent you and you and they will pay me a finder's fee if you buy something. It in no way increases your price but it sure help keeps me supplied with charcoal and meat! Please use it for anything you buy on Amazon!!!
|
|
|
|
|
