Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Outdoor Cooking and Eating

Photos by Salt Water New England

A question for the community: 

Which foods do you prefer for outdoor cooking and eating? And what are favorite techniques or occasions?
  















    
Maine Coast Clambake - Photo by My Father


26 comments:

  1. Well, we’re omnivores, so meats are our favorites from the grill. My father invented and husband perfected a technique for grilling chicken leg quarters without overcooking or scorching, so that’s a summertime favorite, served with fresh fruit, garden tomatoes and cucumbers, and pasta salad. An occasional steak with the traditional fresh salad and baked potato. These are done on gas for convenience’s sake, but nothing beats our Thanksgiving turkey cooked on the Weber charcoal grill.

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  2. We grill meat, fish, and vegetables year-round. Wrapping ears of corn in foil and grilling until they’re slightly charred on the surface is one favorite.

    Summer by the shore, lobsters and clams steamed dockside are hard to beat, throw in some clam chowder.

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  3. littlenecks straight on the grill

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  4. We grill most of our meats on our gas grill ☹️, it is more convenient but I don’t think food tastes as good as when cooked on the charcoal fired, old fashioned kettle drum style grills. Sirloins are our go-to Sunday dinners with family, served with corn on the cob, seasonal salad, baked beans when the kids ask, and either wild rice or roasted steak fries. For the patriotic holidays I prefer ribs and chicken both with my mother-in-law’s bar-b-q sauce. If we change things up, we do lemon marinated chicken served with rice and seasonal fresh veggies and salad. For a quick meal you can’t eat burgers and dogs (very well done on the dogs, please!) with good potato chips and some form of tomato salad. Personally, I don’t like my veggies grilled as I think it takes away from the meat dish. That said, grilled pineapple 100 proof is a terrific meal finale!

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  5. May through September or early October each year. Homemade burgers, pork shoulders (6-8 hours slow, indirect heat BBQ and pulled Central North Carolina style, served with red slaw and hush puppies), vegetable chunks, and occasionally salmon steaks for my wife. On a Weber over coals. Gas grills are more convenient, but you don't quite get the same flavor.

    Kind Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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  6. I was an Revolutionary War re-enactor, in events from Vermont to North Carolina. Because, for a weekend, we didn't have refrigerators or cupboards full of food to choose from, ANYTHING cooked over the campfire tasted delicious. Chicken roasted on a spit, kettle of beef with whatever vegetables were in season, hunks of bread & cheese stuck on a toasting fork. Hunger is the best appetizer.

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    Replies
    1. There's an annual encampment at our local Revolutionary War fort. It always smells mouth wateringly good.

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  7. Up at the camp, I only cook over an open fire. I use the Weber grill like a fire pit using only wood, no charcoal briquettes. I'll start the fire around 3pm and keep adding wood until a good base of wood coals are laid.
    At the house, I'm surrounded by historic, protected woods so having open burning is not in the cards so charcoal it is---I'm not fan of propane/gas fired grills.

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  8. Our favorite is chicken that has been marinated overnight in my wife's special orange juice and Italian dressing marinade. She also like grilled vegetables but I find them difficult to do well.

    We live in an area where one will occasionally see a roadside barbeque vendor, with a big trailer-mounted wood-fired grill smoking away.

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    1. You might try one of those grilling baskets. I love mine.

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  9. Gosh all that outdoor cooking which you do in America does look incredibly enthralling and undoubtedly very tasty indeed .
    Here in Blighty the climate is usually chillier and the nearest thing my family do to eating outdoors is sandwiches and hot tea from thermos flasks whilst stopping by at our lunch hut during Grouse shooting in Scotland in August .

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    1. Can’t beat a Scotch egg as well and those from Fortnum’s expensive l know definitely worth it though

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  10. Here in the Midwest we have a natural gas grill and smoker. We cook pretty much everything on the grill. Meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits to top homemade ice cream. Homemade pizza long before it became as popular as it is now. Rustic loaves of bread and pies.

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  11. Something in the smoker, with local fruitwood's t bring out all the flavours! Thanks so much!

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  12. Growing up, we couldn't wait until summer so we could eat food cooked on the grill. My family was very New England, and our weeknight dinner rotated between chicken pot pie, meatloaf, baked chicken breast, and a few other unmentionables that completely lacked flavor. With a baked potato, of course. No "ethnic food" in our diet, I'm afraid. So, the coming of summer promised grilled chicken and steak tips marinated in Italian dressing. Wouldn't touch the stuff now, but at least it had flavor!

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  13. It is Taco Tuesday. Chicken thighs rubbed with tajin will be grilled, sliced, and nestled into tacos with rajas of pepper, onion, Worcestershire, tamari, cumin, and New Mexico chile. They will be topped with queso fresco, lime, marinated jalapeƱos, and limon verde. The tortillas will be slightly blackened over a gas jet. Mmmm.

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  14. So I love calve's liver. I am forbidden to cook it in the kitchen. So on my side burner on the BBQ in a cast iron skillet I fry bacon, then chopped onions, and then the liver (I add some extra bacon grease to the skillet along the way) until all the elements are crispy and delicious. Best part is I get to eat all of it myself since my husband won't touch it. Yum!!!

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    1. My daughter was so enchanted by the smell of calves liver that she asked to try it. Her verdict? Loved the taste, absolutely hated the texture. My cocker spaniel however thinks its fabulous...

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    2. Your dog has wonderful taste!

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    3. my father would eat liver almost weekly. Just the thought of the smell still makes me gag and I'm 58 years old now. I wonder what I eat that nauseates my kids...

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    4. Hope it’s still pink in the middle I like lambs liver as well

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  15. Just about any red meat, white meat, or fish is game. We regularly cook corn, squash, and asparagus as well. We finish the cooking off with a few thick pieces of crusty French bread dropped on the grill for a minute or two on both sides. When we have company and peaches are in season, I will cut them in half, drop them on the grill meat side down for a couple of seconds, drop them in a bowl and top with ice cream.

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  16. All the classic's and more!

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  17. I always use a Hasty Bake. Made here in beautiful Oklahoma. HastyBake.com

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  18. There is nothing better than a well crafted burger on a toasted brioche bun with a slice of cheddar and a grilled Vidalia onion.

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  19. Weber Original kettle plus hardwood charcoal; burgers & chicken mainly. Grilling is an all-year-round activity as neither rain nor falling snow affects the kettle fire, after all.

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