Lately I have been looking for some new ideas of grilling and came up with the idea of doing research on grilling in different regions in the world.  The Italian style grilling is one that interested me the most.  The ingredients involved with Italian grilling are simple ingredients, but still full of flavor.  The key to good Italian grilling is lots of olive oil and fresh herbs.  The fresh herbs really play a large role in Italian grilling as they help bring out the full flavor of the dish that you are grilling.  The Italian grill also uses a lot of skewered meats on the grill, which is great for parties.  Living in the U.S., when we think of Italian food, we primarily think of pasta and pizza and that is about it.  In reality the grill plays an important role in Italy for beef, pork, chicken, fish, seafood, and vegetables.  The primary type of grill used in Italy are charcoal type grills, propane grills have not picked up in popularity in Italy yet.

The following is a list of essential ingredients for the Italian Grill pantry:

• Anchovies (cured): Salted anchovies are a key ingredient in Italian grilling, any recipe that calls for them is a must and never should be considered optional.
• Bread Crumbs: A strange ingredient for the grill,but a lot of meats have a light coating of bread crumbs and you should always use unseasoned dry breadcrumbs.
• Bread  Cubes: The bread cubes are used in a lot of skewered recipes in Italy, generally they are cut up in 1-inch cubes.
• Caciocavallo: A cheese made from cow’s milk and is a firm cheese.  The cheese is usually in the shape of a spindle and can  be found in Italian stores or very well stocked grocery stores.  If you are unable to find it, you may substitute with provolone cheese.
• Lard Fat: Lard fat is usually melted and used for basting meats. 
• Lemons: The juice of lemons are used a lot in grilling, and only fresh lemon juice should be used.
• Pancetta: An Italian-style that is cured, but not smoked like American bacon.  Most grocery stores carry it now a days, if you are unable to find it, you can substitute American bacon that has been parboiled for about 10 minutes.
• Parsley: Use flat-leaf parsley as it is less bitter.
• Pecorino: A hard cheese made in Italy that is made from sheep’s milk.   This cheese can be found at most grocery stores,
• Prosciutto: Domestic prosciutto is good for cooking with, but imported from Italy is far superior.
• Olive Oil: Use inexpensive extra-virgin olive oil, unless a recipe calls for something else.
• Soppressata: A dried sausage made with pork, pancetta, wine, and possibly pigs blood and paprika to give a nice red color and is lightly smoked.  This is usually available in well stocked grocery stores or Italian markets.  If you are unable to find it, you can use salami.

This weekend we had a large group of family and friends over to celebrate my two boys’ birthday (ages: 5 & 3).  I thought this would be a good way to celebrate and also treat everyone to a very nice grilled meal.  For the party I prepare a salad, beef, pork, chicken, and vegetable dish all on the grill, to try and get as much variety of the Italian grill as possible.

To start off I wanted to make a grilled salad that had an Italian focus.  The main grilled salad I was able to find was Caponata. The salad uses grilled eggplant and grilled onion, than incorporates tomatoes, celery, Greek olives, capers, and raisins as the main ingredients, than you top all of these on top of some lettuce.  The salad tasted absolutely delicious, we served it with a simple salad dressing that involved olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic.  You definitely want to keep the salad dress simple to let the flavors of the grilled vegetables dominate your taste buds.  Another interesting salad to try is a Grilled Seafood Salad, "Insalata di Mare", which has octupus, mussels, clams, squid, and shrimp on the salad.

Grilled beef dishes are very popular in Italy.  Surprisingly, Italy is known for raising cows that produce some of the best beef in the world.  There are to main categories of beef grilling, the skewered beef rolls and than steak.  The beef rolls are usually made with flank steak or beef round that is pounded flat and cut into strips.  These strips are combined with fresh herbs and possibly prosciutto or pancetta and fresh Italian cheeses.  Italian steaks generally use a good amount of olive oil with a simple black and white seasoning of salt and pepper, but what comes to a major surprise is the roll of bread crumbs in Italian steaks, such as the "Bistecca ‘Mpanata’ alla Palermitana, Breaded Grilled Sirloin Steak, Palermo Style.  This is generally a sirloin steak with a coating of bread crumbs that has been combined with a crumbled up bay leaf, salt and pepper.  The steak is first dipped into some olive oil and than thoroughly coated with the bread crumb mixture.  I would not have ever that of grilling a breaded meat on the grill before, but find it fascinating to try sometime. 

For the party I chose to go with a skewered beef roll, "Uccelletti di Campania", Grilled Beef Rolls with Bread and Pancetta.  This recipe uses flank steak that has been butterflied, pounded flat and cut into slices.  A piece of prosciutto and a sage leave is added to each strip and than rolled up.  The roll is doubled skewered and a cube of Italian bread is added in between each roll on a skewer.  I also did a skewered meatball that contains ground beef, egg, pecorino cheese, bread crumbs, fresh parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, and pancetta.

Italian grilled pork recipes follows similar recipes to the beef.  And most of the steak or pork recipes can easily be interchangeable with each other.  Again they use a lot of fresh herbs with their pork and the same with olive oil.  They also skewer a lot of pork recipes, but also do a lot of pork chops and pork tenderloins on the grill.  An example of a great looking grilled pork chop recipe would be grilled pork chops with oregano.  This recipe uses a marinade of garlic, onion, fresh oregano, salt, and pepper. 

For the party, I decided to do a pork recipe that was very similar to the beef roll, as it shared a lot of the same ingredients.  I went with a skewered pork recipe, "Spiedini di Maiale" which uses cubed up pork tenderloin on skewers with fresh sage leaves, prosciutto, and Italian bread cubes.

Poultry dishes follow the same key ingredients as the pork and beef recipes, lots of fresh herbs, some poultry recipes use dried spices.  Many of the poultry dishes are very attractive dishes that provide a lot of flavor.  For the party I went with a marinated chicken recipe that included fresh parsley, onions, and garlic mixed in with olive oil.  The poultry dishes go beyond chicken, they use a lot of cornish hens, rabbit, turkey, duck, and quail.

Many people out there do not believe in grilling vegetables, but Italy does it right, they are willing to grill everything.  Grilled vegetable dishes bring out a lot of flavor in the vegetables, that will leave any me
at lover astonished.  The vegetable type dishes on the Italian grill are recipes like stuffed tomatoes, portabellas, artichokes, eggplant, onions, and vegetable platters that include eggplants, fennel bulbs, peppers and a lot of fresh herbs.  The salad I mentioned had eggplant an onions that were grilled.  The onions on the grill produce an unbelievable fragrance and the grilling really brings out a sweetness to the onion. 

For the party, I went with the worlds most famous mushroom, grilled portabellas.  The portabellas were marinated in a mixture of olive oil, a mixture of fresh herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper.

I did not get a chance to do any fish or shellfish recipes on the grill for the party, but they do play a big role with Italian grilling.  Like most of the grilling recipes I have come across, they use a lot of fresh herbs.  For fish they use anything from a whole fish to fillets.  Some of the popular fish or shellfishes include sardines, mackerel, tuna, red mullets, lobster, and shrimp.

The food was a big hit at the party and I will be posting many of the recipes I did in the days coming.  This experiment into Italian grilling was amazing, the recipes I tried were full of flavor and just came off the grill tasting wonderful.  The fresh herbs that were used really was the key in all the recipes, and just provided an amazing wow factor to each dish that was grilled.  I will be doing a lot more Italian grilling in the future due to this experience.  The main sources of information I uses was a lot of random pages on the Internet, and one fabulous book, Grill Italian by Clifford A. Wright.The book contained a lot of wonderful recipes that I used to sample the Italian Grill and the book showed the true nature of grilling Italian.

A birthday party would not be the same without cake.  Ever since my oldest son’s first birthday, my wife has been creating some amazing cakes, and she was at it again this year.  The boys are currently into Bob the Builder show and that is what they requested for the cake, so my wife put together this cake for them:

Here is a guide to the different cuts of pork (the greatest meat with the greatest fat).

Jowl:

Not a very common cut of pork, but has its occasional  use.  It used used more in countries outside of the United State.  This cut is also referred as pig neck.  It is a very fatty piece of pork and should be cooked low and slow for long periods of time to render out the fat.  The result is a very tasty and juicy piece of pork.  One of the most unusual recipes including the Jowl is: Cracked Muffins (which I may have to try).

Pork Shoulder:

Consists of two main cuts the Boston Butt and Picnic, both are used for making pulled pork.  Additional cuts consists pork steaks, ground pork, pork shoulder roast, smoked hocks, and shanks.  The cuts from the shoulder are very fatty and best cook low and slow over a long period of time to render out as much of the fat as possible.  The result again are a very tender and juicy pork.  A common pulled pork recipe is the Renowned Mr. Brown.

Loin:

The loin contains some of the more common cuts of pork we buy at the grocery store.  The cuts include loin roast, rack of pork, pork tenderloin, center cut loin chops, pork loin, Canadian back, boneless pork loin, bone in pork chops, center cut pork loin, back ribs, and country-style ribs.  Most the these can be either cooked around fairly quick as these are some of the leanest parts of a pig.

Side:

Consists of the spareribs and bacon sections.  Other cuts include pork belly, St. Louis style spareribs, pork shoulder hocks, pork leg (fresh ham) hocks.  Cuts from the side are fairly fatty and again take advantage of low and slow cooking.  Pork belly is not a very popular cut of pork in the United States, but if cooked right it can be a very versatile cut of pork.  A sample recipe for pork belly is Slow roasted pork belly with pears.

Leg:

The main cuts of pork from this section is the cured ham and fresh leg.  Other cuts consists of pork leg (fresh ham) short shank, pork leg (fresh ham) boneless, coarse chopped pork, and pork cubed steaks.  This is the section where our holiday hams come from. 

Hind Feet (Pig’s Feet):

This use to be considered a delicacy in the United States, but no more.  It is still in high demand in countries across the world.  Pig feet is actually not too bad for you as it provides more protein and less fat than country-style pork spare ribs.  A sample recipe for pig feet is Boiled Pigs’ Feet Recipe.

The following tables, shows the internal temperatures for meat and poultry:

The words barbecuing and grilling are used interchangeably all the time when it comes to outdoor cooking. However, there is a difference between the two outdoor cooking techniques and it is important to understand the difference.

Grilling is usually done over direct and high heat. This is ideal for tender cuts of meat with less fat. If you cook these pieces of meat to long, you lose a lot of the juices over time and will end up with a tough piece of meat. Some of the more typical meats for grilling are steaks, pork chops, and chicken.

Barbecuing is done with a low heat and with smoke. Generally most barbecuing is done around 225 degrees with tough large pieces of meat. Cooking times vary, but the larger pieces of meat can take 12 plus hours to cook to the desired temperature to make it tender and juicy. Some of the more popular cuts of meat for barbecuing are brisket, boston butts, and chicken.

As you may have noticed chicken is listed for both grilling and barbecuing and this is because it actually comes out great for both methods of outdoor cooking.

Here is a list of some of the more popular smoking woods people use.  There are plenty others out there, but not all wood is good or safe to use for smoking, so do your research before using anything that is a bit exotic or you are unsure about.

Historically brining has been used as a method to preserve meat.  A brine has a very high salt to water combination then the addition of sugars, spices, and other ingredients are added for giving the meat flavor.  This process, also know as curing, binds the water to the meat or completely removes it so its not available for food-spoiling organisms.  With the invention of the refrigeration, traditional brining is less popular for food preservation, but still is used with some meats.

Today brining is used to improve the flavor, texture and moisture content of lean cuts of meat.  This is achieved through soaking the meat in a fairly salt water solution any where from an hour to many days, depending on the size of the meat.  The good part about this type of brining is if you overcook the meat a little bit, it will not completely dry it out.  It provides an extra little cushion for creating fabulous dishes.

At times a curing agent is added to the brine, such as Morton Tender Quick, which allows you to cook or smoke foods below 140 degrees.  This curing agents prevent the growth of botulism.

Scientifically, brining uses the principles of diffusion and osmosis, for more information check out: Brining.

When grilling or barbecuing, I almost always put together a marinade, rub, or brine.  These can be time consuming processes, but if you follow a few simple steps it can go much quicker.  Here are a few pieces of advice to follow:

1. Get ingredients out before you start
2. After adding each ingredient, mix it in well, instead of waiting till the end to mix it all together
3. Measure your quantities, don’t just eyeball the measurements
4. Put the ingredients away immediately after using
5. Prepare ahead of time if recipe allows for it
6. Prepare frequently used spice rubs in batches that you will use within 2 to 3 months and store in airtight container

Follow these few simple steps and your Grilling and Barbecuing will become simpler, less to clean up afterwards, and will not be surprised in the middle of preparation that you are missing a key ingredient.

During low and slow barbecuing of large meats such as Briskets and Pork Shoulders there comes a time in the process where the temperature of the meat slows down immensely for hours.  This is called the plateau and when you are a beginning to learn how to BBQ this will drive you crazy.  Important thing to remember is not to do too much about it, and leave the door and lid closed as much as possible.  It eventually will get past the plateau and you will see the temperature rapidly increase for a while.  To assist it, you may increase the temperature up 25 degrees or so.  I do most of my barbecuing at 225 and once I hit the plateau I increase the temperature to 250 degrees.  This generally helps get it past the plateau a little quicker.  However, I use an electric smoker so I can just turn a dial.  For example, this weekend I smoked a couple Boston Butts for pulled pork, and on Friday night I checked the temperature before I went to sleep and it was at 160 degrees.  When I woke up Saturday morning, I checked the temperature again and it was at 162 after 8 hours.  I bumped up the temperature to 250 and an hour later I was at 170.

The best things to remember is to trust yourself and equipment and the food will be done when its done, so be patient.

Many people out there believe the smoke ring in smoked foods adds flavor and is a good sign of good BBQ.  However, this is just a myth.  For electric smokers, like Cookshack’s Smokette, you do not get a smoke ring.  This is because it has nothing to do with taste or quality of smoke.  It is no more then just a chemical reaction between nitrates and the food.  Basically what happens when you are smoking with a traditional smoker, with wood and/or charcoal, you are producing a lot more nitrates then you do with an electric smoker, such as the Smokette which uses 2 to 4 oz of wood on average during a smoke.  To put it simply, nitrates are produced during the smoke and are reduced to nitrites by bacteria found in the food.  Nitrites then become Nitric Oxide which in turn cures the meat and this causes the smoke ring.   This is one of the longest ongoing debates on Electrical Smokers vs. Traditional Smokers.  Overall, people are going to BBQ the way they want to BBQ and that is about it.

Thanks,

Jason