How to Use Beer in Barbecue A barbecue without beer...well, it’s no kind of barbecue for us. The combination of beer and BBQ is time-tested and undeniably perfect. In fact, there are ways to pair your beer with BBQ outside of just washing down that brisket with an IPA (although, admittedly, we’d always recommend that too). Today, we’re gonna look at a few foolproof, creative ways to combine that beloved beer flavor and some good ol’ fashioned 'Q'. As a Marinade or Brine This is probably the most obvious option...

Impossibly Possible Smoked Ice Cream Technique We aren’t going to lie -- we had to dig deep for this one. It’s not for the faint of heart, and we’d even suggest that it’s not necessarily beginner-friendly. But, it’s definitely do-able, and definitely delicious. So, if you’re interested in a weird, Grillaholics-approved take on ice cream, read on… Now, we would like to take credit for inventing the grilled ice cream idea, but that’s far from the truth. Some particularly illustrious restaurants and chefs have featured grilled or smoked ic...

How to Sear a Steak Using the "Cold Grate" Method We all love nice, dark grill marks, right? Those dark brown crosshatches, they seem to suggest an undeniable perfection in the way our steak was cooked. When we go to restaurants, that’s often what we expect from grilled items. When we cook steaks in our backyard, that’s what we aspire to achieve. What if we told you those grill-marks aren’t everything they’re cracked up to be? What if we told you those grill-marks are the sign of a grill that just doesn’t get hot enough, and perhaps of an ...

Jamaican Jerk 101 A lot of people would categorize jerk as a spice blend, or a vague family of flavors that are prevalent in Jamaican cooking. While this is technically true, it’s doing a huge disservice to the culinary institution that is jerk. It’s not a seasoning blend you can buy in bulk at the local Costco. More accurately, jerk is a cooking and seasoning process by which meats, fish, and vegetables are cooked. Think about the term ‘barbecue’. Jerk is a similarly genre-defining, broad term. Jerk seasoni...

How to Braise Oxtail on the Grill Oxtail is -- you guessed it -- the tail of a cow! Once upon a time, it did exclusively mean the tail of a male, but not so much these days. It’s a gelatin-rich meat, which means it requires a slow-and-low preparation to really achieve that perfectly tender texture. When the gelatin melts, it creates a hearty, rich body to whatever liquid it’s cooked in -- this means that it lends especially well to braising. In addition, it’s quite boney and fatty, so we’re going to double down on our brais...

All You Need to Know About Pork Belly As a Grillaholic, you’re probably well aware of pork belly’s alter-ego: bacon. And while bacon has long-since been a staple for any decent home cook, we think pork belly deserves its chance to shine in the domestic environment. The unsliced version of pork belly has a rich, complex flavor, and has been utilized by chefs worldwide. Thankfully, you don’t need to be a Michelin-starred chef to cook up some perfectly crispy, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly this summer. In fact -- quite the op...

How to Smoke a Leg of Lamb Once in a while, we stumble upon a recipe or technique that’s both extremely easy and extremely delicious. Smoked leg of lamb fits this bill exactly. While the shoulder of the lamb is generally a more popular cut, it tends to work best for a pulled style, similar to a pork butt. On the other hand, a perfectly smoked leg of lamb is great for carving, when cooked to a medium rare/medium. Lamb is an extremely popular protein for just about every country in the world except America, unfortunate...

How to Smoke Meat Using the Minion Method As we all know, there’s no shortage of configurations and methodologies for setting up your grill or smoker. Ask ten different Pitmasters how to best set up for smoking, and it’s possible you’ll get ten different answers. If we keep in mind what exactly we are trying to achieve during the smoking process, and perhaps think outside the box, we can narrow down our options a bit. That’s why, for our money, the minion method of setting up a smoker is the absolute winner. The ‘minion method’ (no...

How to Make Pizza on the Grill Typically, when we do recipes or technique articles, we point towards hearty, robust proteins. Legs of lamb, pork butt, ribeyes -- that sort of thing. But one of our favorite things about grilling is the versatility that comes with the cooking method. The truth is, you can grill just about anything. Today, we’re talking the ultimate crowd pleaser -- pizza! We’re going with a pulled pork pizza. Seeing as we are going to be grilling our pizza, we thought the pulled pork idea would make sense....

How to Dry Age Beef At Home When the topic of dry-aged steaks comes up, it usually brings a lot of questions from steak-lovers and lay-people alike. The dry-aging process can be a bit mysterious, admittedly. As well, the flavor it produces can be hard to precisely describe. Some wouldn’t shy away from using a phrase like ‘pleasantly rotten’. Others take a more optimistic route, and use words like ‘robust’ and ‘full-bodied.’ Regardless of your semantic persuasions, dry-aging creates a decidedly unique and ...

How to Make Bacon at Home We aren’t breaking any new ground by saying bacon is amazing. But, what if we told you that the prepackaged, grocery-store bacon you’re used to is little more than a watered-down version of something truly incredible? When large-scale producers create bacon, they take a lot of shortcuts. Whether these shortcuts come in the form of additives or low-quality source meats, the impact on the final product can be huge... And sometimes, a huge letdown. But, there’s good news. You can make a vast...

How to Braise Over a Campfire Often these days, cooking methods come with some sort of fancy, high-end piece of technology. Whether that’s infrared thermometers, sous vide machines, or vacuum sealers, it can feel like the true ‘down and dirty’ methods have fallen by the wayside. Well, we’re here to change that (ok -- that might be a bit ambitious). If nothing else, we can offer a bit of an antidote to the gadget-fueled cookery that feels so pervasive these days. Braising is one of mankind’s oldest cooking techniques. It...

How to Smoke Cheese at Home Usually, any kind of barbecuing is going to involve temperatures somewhere around the 250 degree mark. This type of lower-temp cooking gives proteins plenty of time to break down and develop flavor. But what happens when we want to smoke something else? Cheese, for instance. You may have had smoked cheese from your local grocer before -- perhaps a nice gouda or mozzarella. The smokey and salty combination pairs perfectly with a rich, flavorful cheese. But, how do they do it? Wouldn’t 250 de...

How To Freeze and Reheat BBQ Look -- the reality is, it’s just not possible to make a little bit of barbeque. Depending on your point-of-view, that’s either a very good or very bad thing. Either way, it’s been our experience that barbecuing always results in more food than one person can eat. Keeping barbeque in the fridge is easy and straightforward, but you won’t want to leave it there for more than 3-4 days. We know firsthand that four days might not be enough time to finish all those leftovers! Well, the good n...

How to Caramelize Onions (The Reeeeeeally Slow Method) If we could sum up the entirety of BBQ with one phrase, it would probably be: slow and low. By utilizing longer cook times and much lower temperatures, we give our proteins time to break down and tenderize to perfection. It’s not always easy, and it’s almost never quick, but the results are absolutely worth the effort. So, what if we extend this practice beyond proteins? Today, we are going to look at a slow-and-low approach to another common ingredient: onions. Perfectly caramelized onio...

How to Grill Shellfish When people think grilling, it’s typically steak that comes to mind. But one of our favorite things about the grill is its versatility. With a little bit of know-how, you can grill just about any food you can find, and seafood is no exception. Grilling seafood is an easy, quick way to enjoy the ocean’s bounty. Clams and Mussels Grilling these bad boys is super easy. Get your grill super hot, and then you can put your shellfish right on the grate. Close the lid, and wait! No need to turn th...