Paleolithic grill

If the original paleo population of men were cooking lots of meat, they were not using Weber grills. No iron - no grill - no problem.

This method is also known as caveman steak, dirty steaks (they aren't), or Eisenhower steaks.  The former president was a big fan of using this technique.

Start with white hot charcoal.  Use real wood chunk charcoal, it burns hotter and cleaner than the pressed charcoal briquette. Nobody seems to know what all is in those briquettes. It's a good idea to use a chimney to start the coals so that there is no hint of starter fluid.

Lay the meat directly in the coals.  I used lamb shoulder chops that had been dry rubbed with salt, sugar, cumin, and oregano two hours before cooking.

 Turn using tongs.

Here is the finished product. A little char on the outside.  Medium rare inside. No grill to clean.

These turned out nice and juicy.  Nancy really liked them.  Since I have a whole bag of the hardwood chunks I'll do this again with a rib steak hiding in the freezer.  I might even try a 7 bone chuck  pot roast if I can find one

Wood fired smoker - roast chicken

A galvanized trash can (never used for trash) is my repurposed large smoker. A fire built with several large chunks of wood will bun for a couple of hours and provide plenty of smoke and heat.

Step 1 is building the fire.

One the fire settled down, I added chicken and some wrapped potatoes.  The grill is easily large enough to hold several chickens, but only one was used for the first try.

.










The chicken was rotated a quarter turn every 15 minutes. A spatchcocked chicken or ribs would not need to be turned so often.

It is important to test the temperature of the cooked chicken with an instant read thermometer.  Cooking temperatures are too uncertain to rely solely on time.

Wood-fire grill - lamb chops

Red lobster brags about its wood-fire grill.  I can do that, too.  My cottonwood trees donate plenty of little branches.  The wood is free and any scout knows that wood coals impart a fine smoky flavor.


A small fire built in a regular grill will burn down to coals.


I started with lamb shoulder chops.  They marinated a couple of hours with a dry rub of kosher salt, pepper, and chopped garlic.






Fresh corn is starting to appear in the stores. Rubbed with a little olive oil it cooks well on the grill.

Add a chopped salad and presto - dinner for two

That green stuff is a homemade  chimichurri sauce.   It is used for grilled meat. It is originally from Argentina but is served in the U.S. also. The sauce is basically a mixture of a vinaigrette and chopped herbs.

I used olive oil and lime juice for the vinaigrette.  Herbs included parsley and mint (for the lamb) from the yard.  I threw in a chopped garlic too.  Make it ahead of time and let it come together.

Cooking outside

Simple food, nothing fancy, but the nice weather is good reason to fire up the grill.  Being outside and paying attention to life is a good alternative to the news.

First up,  steak on a budget.  The local grocery store had boneless chuck pot roast on "sale" for $2.99 per pound.  I picked one about 1.5 pounds.  Chuck has great flavor, but can be a little tough.

A good technique is to make a dry rub with plenty of kosher salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and a bit of sugar. Rub it in and let it sit for several hours. The salt dissolves and makes a brine which tenderizes the meat as well as adding flavor.  You may want to wipe the surface with a paper towel to remove excess salt before grilling.  (I skip this step) Thin slices across the grain adds to tenderness.

Next Tandoori chicken - Indian style chicken marinated in yogurt and seasoned with a spice mixture. I used one container of plain yogurt. I added spices: 2 teaspoons each of salt, cayenne pepper, ginger, and a packaged garam masala mix.
Mix all together and put the mix in a large plastic bag.  I added a dozen chicken legs.  The package marinated in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

The chicken is typically cooked in a tandoor. A tandoor is a clay oven - charcoal grill. I used a little Weber.

A little chopped salad and a scoop of rice and peas made it a meal.  Note the new blue plates.

Slow smoke-roasted herb brined chicken

The title says it all.


If you watch the TV cooking shows, you've heard talk about brine. If you haven't tried it, you should. A basic brine is a 5% salt solution. Sugar and aromatic herbs are often added to flavor the brine.

Brining was first developed as a method of curing and preserving meat. Corned beef is a brisket soaked in salt water and spices. Even a short brining can be an effective flavor enhancer. The salt changes the nature of the meat proteins and acts a a flavor transport. Flavors will be carried into the meat and the meat will remain juicier after cooking.

Recipe # 42 Herb-brined Cornish Game Hens

2 game hens (or one small chicken)
2 quarts of water
1 ½ ounces of kosher salt (about 3 tablespoons)
½ ounce sugar (about 1 tablespoon)
2 garlic cloves
4 rosemary sprigs
1 cut lemon (or tablespoon lemon juice)

Heat about a quart of water with the salt, sugar and aromatics until all the salt is dissolved. Add another quart of ice/cold water to cool the brine. The brine must be heated to dissolve the salt and infuse the solution with the herb flavors.

The brine must be cold before the chicken is added. Put the brine in the refrigerator for a while if necessary.

Butterfly (spatchcock) the chickens by cutting along the backbone. Put the chickens in a gallon zip lock bag. Add the brine mixture. Seal the bag with as much air removed as possible. Wait 3 to 4 hours. Brining longer than that for chicken may make the meat too salty.

Remove chicken from the brine. Blot dry with paper towels and let them rest/dry in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Letting them rest is essential for two reasons:
1) the salt will equalize in the meat. After the chicken is removed from the brine salt concentrations will be highest on the surface layers.
2) smoke flavor will "stick" better to the dry skin.

When you are ready to BBQ, arrange the coals for an indirect heat. Cook low and slow, 250 degrees for a couple of hours will result in juicy flavorful chicken. Add a glaze of favorite sauce during the last 1/2 hour.

Slow BBQ

The spring weather in the Grand Valley is calling for a BBQ. I have a gas grill, but this tear I wanted to add slow cooking to the outdoor mix. That calls for a kettle cooker and indirect heat.


The meat is a piece of chuck roast from the freezer. It is a flavorful and cheap cut of meat. This was on sale for $1.65 a pound. Note the thermometer, it's an important tool to getting it right.

We added a few carrots in a foil pack and a sweet onion in another.

Both vegetables were seasoned with a little butter and salt. The carrots got a splash of balsamic vinegar, too.

Using indirect heat lets the roast cook through. All the coals are on one side, the meat and vegetables are on the other. Using a thermometer makes it easy to cook the meat to the right level of doneness.