Dr. T, Author at Grill Nation

Charcoal-Grilled Tri-Tip Steak Ultimate Feast

August 25, 2022 By Dr. T

Steaks on the grill - indirect heat — Steaks on the grill – indirect heat

We were in the mood for steak done up just right on our Weber Charcoal Grill. We went with uber-flavourful tri-tip steaks – times two – perfect for slicing and serving to a small crowd.

While we were at it, we thought we’d add not one but two BBQ-worthy salads and mess of bacon-heavy baked beans. Take a look, Nation – get hungry, and inspired.

Simply Seasoned (Salt and Pepper) Tri-tip Steak

Seasoning the meat with Meat Church's Holy Voodoo BBQ Rub — Seasoning the meat with Meat Church’s Holy Voodoo BBQ Rub

Not sure what it’s like in your parts, but tri-tip isn’t always easy for us to find. We like it for its marbling, its tenderness and the fact that it just loves the grill. So when we saw these babies, we grabbed them.

We seasoned them in two different ways: simple salt and pepper for one (can’t go wrong), and a generous dose of Meat Church’s Holy Voodoo BBQ Rub for the other (can’t go wrong there either).

With steaks ready for the grill, we got our sides on. Must give a big shout out to Southern Living’s Ultimate book of BBQ by Christopher Prieto for recipe and inspiration. (Let’s just say the pages of this go-to book are well-worn in our home.)

Prieto's Grilled Corn and Butter Bean Salad — Prieto’s Grilled Corn and Butter Bean Salad

Pieto’s Grilled Corn and Butter Bean Salad is a standout – a key ingredient being – wait for it – the grilled corn. We fired up our TEC gas grill for this purpose and threw on some cobs. We’re pretty sure it’s the corn in this one that makes going back for seconds almost mandatory.

A tangy slaw balanced out the creamy richness of the corn and bean salad…

Prepping the Baked Beans with a plethora of bacon

…and a bacon-rich baked bean dish rounded out the supporting cast for the feast. Now to the meat.

We got our charcoal going on one side of the grill to create an indirect heat situation.

When things were hot and ready, we slapped on the steaks, covered them up, and kept then on for about 20-25ish minutes to get a nice medium rare.

Weber Charcoal Grill - Covered — Weber Charcoal Grill – Covered

Check out the results below. Awesome colour, right?

We were feeding a small group, so we sliced it all up and urged everyone to try both seasoning styles.

The verdict was that both the salt and pepper and Holy Voodoo steaks tasted great. The take-home message was that the salt and pepper was no slouch at all. So if that’s all you have on hand, you’re good to grill.

Here’s a (first) helping plated and ready to eat. Plenty of seconds and leftovers to enjoy!

Now go get yourself some tri-tip and have some fun.

The Feast - Plated and Ready to Rumble — The Feast – Plated and Ready to Rumble

Chicken Legs With Weber Kick’n Chicken Seasoning Blend

August 15, 2018 By Dr. T

We love using our Weber Kettle Charcoal Grill, and Weber also makes a nice line of seasonings that are real crowd-pleasers around here. We’re loving Weber’s Gourmet Burger Seasoning lately, which is great on beef burgers of course, but also surprisingly tasty on chicken, too.

Our other go-to is Weber’s Kick’n Chicken Seasoning which is what we used last night on a mess of chicken legs (see below). It’s a blend of some reliable basics, like dehydrated garlic and onion, and red pepper, but there’s also some orange peel in the mix. Gives it a hint of fresh-tasting citrus and some nice colour. What’s not to love?

Chicken Legs on the Weber Kettle Grill

To round out dinner, we cooked up a skillet full of fresh peas and shallots right on the grill for smashin’ alongside the meat. (Looks nice, too.)

Peas and Shallots in a Skillet on the Grill

…And here it is moments before we sat down to eat. Not sure how well the color on the chicken skin shows up in the picture, but this seasoning gives the chicken a pleasant warm orange hue.

Chicken Legs with tasty Weber Kick’n Chicken Seasoning

So, while it’s fun to get creative mixing up this and that in the kitchen to create cool rubs and spice blends, it’s also great (and a super timesaver) to find a reliable line of seasonings that you can count on to bring the flavor in a hurry. Nice job, Weber.

Korean Inspired Pork Tenderloin with Cabbage, Garlic and Pho Broth, Veggies and Noodles

August 6, 2018 By Dr. T

Made this dish the other night inspired by a great selection of Korean-inspired marinades at our local grocery store, a fresh cabbage, and a charcoal grill.

As torrents of rain came pouring down on our little corner of Grill Nation, we feasted on hot pho and charcoal- grilled pork tenderloin, cabbage and garlic. In fact, we pulled the whole thing in and off the grill just as the first drops started to fall…

So, yeah. It was going to be a good night.

Pork and cabbage just off the grill

Used a Korean-inspired marinade for the pork, and charcoal-grilled it on the Weber Kettle Grill (~ 45 minutes). To this we added wedges of cabbage drizzled with a bit of olive oil.

Pho bubbling on the stovetop

While the meat was cooking, we made a tasty soup. Our aim was to go heavy on the flavour, veggies and noodles, and relatively light on the liquid, so we could enjoy it more like a sauce for the pork and cabbage than in its own a bowl. Spotted a tasty prepared pho broth at the store, so we used that and kicked it up with a single Thai chili pepper adding a noticeable hit of heat. Veggies and noodles went in right at the end to keep things bright and crisp.

Pork Platter Perfection

Giving my self major bonus points for presentation here. Just look at this awesome platter. Sliced up the tenderloins (4 in total) fairly thick, fanned them out on the board and garnished with cilantro and lime wedges. Beautifully charred cabbage also went on the board to amp up the visual feast.

Pork Tenderloin with Pho Broth and Grilled Cabbage

Served the whole thing family style. Everyone helped themselves, first piling on some pork with cabbage wedge on their plates, then ladling broth, noodles and veggies on top to make a sort of ‘undone saucy soup’ you can eat with a fork. A squeeze of lime over top brought it all together.

Grill-perfect for a cool, rainy summer night.

Cedar Planked Salmon on Weber Charcoal Kettle Grill

June 30, 2018 By Dr. T

1 Kilo of Canadian Salmon Goodness

Saw this B.C. beauty being unloaded at the fish market and got inspired. When asked “How much of it do you want?”, just had to respond: “All of it.”

Salmon looking good on the Weber Grill

Soaked a cedar plank for a couple of hours, then fired up our Weber Charcoal Kettle Grill. Used one Weber Rapidfire Chimney – full of coals (handy, that thing). Set up the salmon to cook over indirect heat – top vent closed ~75%- for about ~20/25 minutes.

We used Humble and Frank Salmon Finishing Rub (found it at the local Safeway – nice!) to season it up.

Cedar Planked Salmon – ready to serve

Looked and tasted spectacular – nothing like fish on the charcoal grill.

Fish Tacos on the Weber Kettle Grill

June 15, 2017 By Dr. T

Fish Tacos on the Weber

Hey all, this could be the next best thing to an actual shore lunch, we used three pounds of fresh caught pickerel (can’t tell you exactly where but just offshore from the Hecla Marina is pretty close), lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and chill powder.

We used a grill pan on the Weber kettle grill then course chopped up the cooked fish with some fresh lime and cilantro. Warmed some flour tortillas and topped with some pico de gallo and garlic aioli slaw…delicious!!!

Fish Tacos with Aioli Slaw

What is Marbled Beef? Does it Taste Better?

January 14, 2009 By Dr. T

Marvelous Marbling

Question:
Hey Roy, loved your porterhouse post. Got a question for you concerning ‘marbled beef’. Does it really taste better and what do you look for?
Scott in Ann Arbor, MI

Answer:
Thanks Scott. I really like this question because ‘marbling’ is a term that gets tossed around a lot in cookbooks and on cooking shows, but I don’t think is really understood by a lot of people.

First let’s take a look at what we are talking about here:

Example of Perfectly Marbled Beef

So the ‘marbling effect’ pictured above is produced by the fine evenly distributed flecks of white intramuscular fat distributed throughout this steak – NOT the dense outer fat around the outside.

Compare this to the steak below:

Example of Poorly Marbled Beef

Pretty obvious that there is no marbling in this cut.

Now that we are all on the same page, the next part of your question gets really interesting. Does marbling make for a juicier, more tender better tasting steak? There is no doubt in my mind about the answer here – YES – and if the years of experience aren’t enough for you, believe it or not there is data to support this!

In the May 31, 2007 issue of the well respected Journal of Food Quality, author G.C. Smith published “RELATIONSHIP OF USDA MARBLING GROUPS TO PALATABILITY OF COOKED BEEF”. Their conclusions – and I’ll just cut to the chase here, because you know I could go on for hours about this stuff – “as marbling increased from practically devoid to moderately abundant … steaks were more palatable about 2/3 of the time …”. Don’t you just love science?

Until next time – like I always say…

Love your meat,