Grilling and Pot Roast

It all began in college. My roomies and I would fire up the grill on our deck (shhhh, don’t tell the fire marshall!) and cook up some steaks. Grilling was great because it was a quick and easy way to cook dinner.

When I dated Julie, I learned that she LOVED grilled food. I considered myself fortunate to be somewhat experienced in the ways of the grill. On top of that, my father in law is a grill master and I have gleaned much wisdom from him. Over the past year and a half, I have grown to enjoy grilling. It really is satisfying to lite a fire and cook meat to perfection. The taste of meat and vegetables cooked over burning wood is leaps and bounds above a sauteed chicken breast or a broiled hunk of beef. It really makes home cooked meals worth it and allows us to avoid eating out and save money. Plus, it’s just plain manly.

To really enjoy grilling, I have discovered the following principles:

1. Charcoal-cooked food and smoked meat is the best. No propane or propane accessories for me! Gas doesn’t impart any flavor and it’s too much like cheating. Besides, how is a gas grill much different than a broiler?
2. A good grill makes a difference. I’m happy with my 27″ Weber. It has a detatchable ash catcher, so cleanup is a breeze.
3. It’s best to use an electric starter iron or a charcoal chimney. At first I used the starter iron, but I found it difficult to evenly light the briquettes and the time required to get a good fire was too much. I ended up getting a chimney starter. In 10 minutes, I have blazing hot coals. No outlet required, just some paper and a match.
4. Lump hardwood charcoal (the strips of wood, not the pressed briquettes) is very handy because it lights fast and gets very hot. A little bit goes a long way.
5. On the flip side, hardwood charcoal makes temperature regulation difficult. It’s really just great for direct, fast grilling for steaks, breasts, kabobs, etc.
6. You kettle grill can double as a slow-roasting barbeque or smoker! Yes, it’s true! It’s not just for grilling steaks. My father in law puts a Turkey on the grill and slow roasts it all day on Thanksgiving. The taste is amazing.
7. Slow roasting is what makes barbeque barbeque. Before I knew that, I just thought barbecue was cooked meat with sauce on it. True barbecue is cooked over low heat for hours at a time. The addition of smoke leaves a “smoke ring” in the meat and gives it that extra special flavor. The sauce is just the icing on the cake.

Today being Columbus day, I decided to put my barbeue prowess to the test and slow cook a pot roast. Pot roast on the grill?! That’s madness! Indeed, I was only able to find half-measure jobs on the web (recipes that directed the chef to pack the roast in a tin-foil bag, which would make grilling the meat completely worthless - might as well just use a crock pot). So I decided to try it myself. Worst case, I would be out $5. I did get some help. I bought a grilling book by Steve Reichlen, host of PBS show Barbeque University. In it he has a recipe for brisket. Since a brisket isn’t much different than a pot roast, I thought, the process should be the same. I would place the roast directly in a foil pan and spread the coals to the sides, leaving a gap in the middle of the grill. This would cook the meat indirectly (the meat would not be directly over the coals). The pan would act as a heat deflector and would let the roast simmer in its own pool of melted-off fat, keeping it nice and moist. Mmmmm.

Well, it turned out pretty OK. The biggest problem I had was controlling temperature. I dumped in a whole chimney’s worth of hardwood charcoal, so the grill stayed too hot for most of the cooking, even with all of the vents nearly closed. Within an hour, my 4-pound roast was already up to 160 degrees - that’s medium doneness! Throughout the cooking, I added some oak Jack Daniels wood chips (yum!) and basted the roast with a mop-sauce I whipped up ad-hocically (red wine vinegar, water, pepper, paprika, “italian seasoning”, and garlic salt). When the roast got up to 180, I killed the fire and let it sit for a few minutes. Another problem I ran into was that all of the fat that did melt ended up pooling up to the side where there was no meat. I also accidentally poked a hole in the drip pan, thus allowing the precious juices to be wasted.

The end result was a pretty tasty roast, but there was still plenty of fat that hadn’t melted off. The meat wasn’t too tough and it had about a 1mm-thick smoke ring! Mmm! The meat had a very succulent crust. Next time, I’ll try to cook with a much cooler flame. That should allow all of the fat to melt off and for a larger smoke ring to develop.

This could almost be a poor man’s brisket!

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