Guest post by: GirlsonaGrill’s Alison and Katie
We are Alison and Katie, aka GirlsonaGrill: two sisters from Alabama, raised in the finest traditions of outdoor entertainment, barbecue and tailgating! While we cheer for different teams, the one thing we have in common is a love for good, fresh ingredients, cooked well over an open fire. But it’s easier to grill the steak than to write about grilling it — at least, to write about it in a manner that someone else can use to duplicate your results…. So we’re going to keep it simple and real.
Here’s one of our favorite stories along with some basic information to get you started, and then you can experiment until you find the way that’s right for you.
Alison’s Story
The Savory Smell of Success: A First Timer’s Charcoal Grill Story
While I’ve been grilling for a long time now, it wasn’t always easy for me. Years ago, despite knowing that I could make tastier dishes on the grill, I was afraid to try — it seemed too dangerous, and I hated that smoky smell on every part of you. No way! A job best left to a man, I would think. Leave him to have his clothes mussed up, smoky and sauce-stained.
Then one day, after my husband had been away on business and I had been deprived of the flavorful meats I had come to love for well over a week, I broke down. I put on some ratty, old clothes. I marched myself out to the backyard. I did what I had so often seen, but not participated in – the fire ritual.
Opening all the vents half-way, I piled about 20 briquettes of charcoal and a handful of wet hickory wood into a perfect pyramid surrounding my Char-Broil electric grill starter. Then I did something I had never done before unsupervised I plugged it in!
I closed the grill lid on the starter handle, popped open a Michelob ultra-light to celebrate the moment of creating fire all by myself, and then went back to the kitchen to prepare my favorite: Barbeque Turkey-Cheese Burgers (with two types of onions in the patties – green and yellow – finely diced).
After fifteen minutes, and a lot of sideways glances out the window to see if I had set the porch on fire – I crept cautiously back outside. To my surprise and delight, the fire was hot and ready to go.
I removed the starter and put it in a safe place, piled my coals high on the right side and put the grates on the fire to heat up. It was only 5 minutes until I was grilling my turkey burgers.
I plopped my burgers down on a foil tray on indirect heat (on the left side of the grill), closed ‘er up, and crossed my fingers. I stayed out-side all the while to monitor the situation, but all was good. I marveled at the wildlife in my backyard, watched some blue-jays, and drank my beer. Through years of experience cooking these burgers while self-ostracized to the kitchen, cooking them in the oven, I could tell when they were almost done, and I flipped them, for the last two minutes on the grill, over direct heat for a good searing. I topped with cheese, and left them on the heat just long enough for the cheese to melt and the grill marks to appear. Then I plated them and brought them inside to rest on the stove while I returned to the grill.
With my burgers off, I closed the air vents. Then I took a picture of my meal and texted it to everyone I knew. What a victory! Then I looked down at my clothes to survey the damage… They were surprisingly clean. I smelled my hair. Hmm. .. Puzzling. There was only a mild, rather delightful hint of smokiness. I’d say this HINT of scent, this wonderful hickory perfume, and had the potential to drive men really bonkers.
The real question in my mind though was: how is it that I do not smell or look like my husband or father after an evening on the grill? Ladies, here’s my answer: I think men do this for effect. They have a way of hovering over the grill, taking too long to close the lid and making some sort of grunting noise to establish their level of competency while literally sucking smoke into their very core. I think my husband seems to think of marinade like Barbecue Aqua Velva, and uses it as some sort of badge of honor. They congratulate each other for getting burned as if burns were battle scars.
But it really doesn’t have to be that way. They get dirty and smelly and force you to break out the fire extinguisher every 4 to 6 months out of sport – because it’s fun for them. However, we can have our own kind of fun now with as little or as much mess as you’d like.
So the next time you feel deprived of savory, smoky charcoal-grilled foods don’t be afraid to light that grill. It’s easy, and the only scent you’ll smell afterward is the sweet, savory smell of success.
Girls on a Grill Turkey Burger
For every 3-4 people, depending on appetites, use:
1 pound ground turkey (stay away from the all-white meat, if you can)
2 pieces of white bread, crumbled
1/4 cup milk
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
dash of Crystal Hot Sauce
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Kosher salt to sprinkle patties
Cheese of your choice
Put the crumbled bread and milk into a small bowl, and let the bread soak up all the milk it can for about 5 mins. Meanwhile, combine all the other ingredients, except the kosher salt, in a bowl and mix well with your hands. The debate on kneading hamburgers rages on – we like ours pounded out pretty hard, then shaped into big, flat disks, about an inch thick. We use our thumb to make an indentation in the middle of the patty – this keeps the burger from swelling up in the middle and getting to fat.
HINT: never use your spatula to squash the patties down while they’re cooking – that just forces all the juices out into the fire. Sprinkle the finished patties with Kosher salt – this will eventually help develop a nice crust – and put them back in the fridge until you are ready to put them on the grill. These cook up fat enough to make an impression on the plate without being so big that we can’t fit it in our mouths. We always splurge on the best cheese we can buy, and top it with our favorite condiments.
Hamburgers take about 15-20 minutes on a medium grill with a modified two-level fire — that means all the coals or burners hot on one side, and the other side with only a few coals, or very low burner temp. We close our lid and let them “bake” on the cool side of the grill for most of that time, then finish them off directly over the fire for some great grill marks. The internal temp of a medium hamburger is about 155 – 160 for a medium-well turkey burger. For more ideas on flavoring hamburgers, visit our Web site at girlsonagrill.com!
Photo by: Phil Romans
