I remember the remaining tracts of woods, the deer, foxes and the old steam locomotives. I remember the sounds of the Sister of St. Joseph’s bell towers at 6:00 am for the angelus and waking up to the aromas coming from the Entenmann family’s main bakery. On warm summer nights, I remember listening to the sounds of the stock cars from Islip Speedway about 10 miles away.

And I remember Long Island potatoes, ducks, clams, oysters, scallops and all the outstanding produce grown on the island before suburbia consumed almost the entire place. I remember talking with the old Nazi scientist farmer who lived in Bay Shore and sold vegetables and purple lilly of the valley he developed himself. It wasn’t uncommon to see people selling home grown vegetables and flowers in their front yard. Hell, i still say that I’m going to the farm stand when I go out to buy produce.

I miss those days, but yesterday I found that all is not lost. There’s still a little of the Long Island of my youth in existence out on the North Fork. I found North Fork Potato Chips in a local fish monger here in Brooklyn.

North Fork Potato Chips are made from potatoes grown on the Sidor family farm in Mattituck, Long Island. There used to be hundreds of potato farms on Long Island and this is one of the last remaining family farms.

With the help of their three children, the Sidors launched North Fork Potato Chips with a hearty chip kettle-cooked in healthy sunflower oil. Soon, their website was up and running and were selling chips by the case. They then introduced two new varieties - barbecue and sweet potato - and will soon roll-out both cheddar and onion and sour cream and onion.

These are some of the best chips I’ve tasted in a long long time, and I heartily recommend them. Help preserve what was so common 30 years ago, but now is all but lost; the family farm. Buy some North Fork Potato Chips!

There’s a great book out called Mastering Barbecue by Michael H. Stines. In this very informative book, he discusses how different parts of the United States have signature barbecue sauces. Funny, he ignores the middle Atlantic states, the west coast and New England completely, but he does include Florida and Oriental. Very interesting, and here goes:

• Alabama: Thin, vinegar-based with sugar, salt, pepper and mayonnaise
• Georgia: Thin mustard-based, tomato and vinegar
• Kansas City: Thick tomato and sugar base, sweet, smoky and spicy
• Kentucky: Black sauce with Worcestershire sauce, molasses and vinegar
• Florida: Tomato-based with lemon, lime, vinegar and butter
• Hawaiian: Sweet and sour with fruits and fruit juices
• Oriental: Soy sauce, peanuts and some heat. (Oriental? Isn’t that phrase obsolete nowadays and considered offensive by many? Also, with peanuts, I’d peg it more as Thai or Vietnamese rather than Oriental. But hey, I didn’t write the book)
• North Carolina (Eastern): Thin, vinegar-based with crushed red peppers, salt and pepper
• North Carolina (Western): Thin, similar to Eastern North Carolina, but with tomato and sugar added
• South Carolina: Thin mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper
• Tennessee: Depends on the region. Thin, vinegar-tomato sauce or sweet, somewhat spicy tomato-based with peppers and molasses (Memphis)
• Texas: Very thick, tomato-based, spicy with molasses and Worcestershire sauce, also a thin, hot-pepper-based sauce.

Photo of the various barbeque regions of the United States courtesy of Kraft Food Service.

I like candles. Yes, I admit it! I am a straight man and I like candles! I prefer candle light to electric light. As long as I’m coming out here, I also like to cook and shop for food. I can spend hours picking out the freshest and best ingredients.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to barbecue. It’s a celebration of my love of fire and food. Well, over the weekend my love of fire and food found a new toy that fuels that love; Pepperidge Farm Cookie Scented Candles.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, in a joint collaboration, Pepperidge Farms and the Yankee Candle Company have released a new line of cookie scented candles. Have you ever imagined having the smell of baking Milanos, Mint Milanos, Raspberry Milanos, Sugar Cookies, Snicker Doodles or Chessmen cookies in your hme whenever you want it. Well now you can. My current favorite it the Chessmen, but my wife prefers the Snicker Doodles.

Could all this be a result of Yankee Candle’s CEO, Craig Ryden having spent time as vice president of Marketing for Pepperidge Farm and president of Godiva Chocolates? Who knows, but I’m looking forward to the days of Godiva scented candles.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like cleaning my grill. After cooking, I usually remove the meat and let the grill sit, dirty and festering until my next cook. What usually happens is that the meat juices, sauces, sugars and spices are burnt to a crisp by the time I return to the cooker.

When I’m ready for the next cook, I light a fire in the cooker, knock the big stuff off the grill and let it heat up with the fire. Just before the meat hits the grill, I hit it with a brush cleaning off any remaining food nasties.

While this is an effective way to clean the grill, it’s hard on the brushes. It’s hard on the cook too, since you’re cleaning a hot grill in a hot cooker. But it’s not so hard on the Brush Hawg. Like its little brother the Hedge Hawg, this brush can clean.

I guess that’s due to the cleaning heads on both brushes having “maximum count stainless steel bristles,” whatever that means. Unlike some of the cheaper brushes on the market, this brush has a nice thick handle that stands up to elbow grease as you clean. It also has multiple blade scrappers, one of which arrived bent on my brush, and a convenient hook for hanging or to my surprise, grill lifting. A very nice feature is that the brush heads are replaceable.

The Brush Hawg retails for $ 12.99 and is available from Home Depot®, Sears®, Kmart®, GrillLovers.com®

The first piece of equipment I used was the HedgeHawg. I first saw this little brush last October at Charbroil’s product roll out in Bryant Park and I didn’t think much of it. I was told that it was designed for a woman’s hand and I openly questioned how often a woman cleans a grill. I won’t tell you what happened after that, but it wasn’t pretty.

I used the HedgeHawg to clean the grates of the grill before cooking the lamb on Saturday. I tell you, this little brush can clean! Most grill brushes that I’ve used in the past don’t last more than one or two uses, but after the first use and a rinse under some running water this brush still seemed brand new.

One great feature is that the pads of this brush are replaceable with either steel bristles or nylon scrubber pads. A big drawback to the HedgeHawg is that it does not have a long handle so it can not be used on a hot grill or over a live fire, but Charbroil has an answer to that which I will reveal in another post.

So do yourself and your grill a favor, go buy a HedgeHawg. They’re available at Target and Grill Lovers. Suggested retail price is $7.99.

From their website… “The burgers will be duly impressed by the sick spinners on this new BBQ tool! Bottle opener on the end of the handle, tenderizer and mincer on the business-end. This long-handled spatula is built for long hours of flipping duty. The metal spinners are just to remind all your friends that, hey… gotta represent. Makes a perfect gift for that bragging neighbor with the ‘Benz grill.

If you just gotta get one, it’s available exclusively from realdekor.com for $18.

With the new Solar-Grill you can barbecue fish, chicken, vegetables, juicy steaks or other tasteful meals. And all this can be achieved without: electricity, coals, connecting or fire lighting.

Just unfold aim at the sun put the meal into the barbecue cup and grilling starts immediately.

The Solar-Grill has a flexible mirror, which focuses the sun beams on the barbecue cup allowing it to heat up. Your meal is cooked in the self contained barbecue cup an heated evenly from all sides, without direct irradiation by sunlight.

Because of the intelligent construction of the Solar-Grill your favorite dishes are cooked thoroughly by it self well-done, without burning.

Everything keeps icy (?) and you can enjoy other activities. Solar-Grill is ideal for camping and spare time, in the garden, on the balcony, at the swimming pool, beach or lakeside resort. Anyplace where open fire is forbidden or clouds of smoke are not welcome; no smoke no open fire no turn of meals just pleasant smell of fresh barbecued dishes. (How can it smell like barbecue when the food is steamed and there’s no smoke? It will smell like steamed meat!)

Telescope features and a foldable mirror enables easy handling and space-saving storage. Because of it’s extreme lightness you can easily take the Solar-Grill to your favorite place.

Back to me now. I really think this is an interesting concept and the Solar-Grill looks like a fun gadget, but why do they insist on calling it a grill? Damn, they just don’t understand BBQ.

OK. Admit it. You like Alton Brown and all his quirky camera angles.

OK. Admit it. What you really like about Alton Brown is his equipment.

OK. Admit it. You’ve always known that you want to be a flamer.

Well, now you can.

You can now flame your mixer. Flame KA can supply you with all the custom designed flame decals your heart, or other parts, desires. Imagine your mixer all decked out and flaming. Just like Alton Brown.

Flame KA provides the flaming decals and you can put them everywhere. On your mixer, your toaster, your microwave, your barbecue or even you toilet. The possibilities boggle the imagination.

You Flamer You!

I know it’s still February and there’s still snow on the ground here in Brooklyn, but I’m itching to get out and cook. I need to smell wood burning.

My Weber Kettle is calling to me from the garage. You know the Weber. It’s that sputnik shaped orb (Man, am I showing my age! Kids - Sputnik was the first satellite launched into space - and it was launched by the Russians!) that had defined home barbeque until the advent of the gas grill.

The Weber is easily one of the most versatile home cookers on the market. It can grill, it can roast, it can barbecue and it can smoke. Not a bad deal for less than $150!

Chicken is one of my favorite foods to barbecue, hell it’s one of my favorite foods period and it’s easy to do on the Weber. To setup your kettle for barbecuing is very simple. Build two small piles of coal and wood on each side of the kettle. Place a drip pan in the middle. Light the fire and adjust the bottom vents until the fire is between 225 and 250 degrees and you’re all set.

This cook was part of my “Quest for the Golden Chicken” that I have been pursuing for a while now. Why a “Quest for the Golden Chicken” you ask? Well that’s a story for another post.

So how do you make “The Golden Chicken?” Keep reading after the break…

I picked up a couple of packages of Perdue chicken wings and legs. I marinated them for one hour in: (Mix all ingredients in a blender set to puree)

• 1 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Corn Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
• 1/4 Cup Sherry
• 1/2 Cup Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 Cup White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Tumeric
• 1 Egg
• 2 Tablespoons Turbinado Sugar
• 1 Minced Onion

On the right is a picture of some chicken on the grill ready to begin the transformation into sweet succulent barbecue. Sorry about the greenish color of the un-cooked chicken. I didn’t use the flash and it was a very gray day.

I built a fire of Kingsford Charcoal, Cowboy Lump and some oak chips. I placed a pan of chicken stock in the middle of the fire. This time I added stock to the drip pan but water works just as well. I basted the chicken one time with some more of the marinade. Then I put the cover on the smoker and went inside.

I took the remaining marinade and boiled it for 3 minutes to kill off any bad bacteria, removed it from the heat and added…

• 1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup
• 4 Heaping Tablespoons of Head Country Rub
• 12 Oz Dole Apple Juice
• A few shots of Frank’s Hot Sauce
• Salt and Pepper
• And a little more Turbinado Sugar to balance it and to finish it off.

This marinade is now became my mop and finishing sauce for the chicken. I let the chicken cook for about one hour, then mopped it for the first time. I continued to mop the chicken every twenty minutes to half hour until it was done.

So how did it taste? Good. Very good, just short of great. The sauce was sticky and gooey like a good Barbecue sauce should be. Sweet but not over powering. You could really taste the chicken which often gets lost when using the commercial sauces. The wife and kids all said that they liked this recipe better than the traditional sweet red barbecue sauce, but to me it was a little too Asian in flavor to be traditional BBQ. The chicken skin was tender and crispy. The meat? The legs were perfect, but the wings were over cooked.

I’m getting close, but my “Quest for the Golden Chicken” goes on.

For every food idiom that associates food with wealth, there’s a food stuff. You know what I mean, truffles, chocolates, lobster, etc. but those are for someone else to write about. I’m only going to focus on meat and not the other food stuffs because I’m a barbecue guy and let’s face it, barbeque is about meat.

So how does “high on the hog” and “living the high life” relate to meat? Find out after the break It’s actually amazingly simple. The better cuts of meat, the choice cuts, the most tender cuts, either from a cow or a pig, all come from the muscle groups of the animals that do the least amount of work. And where on the body do you think that is? Well, on both the cow and pig, it’s “high” on the animal; it’s the back, the part furthest from the ground. “High” on the back of the cow where you’ll find the T-bones, the Filet Mignon, the Prime Rib, the Porterhouse and finally the less desirable sirloin. If you look at the meat around the back legs, you’ll find the rounds. On the front shoulder you find the chuck and underneath that you find the brisket; tough and stringy and worn out from its constant use. The “upper cuts”, are tender only because they don’t do much work and they cook quickly.

Back in the mists of time when traditions began, in the barbecue belt a traditional “Southern Barbecue” was actually the cooking of whole pig over an open fire. Servants or slaves would roast the animal and serve the meat as it cooked to the boss. What did the boss eat while the folks were cooking and cleaning? You guessed it - the fast cooking meat from “high” on the hog.

On a pig, those cuts are the Pork Loin, the Rack of Pork, the Tenderloin, the Pork Steaks, and Center Cut Chops. Once the best cuts were served to the master and honored guests. The sirloin, the rounds and the chuck would be served to less important people. What was left was given to the servants, the slaves or the poor White Trash.

But the slaves, the servants and the White Trash got the last laugh. They learned that by slow cooking the tough cuts of meat such as the spare ribs, or the pork shoulder and butt, the lowly cuts of meat were transformed into a dish “fit for a King.” There was magic in the smoke and the art of “low and slow.”

The poor, the slaves and the White Trash all learned how to control a fire so that a full beef brisket or rack of pork spare ribs would cook slowly and tenderize the meat in the process. Good barbeque literally will “melt in your mouth.” Please don’t confuse barbeque with grilling. Grilling is cooking meat quickly directly over high heat. Barbecue is low and slow with fire temperatures rarely exceeding 250 degrees.

In the barbeque belt, most cooks cooked outdoors over wood or charcoal fires. This method became barbeque. In the north, most people lived in cities or in areas where the weather required indoor cooking for many months of the year, but the rules of divvying up the meat remained. The poor, immigrants, the working class and the White Trash were all given the tough cuts of meat. In the north, braising became the method of choice in transforming tough meat to edible goodness.

So the next time you’re looking for a way to stretch your food budget, take a look at beef brisket, pork butt, spare ribs or any of the traditional barbeque foods. Last I looked, pork butt was going for $1.09 a pound and brisket was $2.19 a pound in my local supermarket while the better cuts of pork and beef were all $4.00 a pound or better. A little “low and slow” cooking either over a wood and smoke fire – barbecue, or in a pot and braised will work magic.