The Shashlik! The Barbie, Barbecue, BBQ, etc. The Grilling Meat Topic.

[Chris]

Chris: Great photos! That whole piglet would put me off a little though. I am a wussy carnivore; I don't like to see what they once were. If I really thought about it, I might be a vegetarian. But, I like meat too much; so, I just don't think about what it used to be.

It tastes wonderful though I'm certainly not a fish lover, but most FSUW I know love fish, in the supermarkets around my wife's city a lot of the fish they buy is swimming around in tanks, (will post pictures later - carp, trout, sturgeon etc) so they choose which ones they want to take home.

I was in my MiL's kitchen last week and in a plastic bag were 4 or 5 carp still flapping about half dead, they had them later for lunch, I'm not too good at that sort of thing, don't mind catching and killing my own, but seeing them swimming around in tanks like pets seems a little different to me

[AvHdB]

For some reason in Amsterdam I am often asked to "man" the grill. Most often these are gas grills and while I agree the best meat (dead cow) comes from North America and Australia, the Dutch have decent lamp and pork! I also prefer apple chips to mass made charcol.

Eating the overgrown gold fish is something I can't get used to! 

The first time I saw the flat skewers in Sumy I bought a dozen back to Amsterdam they are amazing improvement over the round examples.

In Connecticut I have a 15 year old Weber and cook frequently on it during the summer and fall. Two tricks; clean with a good metal brush the surface and make sure it is hot before placing any food on it. Cooking things like leg of lamp or larger cuts of meat get the coals to the edge and have the flesh in the middle. With the cooking surface I can add coals as needed from two flippy up things along the edges.

[Chris]

Fish etc at the supermarket in Chernivtsi

[Chris]

Another Shashlik BBQ in my Sister in Laws back garden in the City

[Vinnvinny]

Most often these are gas grills and while I agree the best meat (dead cow) comes from North America and Australia, the Dutch have decent lamp and pork!

Is Dutch lamp similar to Chernobyl sheep?

[AvHdB]

Most often these are gas grills and while I agree the best meat (dead cow) comes from North America and Australia, the Dutch have decent lamp and pork!

Is Dutch lamp similar to Chernobyl sheep?

 

The Dutch sheep do not go Baaah they grunt!

[Anteros]

I have a Weber charcoal grill (still made in the USA!) and I mostly grill fresh Salmon and also steak, whether it be a New York Steak, a nice Filet Mignon or a Rib Eye steak.  Taking your time and cooking it slowly is the key to meat which is tasty and properly cooked in order to avoid it being raw in the center which is dangerous.

Steak can be raw on the inside.  Only the outside needs to be cooked, to avoid e-coli.

Ground meats need to be cooked thoroughly, as does chicken.  Pork can be light pink in the middle, but it's a bit trickier.  You need to cook it to 71C for it to be safe to eat.

In addition to grilling pork, hot dogs, hamburger, fish and, of course, steak, I BBQ "beer can" chicken (whole chicken) to avoid the rotisserie, and ensure the meat remains moist.

This is true about steak.  I like to cook mine medium.  When I was in Ukraine I could not find a restaurant with a decent cut of meat like a New York steak; and neither could I get them to cook it medium.  I showed the waitress in my phrase book "cooked medium" and she nodded her head yes, but every aggravating time the "cook" overcooked it and it was well done.  So I gave up on steak and just got chicken from then on.

[Larry]

When I was in Ukraine I could not find a restaurant with a decent cut of meat like a New York steak; and neither could I get them to cook it medium.

I can well imagine that.  If you have a hankering for a good steak there is a good American style steakhouse in Kiev.  It's called Soho.  When you step through  the doors you would think you were in the US.  The atmosphere, menu, winelist, steaks, as well as prices, are just the same.  When I travel I prefer local food, but went to Soho because my then-girlfriend from Belarus had lived in New York City and wanted to taste a good steak.

The pictures in this thread are making me hungry for some pork shashlik.  The pork sold in grocery stores here has been bred to be so lean that it tends to dry out and has less flavor than pork sold in many other countries.

[Chris]

This is true about steak.  I like to cook mine medium.  When I was in Ukraine I could not find a restaurant with a decent cut of meat like a New York steak; and neither could I get them to cook it medium.  I showed the waitress in my phrase book "cooked medium" and she nodded her head yes, but every aggravating time the "cook" overcooked it and it was well done.  So I gave up on steak and just got chicken from then on.

Its nigh on impossible to get a steak (beef) at all, never mind get it cooked as ordered in a restaurant in Ukraine. Many of the steaks they list, tend to be pork with a sauce of some sort. You do get restaurants that list beef steaks on the menu, but they are nothing like you find in the West. The only places I have found that know how to cook a good steak are very high quality (expensive) restaurants that also do a lot of European food, or the odd good Italian restaurant if you can find one.

[cufflinks]

OK - heading home now to grill some steak tips and Angus burgers - BBQ fans say never confuse grilling on an open fire with Barbecue as real smoke house barbecue uses hours and hours of steam and wood smoke to tenderize what were once considered tough meets - as you have a pic of the smoker in Easty read up on any good old USA smoked BBQ.

I got a chuckle out of the Champagne to control the heat and flames - we prefer to douse with a bit of cold BEER out of a long neck glass bottle so as not to melt or burn - Becks - Coors - Canadian Labatt's or Molsuns or Bud or Sam Adams just fine - something about the fizzyness seems to go well with the various marinades and the beer aroma on the Weber coals is a real appetite builder - plus the Chef needs something to fend off the heat so a gulp now and then helps the process along so you will need several bottles.

One of my favorite techniques is a bit of Fin Turf and Feather - the Grill baskets are great for fish or Chicken - I tend to get rave reviews for taking lemons and slicing them into thin slices (3/8 of an inch or 2CM will do) and lining the bottom of a fish basket and then stacking Sea Scallops on top and keeping some melted butter nearby  - grill open side of the grill basket till the tops of the Scallops and Fish are nice and evenly brown (Lid close for Smoke Flavor on a Weber) checking every minute or two and them flip over on the lemons side and steam finishes them of nicely with a lemony flavor - finish of with a butter brush on top browned side and perhaps a marinade of choice - Teriyaki marinades popular here too (Hawaiian influence) as well as Sweet Baby Ray's Kansas City Style - some prefer a dry rub - experiment until you discover your favorites - PBS now has many many foodies show like America's Test Kitchen and BBQ U and in University - really great stuff - they suggest Pork should be "brined" in Salt and Sugar over night to keep moist - O course Costco offers Pork Loin already marinated - and hormone free Chicken breasts and great Tenderloin of Beef and T-Bone Steaks all do well on the wood or charcoal Webber style Grills - I find I use the square grill baskets on a hanle almost exclusively now as you can control flame and heat proximity - one thing to keep in mind - leave the grill unattended usually equals charred dinner so I find I just stay at the grill with ample beer to ah er um eh douse the flames

Gotta go fire up the grill....

[Manny]

Here is a question some of you barbie veterans may be able to answer: In Estonia, whilst rummaging around the places where the barbie stuff is in the supermarket, I found grill oil (to be used on meat not to oil the grate). It comes in several flavours and guys were eagerly buying it. So I grabbed a few bottles.

Now, what the hell do I do with it? At what point in the cooking should it be used?

[Halo]

You can use it as part of a marinade, or brush it on the meat right before grilling.

[Manny]

This is brush on stuff I think. If I use it before grilling though, wont that encourage the outside of the meat to burn?



This is the stuff I bought.

[Halo]

If your meat is burning, it is because your heat settings are too high.  If they are at medium, it will take longer to cook, but you won't have any burning.

[Anteros]

If your meat is burning, it is because your heat settings are too high.  If they are at medium, it will take longer to cook, but you won't have any burning.

correct. 

[Anteros]

You can use it as part of a marinade, or brush it on the meat right before grilling.

Needless to say I think you would prefer to use it as part of a marinade as the meat is going to consequently taste better and also be more tender.

[Larry]

This is brush on stuff I think. If I use it before grilling though, wont that encourage the outside of the meat to burn?

It depends in great part on how much sugar is in the oil/marinade product you are using.  That's why the barbecue sauces that are so common in the US are not usually applied at the very beginning of cooking.  They are applied only in the last part of the cooking time.

I have not used a product such as the one you have, but my guess is the manufacturer did not put in a huge amount of sugar into it, to avert this very problem.  That's because I suspect the product was meant to be put on the meat before it goes on the grill.  You could always apply a small amount of the oil before cooking and carefully watch to make sure the meat isn't burning.

[simo82]

Hey guys. I never used to be a Pork guy....but having had a couple of Shashliks in Ukraine, i have become a convert.....but it has to be right....Chris your Rast Suckling Pig looked amazing....i am not squimish when it comes to where my food is from....just watch Lion King (Circle of Life) 
Here are some of my pictures of my Brother In law making the Shashlik.......we stopped off on the way back from Bukovel and cooked ours in a wooden hut in some random Restaurant...(They didnt mind we bought our own food, but we had to have their drinks)
If that was in the U.K. They would chuck us out for that i think!
The actual shashlik had been marinading for a few days, and we used some massive twisted skewers.....I have now bought a big Shashlik BBQ Set, basically a metal framework, then you rest the Shashlik skewers ontop...cost me 74p!!!

[Anteros]

Hey guys. I never used to be a Pork guy....but having had a couple of Shashliks in Ukraine, i have become a convert.....but it has to be right....Chris your Rast Suckling Pig looked amazing....i am not squimish when it comes to where my food is from....just watch Lion King (Circle of Life) 
Here are some of my pictures of my Brother In law making the Shashlik.......we stopped off on the way back from Bukovel and cooked ours in a wooden hut in some random Restaurant...(They didnt mind we bought our own food, but we had to have their drinks)
If that was in the U.K. They would chuck us out for that i think!
The actual shashlik had been marinading for a few days, and we used some massive twisted skewers.....I have now bought a big Shashlik BBQ Set, basically a metal framework, then you rest the Shashlik skewers ontop...cost me 74p!!!

Yummy!!  Looks awesome, now I've got to go out for lunch!!

That was indeed very kind of the restaurant to let you do that; I don't know of a place in the US who would allow that either.

[Chris]

Hey guys. I never used to be a Pork guy....but having had a couple of Shashliks in Ukraine, i have become a convert.....but it has to be right....Chris your Rast Suckling Pig looked amazing....i am not squimish when it comes to where my food is from....just watch Lion King (Circle of Life) 
Here are some of my pictures of my Brother In law making the Shashlik.......we stopped off on the way back from Bukovel and cooked ours in a wooden hut in some random Restaurant...(They didnt mind we bought our own food, but we had to have their drinks)
If that was in the U.K. They would chuck us out for that i think!
The actual shashlik had been marinading for a few days, and we used some massive twisted skewers.....I have now bought a big Shashlik BBQ Set, basically a metal framework, then you rest the Shashlik skewers ontop...cost me 74p!!!

Looks good Simo, yes I always am surprised when you can buy their food but take all your own drinks aswell. Very accomodating these Ukrainians 

[simo82]

It;s the little differences to the norm that make Ukraine a fantastic place for me, and thats why im saving hard to move there!!!

[Chris]

It;s the little differences to the norm that make Ukraine a fantastic place for me, and that's why I'm saving hard to move there!!!

Yes, you know you are right, that's one of the things I like about the place too, plus it always seems a lot freer to me also.

[Anteros]

Hey guys. I never used to be a Pork guy....but having had a couple of Shashliks in Ukraine, i have become a convert.....but it has to be right....Chris your Rast Suckling Pig looked amazing....i am not squimish when it comes to where my food is from....just watch Lion King (Circle of Life) 
Here are some of my pictures of my Brother In law making the Shashlik.......we stopped off on the way back from Bukovel and cooked ours in a wooden hut in some random Restaurant...(They didnt mind we bought our own food, but we had to have their drinks)
If that was in the U.K. They would chuck us out for that i think!
The actual shashlik had been marinading for a few days, and we used some massive twisted skewers.....I have now bought a big Shashlik BBQ Set, basically a metal framework, then you rest the Shashlik skewers ontop...cost me 74p!!!

Looks good Simo, yes I always am surprised when you can buy their food but take all your own drinks aswell. Very accomodating these Ukrainians 

Those mean awful scamming Ukrainians??  Are you sure??   

[Anteros]

It;s the little differences to the norm that make Ukraine a fantastic place for me, and that's why I'm saving hard to move there!!!

Yes, you know you are right, that's one of the things I like about the place too, plus it always seems a lot freer to me also.

Little things like real freedom of speech and a lack of political correctness go a long way in making a place a good place to live.  The fact that you can take your food to some restaurants (so long as you buy their drinks) is just icing on the cake.

[Manny]

This is brush on stuff I think. If I use it before grilling though, wont that encourage the outside of the meat to burn?

It depends in great part on how much sugar is in the oil/marinade product you are using.  That's why the barbecue sauces that are so common in the US are not usually applied at the very beginning of cooking.  They are applied only in the last part of the cooking time.

I have not used a product such as the one you have, but my guess is the manufacturer did not put in a huge amount of sugar into it, to avert this very problem.  That's because I suspect the product was meant to be put on the meat before it goes on the grill.  You could always apply a small amount of the oil before cooking and carefully watch to make sure the meat isn't burning.

The problem with this stuff is the label is in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Swedish. 

No English. No Russian. I'll delve into the Swedish list of ingredients and find out the sugar content; that will likely hold the key to the timing.