Grilling Poetic

Episode 75 of The Dead Zone.
Suddenly she's attractive. Amazing what a hairstylist can do.

Thanks,
John M.
From the Q

I have a temper. One day its going to cost me, if it hasn't already.

Well, grilled out today. Boneless chicken breasts marinated since last night in Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, then grilled 12 minutes a side, turning 90 degrees every 4 minutes.
I set up my charcoal in a two-zone deal, with my wood-chips in an iron box just center. I have all the coals to the right, except a few surrounding the box for heat. In this case I used hickory, but I didn't let it get real hot first because I was worried about rain killing the whole deal. As a result, we didn't get a lot of smoke flavor, but that's fine. A little was enough with the marinating. Then, at each rotation my son basted on more sauce we had heating at the other end of the grill where there were no coals.
As all this was going on we made corn on the cob and macaroni & cheese inside. Topped it off with some nice yeast rolls and we had a great meal! Really tasty!
Now on a sidenote, Sweet Baby Ray's is a thick, rich, sweet red sauce. I include that because everytime I read about a sauce I'd like to know what its like. Not all sauces suit all tastes. My wife prefers tangier, mustard based sauces, and actually had me grill her a piece that hadn't been marinated or basted.
Anyway, it was a great way to spend a Saturday evening.
Thanks,
John M
From the Q

An email I sent to a colleague regarding why I prefer charcoal to
gas-grills.

No. It IS more to me. It is enjoyable, so I suppose that makes it a
hobby. My Father, and Grandfather, and Great-grandfather were all chefs
and bakers, but I never found the preparing of any food truly enjoyable
the way they did. Now I've found my niche, and I understand their
passion for the others.

And you are right. Most of what you do IS boring. I think my disdain for
your gas-grilling comes from there. To me, you either have to use rubs
and sauces to affect the flavor of food, or you have to use charcoal and
smoke. There's nothing else. In other words, and I promise you that
regardless of anyone's response this is my final word on this debate,
said only to attempt to explain my passion, not persuade you or Gene to
my side of the argument, a hamburger, cooked on your gas grills with
nothing else ever added, is going to be the same hamburger every single
time. There's nothing of variance to change. You set the knob to
whatever temperature you want and put the meat on for the predetermined
time and voila! Hamburger.
With charcoal, every grilling, even of a simple hamburger, can mean new
and exciting experiences, not just in taste, but in the unpredictability
of the fire. You have to constantly manage temperature, position,
airflow, and time together, and how you do so affects the flavor of the
meat every time. There's something primal about cooking a meal and
staring off, lost in your own thoughts about life, into the glowing
embers and coals of the fire. Trouble and time slip away to mean
nothing. The only thing that matters is the fire, and keeping the fire
doing what it should. It puts me closer to every cowboy on every range
trail throughout history, who, after a hard day working, sat down by his
fire to cook his supper. It gives me some insight into the mindset of my
earliest ancestors, as they rested the days catch on burning coals to
sear the flesh. The fire must be managed from the very first moment of
its inception. It is an experience that I don't think will ever get old,
and gas-grills seem to take a lot of that away. I enjoy the experience
so much that I'm actually going to start experimenting with lump coal
just to get closer to the original experience of grilling over the
coals.
I will argue forever about the virtues of smoke-flavored meat, but it's
about taste, and I cannot affect your tastes. I can, however, explain
that for me, it's not just about the taste, but also the experience of
re-connecting with that feeling of cooking over open flame that I enjoy.
You cannot get that with a gas-grill. At least, I don't see how. Maybe
someday I will trade these feelings for convenience, but I certainly
hope not. Sometimes, doing it the longer, harder way yields more
desirable results. It definitely does for me in this case.

And that is my final treatise on the subject. No more will I argue. You
will get smoked flavors at my cookouts, and I will get gas-grilled
delicacies at yours. End of story.