Good Food

Weber 2005 Model 6721001 Genesis Silver B Propane, Black

Charcoal is the best way to grill, no doubt about it. But if you're like me, firing up the charcoal grill is a once-in-a-while affair, reserved for special occasions. For everyday grilling, I prefer propane, and my favorite grills are the Weber Genesis series.

I have the Weber Genesis Silver B as my main grill, and I use it for everything from vegetables to burgers to kabobs. The Genesis grills are solidly built, with cast iron and aluminum components where other grills use stamped aluminum or thin stainless steel. With 36,000 BTUs of heat and over 600 square inches of cooking space, the Genesis Silver B can handle almost any task you throw at it.

The built-in thermometer, gas tank meter, and no-flare-up Flavorizer bars are useful features that round out a complete package. Set up is relatively painless. The premium version includes an extra fold-out shelf, which is nice but not necessary, and stainless steel cooking grids, which clean up very nicely and are well worth the extra expense.

If you're looking to upgrade from an inexpensive grill to a real workhorse that will last for many years, look no further than the Genesis Silver.

Some barbecue can be done fairly quickly. Ribs, for example, can be smoked and finished in the oven in under four hours and turn out tender, juicy, and flavorful.

Alas, not so for brisket. Two hours in the smoke (all I could manage with two kids under 4 and a list of home projects) was not enough to really give the meat the flavor I was hoping for. After finishing in the oven the meat was tender and juicy, and the outer surface where the rub and smoke were intense had great flavor. But the interior was more or less well done roast beef.

One consolation was that the meat juices added to the barbecue sauce produced some of the best sauce I've tasted. So with enough sauce the brisket was pretty good, but it wasn't real barbecue. Back to the drawing board on this one.

I recently received a Gaggia Evolution Espresso Machine for my birthday. This is the first real espresso machine I've owned, and I have to say that the hype is true: combined with a burr coffee grinder, you can produce espresso at home that rivals what you get in a coffee bar. Let's face facts; your Starbucks coffee drink is not being prepared by a dedicated barista, skilled in coaxing the finest espresso from the temperamental Italian pump machine behind the bar. You are getting coffee made by a college kid who is working so that he can make some money and sneak free caramel lattes to his friends. You can do better at home.

Like many areas of fine cuisine, coffee is something one can easily devote one's entire existence too. There are a dozen distinctly different varieties of beans available at my local mass-market grocery store, and many more at various coffee bars and vendors. The methods of preparation are endless too, from French press to automatic drip. My requirements are few: a good cup of morning coffee, and a good double espresso.

The Gaggia Evolution delivers beautifully, once you learn how to operate it. Making espresso on anything less than a super-automatic machine takes some practice. Fortunately the machine I got from Amazon had not only two instruction books, but an interactive CD-ROM as well. The two keys are to preheat the equipment and your cup by running a blank shot, and to adjust your grind and tamping pressure so that the extraction takes 20-30 seconds. Once you get this down, you can produce a double shot with good crema almost every time. (Need more help? There are many resources on the web: try here, and here and here.)

Gaggia has a whole line of machines in the 200-300 dollar range with the same internal components, any of which will produce a great cup of espresso with a bit of practice and good quality beans. I recommend the Evolution for its looks and reasonable price.

Just as Philadelphia has its cheesesteak, Chicago has its Italian beef. Both sandwiches are essentially piles of beef on a sub roll, but there are some important differences. A cheesesteak is the subject of much controversy: how to season the meat, should any vegetables other than onions be included, and of course, cheese whiz or provolone? Let us not even speak of tomato sauce.

The Italian beef is much simpler. Roll, meat, gravy. These three elements constitute the heart of the sandwich, and in my experience they are the same everywhere. Peppers are also usually available, but I consider the peppers, sweet or hot, to be optional. Usually they are pretty badly cooked, so there's not much lost if you omit them.

The meat is thinly sliced beef, kept hot in the "gravy", which is a thin sauce of oil, garlic and Italian herbs. The beef is piled on a sub roll, and the gravy is either ladled on (this is the standard preparation) or the entire sandwich is dipped in the gravy. This is my favorite way to enjoy Italian beef, although it does make for messy eating.

In the Chicago area most places that serve lunch have some form of Italian beef, often advertised as simply "Beef". My favorite to date is Portillo's, but most places serve up a decent sandwich. For out-of-towners (or ex-patriate Chicagoans) you can order packages of beef and gravy from Portillos and other places for overnight delivery.

As a native Californian who now lives in the Chicago area, I was surprised to discover that Chicago has a significant regional cuisine that is not often found or even known of outside the Midwest. Everyone has heard of Chicago-style pizza, just as they've heard of a Philly Cheesesteak or a New York hot dog. But Chicago has much more to offer than just pizza.

This is the introduction to a series of posts on Chicago regional specialties that I will make on occasion. It will also give me a good excuse to revisit some of my favorites.

First Up - Italian Beef

One of the great traditions of Memorial Day weekend is to barbeque, although as all 'que lovers know, what really takes place is mostly grilling.

This weekend I plan on making some real Texas BBQ, a smoked brisket. Unfortunately, I only have a Weber grill (and of course my Weber Genesis Silver) not a true smoker, so it's going to be challenge.

David Rosengarten has a recipe where he smokes the brisket for an hour or so, then finishes it by slow-roasting in the oven. This is probably blasphemy to a true pit master but it may be the best I can do. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Addendum:

Rosengarten actually has you smoke the meat for four hours, then four hours in the oven. I'm sure it's great, but if you're going to take shortcuts, I think the smoking is the place to cut. This isn't just crazy talk; the temperature is more important to the final texture of the meat than the smoke. Cook's Illustrated's recipe has two hours on the grill, two in the oven. I think this is more do-able and in line with other recipes for roasting meat. You're never going to find a recipe that has you cook roast beef, for example, for eight hours.

I've decided to try my hand at writing about food. I plan on talking about restaurants, cookbooks, recipes, equipment, and products that I've encountered in my life as a lover of good food.