CALF_News_December_2019_January_2020

47 CALF News • December 2019 | January 2020 • www.calfnews.net GRILL H O T O F F T H E A C A L F N E W S B B Q P A R T Y BIRTH OF HOT OFF THE GRILL O ne of my all-time favorite television programs was King of the Hill , the animated series starring fictional character Hank Hill, assistant manager at Strickland Propane, located in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas. Hank proudly sells “propane and pro- pane accessories” and is an unapologetic advocate of propane grilling because you “taste the meat and not the heat.” I’ve grilled and smoked using char- coal and wood chips over the years, but finally ended up in the Hank Hill camp. That was until I was introduced to the world of wood-pellet grilling by Dean Gigot. Dean and Betty Jo parked their motor coach for several summers at Table Rock Lake in Missouri. My wife, Sondra, and I were visiting Dean and Betty Jo one of those summers and Dean asked if I’d help him unload a Traeger grill he’d just bought. With a surge of our collective testos- terone, we heaved the grill from the bed of Dean’s truck and lost control of it in midair. It crashed with a thud on the concrete patio, landing flat on its front side. Dean and I looked at each other in bewilderment and then he announced matter-of-factly,“Well, it’s done.” For Dean, that was a very measured By JimWhitt Contributing Editor response. In retrospect, this probably looked like a scene from King of the Hill . I was sure the grill was injured beyond repair, but we stood it upright and, miraculously, it survived unscathed. That evening, I tasted the first steak I’d ever eaten cooked on a wood pellet grill. With all due respect to Hank Hill, its wood-smoked taste was far superior to anything I’d cooked with propane. When we got home, I bought a wood-pellet grill and have been cooking on one ever since. My original wood-pellet grill was a Louisiana brand and was showing a lot of wear after 10 years of use. A friend of mine who owns a tractor dealership carries Traegers, and one day I spotted a top-of-the-line grill in his showroom sporting a $300 discount sign. I asked him what was wrong with it.“Nothing,” he said.“It’s just last year’s model.” A week later, he delivered my new grill. I quickly learned that when you buy a Traeger you become a member of the Traeger cult (they burn wood pellets instead of incense). There’s a Traeger Nation BBQ group on Facebook. Trae- ger has a phone app featuring more than 1,000 recipes with step-by-step instruc- tions. They sell a wide range of Traeger brand barbeque sauces, rubs and acces- sories (take that Hank!). Using their recipes and products, I’ve grilled everything from steak to smoked salmon with avocado salsa and am gaining a reputation as a sort of Jedi grill master among family and friends. They say my baby back ribs are the best they’ve ever eaten. And all I do is what the app tells me – the recipe is appropriately named Simple Smoked Ribs. This summer we rented a house for a week near Crested Butte, Colo., and invited Betty Jo to join us. CALF News contributing editor James Coope joined us the first night and came armed with steaks and other culinary delights he and Betty Jo purchased from Tony’s Meats and Market (you can read James’ article about Tony’s in the last issue). James did the grilling that evening and that’s when I discovered he is not only a member of the cult but a Jedi grill grand master, which of course is the highest rank of the Jedi grill order. As we swapped grilling stories over supper, a brilliant idea was hatched – why not feature a grilling column in CALF News ? James authored the inaugural “Hot off the Grill” column in the last issue, sharing how he prepares smoked brisket with a green chili mac and cheese dish – on a Traeger, of course. That night in Crested Butte was an anniversary of sorts. It was 10 years ear- lier, almost to the day, that Dean Gigot introduced me to the world of wood- pellet grilling. So, I think Dean deserves much of the credit for the inspiration of CALF’s new“Hot off the Grill.” And now you know – as Paul Harvey would say – the rest of the story.  We ' re Looking for Reader Submissions ! We're inviting our readers to send in photos and descriptions of your own favorite grilling parties/recipes. Send your entries to dgigot1@cox.net .