COOKERY

Copyright 1952 R. H. Sutherland

IF all the people in the United States who have taken up backyard cooking as a hobby were put side by side, the smoke would be something awful.

But even so, everyone would undoubtedly be having a fine time. Cooking outdoors, which our ancestors were forced to do, is now an extremely popular pastime— and with sound reason.

Whether it’s deep in the woods or ten feet from the back door, the taste of a charcoal-broiled steak is su­preme. A potato cooked in hot coals is obviously what Nature had in mind when she invented it. And fresh- picked corn can have no more worthy fate than to be roasted with the husks on.

With more and more people getting into the act, however, it might be well to include a note or two of caution. In general, the brand-new backyard cook should beware of three special dangers:

1. Overambition—the tendency to try too much and make twice as much work of it as is necessary or enjoyable.

1

2. A too elaborate cooking set-up— one which costs too much to build and requires too much trouble to operate.

3. Radioactive barbecue sauce.The point of backyard cooking, in the first place, is

to enjoy yourself. Don’t try to cook an entire meal over an open fire—it can be fatal. Pick out one or two items and concentrate, and produce the rest of the meal from the kitchen or the refrigerator. Let’s face it: the pioneer­ing days are over.

Fireplaces and Grills

This is the place to keep a firm hold on your enthusi­asm. Don’t buy or build an elaborate set-up until you’ve had some experience and know what you’re do­ing. To get started, build a simple, temporary fireplace, or buy one of the small portable grills available in your local store. One friend of ours has been cooking for five years on a grate lodged between a couple of flat stones. He has never heard of mortar and is perfectly happy. And his steaks are perfect too.

If you have gone through the earlier stages and want a permanent grill, it is not necessary to build a monu­ment. You can put up a practical, efficient and com­paratively inexpensive fireplace—something like the one pictured here.

When you get set, arrange your fireplace so that there are about eight or nine inches between the ground and

2

the grate. This will give you room to build a four-inch bed of coals—the basic secret of backyard cooking.

If you are going to cook with wood, you won’t need air space under the fire. Wood burns strongly enough to provide its own draft. With charcoal, though, it’s advisable to have a bottom grate. For this purpose you can use a piece of sheet metal with holes punched in it or, better yet, some closely-woven metal mesh or grat­ing. Set this about two or three inches off the ground and your charcoal will perform a lot better.

The reason for a four-inch bed of coals is to develop the radiant, powerful heat needed for cooking. It’s the same principle as the thick frying pan and the thin one. A thick pan—properly heated—will do a better job of cooking a hamburger, without sticking, than a thin one. T h at’s because the heavier pan produces a DEEPER heat. Ever notice how thick a diner grill is?

3

Obviously, to build up four inches of live coals, you’re going to need time, so start a good three-quarters of an hour to an hour before the meal is to be cooked. Allow more time to build a wood fire than charcoal. Like cooking in the kitchen, there’s no pleasure in rushing. Take it easy.

When the fire has been reduced to a mass of glowing coals, watch the draft carefully. If it’s too strong, it will work your coals too fast, throw too much heat and burn out too quickly. A lot depends on the conditions of the day, of course, whether it is breezy or still. It’s smart to keep a baffle plate around—a piece of sheet steel which can be used to block off the draft, or to build it up by simple fanning. Control of outdoor cook­ing must be a minute-to-minute business, even though you can cut the chances of trouble to a minimum. Besides you, the fire, and the food, Nature is also a permanent guest. Be prepared for small emergencies.

Don’t run down to the closest hardware store and load up with 12-foot barbecue implements. You’ll need, first, a pair of cotton work gloves. These will protect you from flying fat, and they’ll resist heat long enough to pick up a hot object and set it down again. A long- handled fork and a spatula will come in handy, and so will a hand grill, two linked wire grids with handles for holding and turning tricky food (chicken, fish, etc.).

4

Under no conditions try to use a frying pan on your backyard set-up. The whole point is to cook something which tastes especially good over an open fire—and you won’t get the flavor unless the exposure is direct.

The Food

Mostly, you’ll tend to cook meat or fish on the grill. Very few vegetables are worth the effort. They don’t pick up enough taste from charcoal to be equal to the work. Corn and potatoes are the exceptions— and we’ll handle those later.

On a simple grill, you can cook almost any kind of meat or fish you want—except a roast or a whole chicken. These require a rotary spit, and we’re not talking about

5

such heavy investments. You’ll find, as you move along, that one or two specialties form the basic pattern for your backyard flourishing. Maybe it will be chicken and fresh corn, perhaps hamburgers and sliced toma­toes. Don’t worry about it; you’re doing fine.

Hamburgers

As we settle into details, the first matter which might be cleared up is the mass known as “ hamburger.” In backyard cookery, the only “ hamburger” which should be used is pure, ground beef. Don’t buy the bargain material, which may contain pork, or some fascinating combination of scraps. The original, the only, is worth the money.

That is the first consideration. There have been more backyard tragedies built around hamburgers which could substitute for golf balls than any other single menu item. Generally, there are two reasons for this unhappy situation.

First, the individual patties may be too thin. By the time the outside begins to look done, all of the juice has been drained from the inside. The second big reason is too slow a fire. Hamburgers should be cooked fast and furiously. If the fire isn’t hot enough to sear the exterior, once again you can count on a loss of juice. The answers to these problems are obvious: make the patties thick enough and cook them rapidly.

6

One simple trick you can use to juice up hamburger, however, is to experiment with what some restaurants describe as “ Salisbury Steak.” Put your chopped beef in a bowl and, for each pound, add a few tablespoons of heavy or light cream, a bit of finely chopped onion and a raw egg. Mix it thoroughly but not too much. When you start to form the patties, the meat should still have enough character to be identified as such. Cooked this way, you’ll still have chopped beef with the added ingredients helping to keep the interior juicy while cook­ing. Of course, when you’re serving hamburger of any kind, have a dish of big onion slices handy.

Frankfurters, Inc.

The Lord, of course, has doubly blessed the frankfurter. It is tasty, and it doesn’t cost much. For your efforts, remember this fact, too. Frankfurters, unless otherwise specified, have been completely cooked by the manu­facturer. Your problem, then is not to cook them; heating is all that’s needed. If you put them on a hot fire, they’ll be black in a matter of minutes. Instead, put franks on the “ slow” end, where the fire has been allowed to burn pretty well down. Even at this point, there are two schools of thought. One group wants the frankfurters puffed and split open (by their own action); the other holds for the browned-but-whole type. The choice, we figure, is yours.

7

Specialty meats—the so-called cold cuts, rolled ham, bologna, salami and liverwurst—seem to gain a special flavor when grilled out-of-doors. When you grill a roll of one of these, have a little sauce on hand to baste it and keep it from drying out. For this purpose, dissolve a little mustard, brown sugar and powdered cloves in some bacon fat and drip a little on each time you turn the meat.

Chicken

Charcoal-broiled chicken is chicken at its luscious, juicy best. Have the broiler cut in halves or quarters, salt each piece thoroughly and drop it on the grill. For easy turning, you may wish to cook several pieces together in the hand grill.

The important thing with chicken is not to cook it too fast. A very hot fire will blacken and toughen the

8

outside before the inside is done. Keep the heat moder­ate and turn the pieces frequently from side to side. When the leg joints begin to loosen, your broiler is getting close to done. Naturally, the smaller the bird, the quicker it will be ready.

Done right, it will be the best tasting chicken you ever ate. Baste it occasionally, if you want to, during the cooking with a little melted butter and bacon fat. A great crust will result.

Pork

First, a warning: Whenever you cook pork, be sure that the meat is well done all the way through!

For pork chops, sear them over a hot fire to hold in the juice; then move them a little to one side and cook them more slowly until thoroughly done. Here, too, you can counteract the tendency to dry out with fre­quent turning and occasional basting with bacon fat.

Another cut of pork which goes well outdoors is spareribs. When you buy these from the butcher, ask him to leave on a bit of meat as he’s carving. Other­wise you will end up with all ribs and no substance. This is one meat which can be basted with a fairly strong sauce. Mix one can of tomato paste with one cup of vinegar and a half cup of water. Throw in a half­cup of finely chopped onion and a half of a green pepper, minced. Cook this until the onion and pepper have blended in, then add an eighth-pound of butter (or

9

olive oil), a generous shot of Worcestershire and salt and pepper to taste. If you also want to add mustard, tabasco or horseradish, that’s up to you.

A good steak feed begins at the butcher’s. The top grade of meat (U. S. standards) is Prime, but it’s hard to find because restaurants, hotels and a few butchers in each city gobble up most of it. Choice, the next grade, is the one you’ll be looking for, but don’t forget that even Choice has varying grades. Look for meat with a ‘ ‘marble” to it—little streaks of fat running through the red parts. Also, the whiter and more crumbly the outside layer of fat, the better the meat. Don’t, under any circumstances, get stuck with a long, thin hunk of meat which is pure red.

Almost any steak will taste good broiled over the coals, but for best results any steak which is thinner than two inches is suspect. It won’t have the solidity and bulk to hold its own juices, and it’s hard to control. A one-inch steak can be broiled rare, but the fire must be extremely hot. And if you do much more than barely sear it on either side, the inside will be a well-done gray. When the thickness is two inches or more, the margin of safety is much greater and you can handle it with more assurance.

If you want what most people consider the very best in steaks, get a cut sometimes called a “ shell steak.”

Steaks

10

This is the outside of the loin, with fat on one side and the bone on the other.

No matter what kind of steak you serve, take it out of the refrigerator in plenty of time to warm up to room temperature before you’re ready to slap it on the broiler. The length of time to cook it depends on the heat of the fire, the thickness of the steak and the way you like it, rare, medium or well-done. For a two-inch steak, to give you some idea, allow about eight to ten minutes a side for a very rare product.

The two inches or more of thickness is what helps you turn it out well-done on the outside, rare on the inside. Anyone who doesn’t like it rare might as well use a thin steak to begin with, unfortunately.

11

Lamb Chops, Etc.

In considering lamb chops, the two-inch rule still holds, even though the cost factor is a potential killer. There’s nothing prettier than the sight of a set of thick chops riding the grill. In timing, however, figure on a bit longer cooking with lamb than with steak as most people like it closer to well done.

If you want to experiment with cheaper cuts of beef or lamb, try kebabs. There are several spellings for this particular dish, but they all end up the same on the grill. Kebabs are square-cut bits of meat, a little more than an inch on each side, put on a long skewer for broiling. They can be alternated on the skewers with mushrooms, or slices of potato or tomato. Just keep them turning until all four sides of the kebabs are well-cooked.

If you want to get a little fancy, try soaking the meat you buy for kebabs in French dressing, with onion and

garlic added, for about eight hours, or over- / /> night if you wish. Or use inexpensive red

wine instead of vinegar. Try it once, then a

12

second time and add the spices you think would help. Marinating is a strictly personal matter.

Fish takes to broiling over live coals in fine shape. Steak-type cuts of salmon or halibut hold together better than thin fillets, but either can be handled in a wire hand grill. All it takes is gentleness and caution. To avoid dryness, turn frequently and baste with melted butter and lemon juice.

Fresh Corn

When we talk about “ fresh” corn, we mean the kind which hasn’t been off the stalk more than four or five hours. The minute corn is picked, the sugars in each ear begin to turn to starch. If it is left in the sun or some other warm place, the process speeds up that much more.

It’s a national tragedy that so much wonderful corn is grown in this country and so few people enjoy it. One cook we know gets the water boiling in a big pot, goes into his garden and picks enough ears for the

13

crowd and then races back to the pot, shucking as he goes. That, he says, is FRESH corn. I f you stumble and fall on the way in, it’s not as good. He’s right, even though he’s a nut on the subject.

For a backyard meal there are two excellent ways to cook corn—boiling or roasting. Boiling has two big advantages. One is that it can be done easily in the kitchen and still produce a fine-flavored product. This relieves the pressure for space on a small backyard grill or fireplace. The second is that the kettle can be brought out and set next to the table. When anyone is ready for a second ear, he can fish it out of the water—still hot and delicious.

To boil corn, fill a kettle with enough water to cover^ You can build this portable outdoor table yourself. See

the Information Racks for Craft Pattern No. 621.

14

the amount of corn you intend to cook. While the water is coming to a boil, shuck the corn. When the water is boiling vigorously, drop in the ears. Keep an eye on the pot. When the water starts to boil again, let it go for two or three minutes, then turn off the heat. The corn can then be left in the hot water until ready to use.

If you are cooking a large amount of corn—say a dozen to two dozen ears—it will take a long while for the water to come to a boil again after throwing in the corn. In this case, don’t leave the heat on under the corn for more than ten minutes, regardless of whether the water comes to a boil again or not. Fresh corn should never be overcooked.

If you have room on the grill for it, roast corn is also delicious. But don’t put corn on too hot a fire or you’ll burn it up. One way of roasting corn is to throw the ears on the grill, husk and all, and keep them turning occasionally until done. The outside husk will be pretty black, but the inside will still be in perfect con­dition. Some people dip the ears of corn in a bucket of water before putting them on the fire. With really fresh corn, however, there is still enough moisture in the husks so that this isn’t necessary.

Potatoes

For these, you’ll need one section of the fire burned down. Just bury the spuds in the slow coals. Any more

15

heat and you’re in for it. One of the funniest sights at a barbecue is to watch a worried cook raking through the ashes trying to find the potatoes he’d deposited an hour before in live coals. He was right about the time —it should take about an hour to roast potatoes—but dead wrong about putting them in live coals.

Cold Vegetables— Salads

In planning a barbecue, give your guests something to perk up the appetite, as a first course. This can be done with a big bowl filled with pascal celery, scallions, radishes, cucumber and carrot sticks, sweet mixed pickles and stuffed olives. Arrange these in the bowl roughly in their own sections and cover the whole thing with ice cubes. Have plenty of salt shakers around and let the guests go to it. Even the fellows who think vegetables are rabbit food will dip into this bowl.

If you’re serving salad, keep away from the weird ones, in­volving croutons and one- minute eggs. Keep it plain.In summer, you can pick up enough different kinds of let­tuce to provide the variety youmay want. There’s Boston, or “ native” lettuce, all of the crisp-head types, endive,

16

romaine, escarole and chicory. Tear a few heads of these apart with your hands (they’ll look and taste better if you don’t use a knife), drop into a bowl, and you’ve got flavors for everyone. Watercress is an excellent added starter.

All it needs is French dressing— and all that should consist of is three parts of olive oil and one part of vinegar, chilled, and then shaken. If you want to vary the taste, use red wine vinegar, but a plain French dressing is hard to beat.

ColeslawNext on the list comes coleslaw, and we don’t mean cabbage salad. Coleslaw is thin-sliced cabbage; it is not a mixture of cabbage, green pepper, carrot, carraway seeds, herbs and garlic. That is cabbage salad, and it can be very good—but it isn’t coleslaw.

To make the real thing, slice a head of cabbage as thin as you can—until it’s like shredded lace. This is important, because it lets the cabbage juices out where they’ll do some good. Put the shredded cabbage in a bowl, cover that with a wet cloth and put it in the refrigerator. Mix up some French dressing, drop in a whole onion and a spoonful of paprika, and cool this off, too. Just before you’re ready to serve, take both out of the refrigerator, remove the onion, shake the dressing and pour it lightly on the cabbage. When you’re through, every shred of cabbage should be coated, but there should be no residue in the bottom of the bowl. If there is, you’re using too much dressing.

17

Barbecue Sauce

There are some people who operate on the theory that anything cooked outdoors must be covered with a horrible, burning glue called barbecue sauce. Enough garlic and tabasco sauce, they figure, will cure any­thing. Ridiculous. Very little which is cooked outdoors should have a “ hot” sauce on it—if it’s good to start with.

And now, for the benefit of those who disagree with this, here’s a good basic sauce which can be served on almost anything. Naturally, it should be made indoors, on a regular stove.

First take a large can of tomato puree, get it simmer­ing in a large pan, and throw in a quarter of a pound of butter, a healthy shot of Worcestershire and a touch of sugar. Now slice very thin, two large Spanish onions and four green peppers. Then saute the onions and peppers in an eighth of a pound of butter—slowly until they’re just tender. Empty the onions, peppers and fried butter into the tomato puree, salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer until you’re ready to eat. When it’s done right, it should be bulky, not juicy.

This is a good basic sauce; it’s delicious just as is. If you want to take it from there—with tabasco, garlic, vinegar, etc.—that’s up to you and your personal tastes. But don’t spoil it. Experiment with small samples.

18

A nd So Forth

At this point, the proper move is to urge experimenta­tion. (“ Get out there, by George, and work!” ) You need none of this. Get the stones and the simple grill together and try it out. Stick to simplicity; the phi­losophy will never fail. Use your grill or fireplace for the Big Item and let the side dishes take care of themselves.

The Elements

We can now consider one factor which can ruin a per­fectly good party— and the one over which you have absolutely no control. Let’s say you’ve arranged a small barbecue party. Everything’s set. Suddenly, as preparations are going forward, a cloud builds up on

the horizon. You have already checked the weather report and it said nothing about rain. But there is the cloud and it’s moving steadily. Rain is on the way.

There’s no particular sense in blaming the weather forecasters. You never can tell; the chief forecaster probably figured to cook outdoors, too. Predicting the weather isn’t an exact science and it’s especially tough in summer, when heat waves can get tangled with masses of cold air and produce sudden storms. Obvi­ously, the only thing to do is to be prepared to move indoors.

Some people plan their barbecue pits and eating space so that they can be covered with awnings or tarpaulins, making it possible for rain-or-shine meal planning.

Most of us, however, are driven indoors. Keeping this in mind, it’s perfectly easy to plan convertible meals. Steak can be broiled, hamburgers can be fried, and corn can be boiled.

The main job is to keep the spirit of the occasion going. If you handle it correctly, the crowd can be moved indoors with a minimum of trouble and the barbecue goes on. Just as if it were outdoors, serve the guests standing up. Let them find a spot to sit down and keep it strictly an off-the-cuff meal. In fact, there are some fine preparations now on the market, which sprinkled on steak, hamburgers, or any meat, will pro­duce a charcoal-broiled taste. You may want to use them year-round; meanwhile, they’ll come in handy when the sky opens and lets go. And always keep one thing in mind: every drop of rain is helping the garden and the lawn.

20

P u b lish ed for

G eneral M otors M en an d W om en

by the Employe Relations Staff GM I nform ation R ack S e r v ic e

R-52-43 P R IN T E D IN U .S .A .