Last September, I attended , a wild game butchering course hosted by , an all-in-one training and outfitter referral service for people who want to get started hunting. After conservation, the purpose of hunting is to put the healthiest, most sustainable, and ethically harvested meat on your dinner table. So when I got the chance to elevate my butchering and cooking skills to the next level, I jumped at the opportunity.

Whether you鈥檙e hunting, or just want to stretch cheap cuts of meat as far as possible, making your own sausage is an easy way to stock up on healthy, tasty protein. I鈥檝e been making my own at home for the last 15 years or so. Let me show you how.

Why Sausage?

Sausage is a way to make use of excess trim that’s left over when you butcher your own animals. As you separate muscle groups into their component parts, you鈥檒l invariably end up with chunks of good meat that don鈥檛 look good enough to use on their own. Turning those鈥攐r affordable commercial cuts like pork shoulders or beef chuck roast鈥攊nto a form that鈥檚 not just useable, but delicious, ensures that you鈥檙e getting the most out of every last bit of animal you harvested. Plus, you’ll end up with large quantities of great food, no matter your budget.

I wrote about听the lessons I learned about butchering in an article last October. The pronghorn antelope I harvested then produced the off cuts I鈥檓 using today, and I鈥檒l incorporate tips from Outdoor Solutions鈥� throughout this piece.

What Is Sausage, Anyway?

Sausage is simply ground, seasoned meat that鈥檚 ready to cook. You can absolutely stuff that into sheep intestines if you want to create nice links, but even with Chef Albert鈥檚 instruction, I find that process time consuming. I don鈥檛 typically end up eating the casings anyway, so I prefer to make sausage in bulk. Packing it into vacuum bags one pound at a time makes it easy to store in your freezer, quick to defrost, and simple to cook with.

Wild game is much leaner than industrially farmed meat. So while there鈥檚 no need to use extra fat if you鈥檙e turning a pork shoulder into sausage, you鈥檒l want to buy a source of fat for anything you鈥檝e hunted.听I鈥檇 always visited a butcher for frozen piles of pork fat, but not every butcher has those, especially during hunting season. Chef Albert recommends simply using bacon instead鈥攊t鈥檚 cheap, readily available, and works just as well. That鈥檚 what I plan to do from now on.

How to Prepare Your Kitchen to Make Sausage

First, you鈥檒l need to defrost the trim you plan to turn into sausage. Chef Albert cautions against forcing a defrost in warm water, and instead recommends thawing what you plan to use overnight in your fridge. Doing that helps preserve the meat鈥檚 texture, and won鈥檛 turn it gray.

Thirty minutes before you plan to get started, it鈥檚 also a good idea to put all the pieces of your meat grinder (except the motor) into your freezer. Grinding produces heat, which you don鈥檛 want entering your meat until you鈥檙e ready to cook.

For that same reason, you鈥檙e also going to want an ample stash of ice cubes on hand.

Supplies you鈥檒l need:

• A meat grinder
• At least two large mixing bowls
• Ice
• A scale
• A sharp knife
• A large cutting board
• Nitrile gloves
• Defrosted meat, trimmed of silver skin and connective tissue
• 20 percent of the weight of that meat in bacon

You should also decide how you want to season your sausage. Today, I made a simple hot Italian, which I find brings out the natural flavor of venison or antelope, and is versatile in use, working as well in a pasta as it does with eggs.

For each pound of the hot Italian spice blend you鈥檒l need:

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup red wine

If you鈥檙e making large quantities of sausage after, say, harvesting a bull elk or more than one deer, you may find it easier to use bulk quantities of a pre-made spice blend.

You’ve Seasoned Your Meat. What’s Next?

Fit your meat grinder with the plate with the large holes, and start dropping strips of meat through it, interspersing the occasional strip of bacon.

Once that鈥檚 done, you鈥檙e ready to add seasonings to your ground meat and thoroughly mix the sausage meat by hand.

Chef Albert strongly recommends wearing nitrile gloves while handling game meat, especially when grinding. Ground meat is sticky, and will pull in any dirt that may exist in your cuticles and under your nails. You don鈥檛 want that stuff polluting the taste of your meat. But also, you should be washing your hands, regardless!

After that first grind and the hand mix, fit your grinder with the plate with the small holes, and pass the mixture through it again.

If you feel your grinder start to heat up while processing large volumes of meat, Chef Albert recommends dropping a few ice cubes into it.听This cold water will also add moisture to your sausage.

At this point, you can pack the sausage mix into a press and extrude it into casings, or simply vacuum seal the bulk meat one pound at a time.

You’ve Just Made a Mess. Here’s the Easiest Way to Clean Your Kitchen.

You鈥檝e just thrown raw meat all over your kitchen, and into a high-powered mixer. Make sure you leave plenty of time for the mopup. Even after careful trimming, game meat is still going to contain some tendon and fascia, and that tough connective tissue loves to wind itself around the auger inside your grinder. I鈥檝e always carefully picked it apart by hand, but Chef Albert showed me an easier way: simply run ice cubes through the grinder until they come out clean.

Then disassemble all the grinder鈥檚 parts, rinse them off, and run them through the dishwasher or wash them by hand. Take care to thoroughly clean cutting boards, countertops, knives, and of course, your hands.

How Should I Cook My Sausage?

What do you do with your new sausage? I like to taste my game meat, so I听try to incorporate it into as simple a dish as possible.

Here鈥檚 a recipe for a very basic hot Italian sausage pasta. I invited my now-wife to come over and enjoy this for our second date, and the rest is history.

Ingredients:

• One box of good quality pasta. My wife has celiac disease, and we鈥檝e found to make gluten-free noodles with the best texture and flavor. Cook that for one minute shy of what’s recommended on the box.
• Kosher salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• One 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes鈥擨 like
• Yellow onion, diced
• Fresh garlic to taste, crushed
• One pound hot Italian game sausage
• Fresh basil
• Parmesan
• A good quality olive oil. I only use , which is produced in Umbria by our friends the Tega family and imported by our buddy David Dellanave.

Directions:

1. In a large dutch oven, heat a good amount of olive oil over medium high heat
2. When oil is shimmering, add sausage and saut茅 until brown and crisp
3. Bring a salted pot of water to boil and cook pasta
4. Add the onion and saut茅 until clear
5. Add the garlic and saut茅 until fragrant
6. Season with salt and pepper
7. Add tomatoes, breaking up with your hands or wooden spoon
8. Bring tomatoes to simmer then reduce heat
9. After 15 minutes, stir and add a pinch of salt
10. After another 15 minutes, add pasta, sausage, parmesan to sauce and serve
11. Top plates with ample amounts of torn basil leaves

Delicious food really is that easy, especially when you鈥檙e working with the best meat possible.

Wes Siler grew up on a horse farm in England. That’s where he learned how the sausage gets made. Wes now writes about important topics like politics and vehicles on , where you can also talk to him about those topics and more.

The post The Beginner鈥檚 Guide to Making Sausage at Home appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

For the last decade, I鈥檝e been brining my Thanksgiving turkeys in champagne. The technique has produced delicious, consistent results from campsites in Big Sur, California, and Baja, Mexico鈥攁nd in everything from frying oil to pellet grills to standard home ovens. To prove champagne’s efficacy in producing a juicy, tender bird, I tested a champagne brine against a typical water-based one.

Last weekend, I drove over to our local supermarket in Bozeman, Montana, and picked up two of their cheapest $2.99-a-pound turkeys, as close in weight to each other as I could find. I wanted to design this experiment I wanted to design this experiment in a way that controlled for as many variables as possible and set up a worst-case scenario, in which the brine would be the only flavor factor in the roasted turkey.

Turkey is a difficult bird to cook. Not only are turkeys large鈥攅ach of the birds I bought was 14 pounds鈥攂ut they also contain both light and dark meat. Tender, more exposed meat in the breast will cook faster than the tougher, tucked-away meat in the legs and thighs, which creates a significant risk of overcooking the white meat while you wait for the dark stuff to come up to temperature. That dries out the breasts and results in the chewy, flavorless bites of turkey we鈥檝e all come to associate with Thanksgiving.

Why Brine a Turkey?

Salt breaks down the proteins in meat, making the texture听more tender. At the same time, a brine can help infuse a bird with flavor, and adding liquids can help keep it moist while cooking.

There are听two main methods of brining a turkey: wet and dry.

A dry brine involves rubbing the outside and cavity of a turkey with kosher salt, dried herbs, and spices. It听draws moisture out of the meat, where it mixes with the salt, which is then transported back into the meat as the moisture is reabsorbed from the surface. Dry brining. produces a crispy skin and takes less effort than a wet brine, but it also struggles to fully infuse all parts of a big turkey with moisture and flavor.

To make a wet brine, dissolve kosher salt in boiling water, along with fresh aromatics like fruit peels, garlic, and herbs. You then submerge the turkey in the liquid at room temperature, and and place it in the refrigerator or outdoors if it’s cold enough for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. This bath permeates all parts of the meat with salt, breaking down those proteins and infusing flavor throughout the turkey. Pat the bird dry and let it drain, then roast. Don’t worry: lots of this liquid remains present during the cook, adding steam and the additional moisture and flavor it brings to an otherwise dry oven or grill.

How Does Champagne Affect a Turkey?

Brining a turkey in champagne听does three things. Alcohol helps tenderize meat by breaking down collagen. Champagne鈥檚 mild fruit flavors also infuse the meat, pairing well with turkey itself along with the herbs, vegetables, and stuffing you use for seasoning and sides. Plus, the champagne听helps create flavorful drippings you can use to make a better gravy. Finally, champagne is acidic. That acid is yet another tenderizer that leads to a flavorful roast turkey.

There鈥檚 no reason to use anything other than the cheapest champagne you can find. The less subtle flavors and greater acidity will actually work better than the nice stuff. I used Andr茅听Brut simply because, at $7.39 a bottle, it was the most affordable stuff on the shelves at my grocery store. Andr茅 comes from California and not the champagne region of France and cannot technically be called champagne, it does the job just fine.

How Do You Wet Brine a Turkey?

First, make sure you don鈥檛 buy a pre-brined turkey. This should be prominently labeled on the packaging, or is something you should ask your butcher about if you鈥檙e buying a bird straight from a meat counter. The words, 鈥渒osher,鈥� 鈥渆nhanced,鈥� or self-basting,鈥� can also be understood to mean pre-brined.

You can find pre-made brining kits for turkeys which contain measured portions of salts, spices, and herbs that you just add to boiling water. But fresh ingredients are always going to taste better, and making your own brine allows you to to tailor it to your own unique tastes.

The most important step is dissolving salt in water. To do that, you just need to start with a ratio of four parts of water to one part kosher salt. This will give us a base brine to which we can add our champagne or water later. Bring that water to a boil, pour in the salt, let it return to a boil, then turn the heat off and let the solution cool to room temperature. You don鈥檛 want to submerge a bird in hot water; doing so can lead to bacteria growth.

For this taste test, I kept the brine simple. To that base brine, I just added orange and lemon peels, garlic cloves, peppercorns, and some chopped-up sage and bay leafs. Once that鈥檇 cooled, I placed the turkeys in a brining bag, rested them in their foil roasting trays to support the weight and catch any leaks, then poured additional water on one turkey and champagne over the other until each was fully submerged. When you add enough water (or champagne) to fully submerge the turkeys and further dilute your brine, you should end with a salt-to-water ratio of around 1:16.

The only variable here is that one turkey was submerged in brine and water, and the other was submerged in brine and champagne. It took five bottles of champagne to fully submerge one of the turkeys. I simply put the other bird under a cold kitchen sink tap in its brining bag, and didn鈥檛 measure how much water it took to fully cover it.

You can (and should!) add more stuff to your brine. Ingredients from Worcestershire sauce to chicken broth, herbs, and spices are all common, and will all add flavor to your end result. Again, I tried to keep this cook as simple as possible so nothing else was working to mask the effect of the different liquids.

What Cooking Methods Work with a Champagne Brine?

The answer to that is simple: Every method I’ve tried works well with a champagne brine. When I prepare a turkey in camp, I prefer to use a propane-fueled fryer, simply because it鈥檚 the easiest thing to transport and use outdoors. If you鈥檙e frying, just take extra care to fully dry the bird, inside and out, before sticking it in the hot oil. The wet brine should help ensure the turkey is defrosted, and can be transported to a campsite or patio in a small cooler or lidded five-gallon bucket.

At home, I prefer to use a pellet grill due to the controlled level of moisture present in quality wood pellets. But I鈥檝e also cooked champagne-brined turkey on my Big Green Egg using lump charcoal with excellent results.

For this cook, with the goal of testing champagne鈥檚 effectiveness in the worst possible circumstances, I simply used the ovens in my kitchen. I pre-heated both ovens to 350 degrees听Fahrenheit听(without any convection), filled the cavities with wedges of the leftover fruit, brushed a stick of melted butter over the top of each, and baked them until done.

Prior to 2008, the USDA recommended cooking turkeys until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit. But that recommendation was updated in 2008 to 165 degrees. That lower temperature should result in a moister bird, but I cooked both turkeys through to 180 degrees to account for a worst-case scenario.

The mad scientist in me was pleased when the probes in both birds registered 180 degrees at the exact same time. That meant both ovens were heating consistently with each other,听an indication that I鈥檇 managed to remove one more variable from the result.

Can a Champagne Brine Really Produce a Juicier Bird?

I pulled the turkeys out of the oven, and rested them on my stove top for 15 minutes before carving. One difference was immediately apparent: the skin on the water-brined bird was noticeably crisper, and more deeply browned. My theory there is that the champagne broke down the skin on its bird that much more. While irrelevant to听flavor, this did represent less than ideal presentation. If oven cooking a champagne-brined bird, it may be a good idea to add some honey to the melted butter before you brush it on the bird, which should help its skin crisp up and look a little darker.

But that one downside disappeared as soon as I sliced into the breasts. There, the water-brined bird displayed noticeably more separation between muscle fibers听and was visibly less juicy. Biting into that water-brined bird took more effort, and the bite contained less flavor.

In contrast, the champagne-brined turkey was visibly juicy, with no separation between muscle fibers. The bite was tender, and was noticeably more听flavorful.

While the dark meat in both birds was similar in appearance, the tenderness and flavor was again far superior on the champagne-brined turkey.

I ended up throwing out the water-brined turkey, but carved and saved the champagne-brined one. I鈥檒l make a turkey sandwich for lunch after finishing this article. Even with such a basic cooking method, in which no additional flavoring from herbs or spices was added, the champagne brine produced a turkey I鈥檇 be happy serving to dinner guests. Its level of tenderness was as good as I expect from better equipment and more elaborate recipes, and its nice, but somewhat bland flavor could have been masked with a good gravy.

Can You Serve a Champagne-Brined Turkey to Children?

As with other cooking methods that include wine, beer, cider, or liquor, the alcohol cooks off with temperature and time. There should be no alcohol content remaining in the final dish.

Can You Taste the Champagne?

Flavor-wise, there were some faint notes of fruitiness in the meat of the champagne-brined turkey that weren鈥檛 present in the water-brined one. But that could be explained as much by the champagne better transporting the flavor of the orange and lemon peels into the juicier meat as it could by anything remaining of the booze. I certainly couldn’t detect any strong flavor of champagne or alcohol.

By spending $37 on champagne, I meaningfully increased the quality of my Thanksgiving turkey鈥攚ithout relying on my preferred cooking methods or added seasoning. Consider a champagne brine as an additional step to your favorite recipe. Paired with a superior cooking method like grilling or frying, a champagne-brine can help elevate your results to new levels.

The post The Secret to a Perfectly Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey? Cheap Champagne. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Take a spin through the butcher section of your local supermarket鈥攜ou’ll surely see labels reading 鈥渙rganic,鈥� 鈥済rass-fed,鈥� or 鈥渇ree range鈥� on cellophane-wrapped meat stacked inside the refrigerator cases. But absent any real details of how those pre-packaged cuts actually arrived in the fridge in front of you, how are consumers really supposed to know where their food comes from? The real deal isn鈥檛 bred by humans, raised by industrial agriculture, processed in a factory, or shipped across the country. It鈥檚 out there right now, running around the woods, mountain or meadow. You can go harvest it yourself. Here鈥檚 how.

Congrats! You鈥檝e Killed a Deer.

The hardest part of hunting starts once you’ve killed your animal. Your first priority is to cool the meat down. Doing so helps preserve it, and prevent bacteria growth. And to do that, you鈥檒l need to open the carcass up, and remove its organs.

Last month, I joined an organization called on one of their traveling From Field To Table classes. That involved hands-on processing tuition from chef Albert Wutsch. You can find that same instruction in YouTube videos. Since much of the content includes sensitive material, I鈥檒l link out to it, rather than embed it within this article. You should hopefully be able to continue reading without seeing any uncomfortable images.

which is a nice way to phrase gut removal. Remember that the first step is almost always affixing the tag to the carcass, or reporting your kill on a state鈥檚 dedicated smartphone application.

Bringing It Home

Determine ahead of time where you intend to process your animal. If you鈥檙e more than a mile from your vehicle, you鈥檒l need to , in order to break it into manageable sections you can carry . If you鈥檙e close to a car, you can simply carry or drag the field-dressed carcass back to it. If you have a home, lodge, or campsite nearby, you can then transport the animal back there to butcher it. If instead you have a long drive ahead of you, you鈥檒l want to quarter the animal and get your meat on ice before you begin the journey.

Wutsch says your priority should always be to keep the meat, 鈥渃lean and cool.鈥� But if it鈥檚 less than 40 degrees outside, fresh meat doesn鈥檛 necessarily need to be chilled immediately. It can be housed in a game bag to keep insects away, and hung from a tree or rack for a week or more.

You will need to take care when moving a carcass. Contaminants like feces, plant matter, or just plain old dirt will alter the taste if they鈥檙e allowed to make contact with meat. If you plan to drag a carcass, or throw it in a truck bed, leave the hide attached until you have a clean place to remove it.

How to Butcher a Deer

The process of breaking a deer down into various cuts of meat is surprisingly intuitive. Once the hide is off, seams between major muscle groups are visible, and many can be pulled apart by hand, or with only minimal assistance from a sharp knife.

. A hanging rack really helps keep things clean, and the elevation it provides can keep your back from getting sore. We used in the class, and I just purchased one to keep at my hunting camp.

You’re going to separate the meat into different cuts鈥攜ou know, like the loin, shank, flank, etc. Wutsch easily differentiates different cuts of meat by tenderness, and explains that while tough cuts benefit from low-and-slow cooking techniques like sous vide, smoking, and braising, the more tender cuts should be seared quickly at high heat. The choicest cuts from any animal are going to be the tenderloins, which . Since those are so manageable and so delicious, I鈥檓 going to focus the rest of this guide on preparing that cut. Tenderloins are a great reward after putting in all the hard work of harvesting your first deer, antelope, or elk.

What About Gaminess?

Some people complain that deer and other wild animals have a听鈥済amey鈥� flavor, which is pungent or unpleasant. This just means they haven’t eaten meat that was processed and cooked properly. Gaminess听can be caused by mishandling the meat, allowing it to become contaminated during transportation, allowing a gland to leak into it while processing, or most commonly, failing to remove the thin, transparent fascia that wraps each major muscle group.

That fascia can actually be useful, in that it protects the meat itself from insects, hair, and dirt while it’s hung or transported. But care must be taken while processing to remove it entirely from each cut of meat. that hunters often cut steaks from the rear legs by slicing听straight through multiple muscle groups. This practice often leaves fascia behind, which spoils the taste.

Instead, he recommends and demonstrates how to break the rear legs down into the individual portions, then how best to use each muscle. Muscles of varying tenderness exist in a deer’s rear leg. Hunters who know what they’re doing can make the most of this meat.听Muscle groups should be stored and cooked complete in order to keep them as tender as possible, then sliced only when it鈥檚 time to serve.

How to Cook Venison Tenderloins

While antelope tends to be a little richer in flavor than deer, cooking methods for the two species are essentially identical. If there is a major difference between the two species, it comes from variances in diet. Many antelope live in the wide open expanses of sage brush that span western states, and that flavor remains present in the meat as a result. I shot mine in a wheat field on Crow Nation land, so there鈥檚 really no sage taste that I can detect.

The first step is to season the meat. I like to keep things simple, allowing the flavor of the game to come through. So I stick with a simple rub of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. For the antelope I recently killed, I also added a few sprigs of rosemary.

Unlike domestic livestock, which are fed artificial diets, wild听game animals will have virtually no fat content within muscle groups. So, when I鈥檓 grilling it, I like to first rub olive oil all over the cut along with the seasoning. This seals in moisture, and adds a little fat to the cooking process. Make sure you鈥檙e using actual high-quality olive oil (a New Yorker investigation found ). In my kitchen, I only use Luigi Tega鈥檚 . I鈥檝e visited the Tega family to see their farm and process in Umbria, and because my friend David Dellanave imports the stuff to this country, I know it鈥檚 fresh.

Next, I like to sear the whole tenderloins at the highest heat possible, creating a crusty brown exterior through what’s known as the . I cooked the ones you see here at our family鈥檚 cabin in the Blackfeet Nation (located within Montana) on a windy night, and the best tool available to me was the very basic, nineties-era听gas stove that maybe puts out 10,000 BTU. So, I added a tablespoon or so of that good olive oil (which has a much higher smoke point than the fake stuff) to a cast iron pan, and set it on the hottest burner, turned up to the highest level for a good five minutes before adding the meat. I then seared it each side for about one minute to produce a brown crust all over the exterior of the tenderloins, while leaving the interior completely raw.

Cooking whole muscles like this means that they鈥檒l contract when exposed to heat, and lose some of the tenderness in the process. So, after removing the tenderloins from the heat, I set them on a cutting board, and hid them inside an unpowered microwave for 20 minutes, so they would be safe from my dogs.

You can use that time to prepare veggies. I find the earthy flavor of Japanese sweet potatoes and the bitterness of saut茅ed spinach to go well with most wild game. During that time, I also bring a grill or oven up to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once that rest is completed, and the tenderloins have had time to decompress, I insert a probe thermometer into each, and cook through to 130 degrees internal. Wutsch explains that , or you risk losing the flavor and texture.

Once that鈥檚 done, it鈥檚 time to slice and serve. As with any other cut of meat, slice across the grain to retain the most tender mouthfeel possible. I like to accompany my deer, elk, or antelope with a wild berry compote or jam, if possible sourced from fruit native to the animal鈥檚 ecosystem. The tart sweetness offsets the rich meat, and provides another natural flavor from the place you hunted.

Pair it with a medium-bodied red wine like a Sangiovese, and the fresh tenderloins of an animal you just harvested, butchered, and cooked yourself should be one of the most satisfying things you鈥檝e ever tasted. And as a bonus, you can enjoy your meal with the knowledge that you鈥檝e just contributed to the ongoing success of the population you just harvested an animal from, along with the total health of the ecosystem you hunted it in.

Why Hunt?

No matter where you go on this planet, ecosystems have been vastly and irreparably altered by human activity. Since most of that change has occurred in the span of just a few hundred years, and is a process that鈥檚 accelerating, animal species have not had anything like the time it鈥檇 take to evolve or adapt. To keep animal populations healthy, humans must step in and manage population levels, provide healthy habitats, limit the spread of disease, and ensure the spread of varied genetics.

Combining conservation and preservation, the United States has seen enormous success. Since we鈥檙e talking about deer, in the early 1900s, due to the expansion of cities, industrial agriculture, unregulated hunting (the modern system was implemented a decade later), and similar pressures, nationwide populations of Whitetail had collapsed to . Today that number stands between 25 and 30 million, even as the number of humans in this country has rapidly expanded.

The purpose of hunting is conservation. But it also produces some really good eating. And since deer are so common, and so tasty, they鈥檙e a great place to start when it comes to large game.

The post The Beginner鈥檚 Guide to Dressing, Preparing, and Cooking Venison appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Yeti got its start making coolers so useful and durable they were proudly . When it began making coffee mugs, we made sure they would survive a shotgun blast (why not?). We never expected Yeti to make a cast-iron skillet, but the company has come so far from its days as a cooler brand, we鈥檝e stopped scratching our heads as to why it chooses to enter new categories of gear. We just see how the new products stack up.

Last year, Yeti teamed up with cast-iron company to lend its name to a limited edition 12-inch Butter Pat iron-cast skillet that sold out quickly despite its $400 price point (which wasn鈥檛 much higher than or ). While the sticker price was criticized (a , after all), the partnership went so well that Yeti purchased Butter Pat and rebranded its skillet, which was renowned for having a hyper smooth surface and lighter feel than competitors.

Yeti was not a cast-iron-skillet manufacturer. Now it is. The Butter Pat skillet is reborn as Yeti’s new American-forged cast-iron skillet collection. It鈥檚 available in three sizes, starting at , , and .

鈥淲e truly believed Butter Pat makes the best pan that鈥檚 out there because of their engineering practice and how it is a simple product that is straightforward,鈥� said Steve Barnett, Yeti鈥檚 Principal Product Manager for these skillets. 鈥�… We want to keep the same manufacturing process that they had at Butter Pat. We don鈥檛 want to change anything but we do need to scale. We partnered with a foundry that we think is the best in the world and happens to be here in the US, in Wisconsin.鈥�

Yeti Cast-Iron Skillet

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Testing Yeti鈥檚 New Skillet

翱耻迟蝉颈诲别鈥檚 Mary-Frances Heck, a James Beard Award winner, , and former senior food editor of Food & Wine, has spent the last few days cooking all kinds of things on the new Yeti Cast Iron Skillet 10 and 12.

Her first takeaway was the incredible seasoning and hyper-smooth finish it has right out of the box. 鈥淵ou put a little bit of fat in the brand new pan and crack a couple of eggs in, they are just going to slide around. It is amazing,鈥� said Heck, who has restored dozens of heritage cast-iron skillets and loves talking about the reactive nature of cooking on them. In her experience collecting vintage cast iron and cooking with new and old pans, only Butter Pat (now Yeti) and Smithey cook like vintage cast iron. At 6.25 pounds, Yeti鈥檚 new 12-inch pan comes in lighter than Smithey鈥檚 high-end model, which also has a handle design that makes it difficult to maneuver the heavy pan over the stove with one hand.

鈥淚t is surprisingly light for its size,” Heck explained. “You don鈥檛 pick it up and think your wrist is going to break.鈥�

The skillet鈥檚 hyper smooth finish comes from a ceramic-like mold rather than the sand molds often used for standard cast-iron skillets. The process creates a surface that can slide an egg like teflon but also maintains cast iron鈥檚 ability to hold on to seasoning. It also makes the skillets considerably more challenging to manufacture. 鈥淚t takes weeks, not days to make our pans, but it is worth it for the end product,鈥� said Steve Barnett. 鈥淲e got down to the microstructure and worked to have the pan hold on to the seasoning better from the start.鈥�

The distribution of cast iron throughout the pan was another touch that we noticed and appreciated, much like we did with the Butter Pat model. It鈥檚 thicker and heavier at its base to help put a serious sear on steaks, but its sides are thinner than you鈥檇 expect. This subtle geometry was made possible by the manufacturing process and high-end molds used.

鈥淭hese are the nicest cast iron skillets you can buy new, probably, period,鈥� explained Heck. 鈥淯nless you can get a skillet that was forged a hundred years ago鈥攏othing on the market right now is like this.鈥�

Yeti鈥檚 Journey into Cookware

Though we weren’t startled by the decision, we did wonder why Yeti decided to buy a cast-iron pan maker to get into cookware. So we asked Barnett: 鈥淲e鈥檝e always been in the culinary space. People eat chili out of our mugs and the pros use our coolers to keep briskets warm.”

It also looks like you should expect more cooking products from Yeti, much like how its coffee mugs grew into a full drinkware line. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 get into specifics about exact products but we do see this part of the business growing for us,鈥� Barnett said. 鈥淚f it is a tool that works exceptionally well and we are able to lean on really high quality manufacturing processes and the right materials then we are looking at making it.鈥�

I have a 20-year-old cast-iron pan that has never seen a centiliter of dish soap but has seen dozens of hours of tender care. It sears steaks perfectly every time and is the only surface I can cook fresh tortillas on with any success. It is honestly more like an old friend than a piece of cookware.

Personally, I like the idea that the company that made my first forever-cooler is also making my next forever-skillet. 鈥淭here is something very inherently Yeti about having a product that you can use forever. This one truly gets better with age,鈥� Barnett said.

The post Yeti鈥檚 New Cast-Iron Skillet Is the Best You Can Buy鈥擧ere鈥檚 Why appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Have you noticed that the butcher counter听at your local grocery store has been taken over by something called 鈥淎merican wagyu?鈥� Mine certainly has. So, I set out to find out what exactly it is, how to best cook it, and whether or not American wagyu is worth the higher price听over plain old prime-grade beef.

Wagyu beef is known globally for its soft texture and rich, fatty taste, and restaurants and butcher shops often charge much higher prices for steaks compared to beef from other types of cattle.

America wagyu is kind of a confusing name to start with, since wagyu translates to English as 鈥淛apanese cattle.鈥� Are producers trying to sell us American-Japanese cattle?

Erik Sun, one of the chefs involved with the award-winning restaurants Bestia and Bavel in Los Angeles, and the soon-to-open Oxblood in San Francisco, says that鈥檚 exactly the case. Sun also imports rare Japanese meats and raises American wagyu

鈥淢ost American wagyu is 50-50,鈥� he explains. 鈥淎 wagyu bull bred with an Angus cow produces a calf that is still able to be called wagyu.鈥�

What Makes Wagyu Different?

Importing Japanese beef products was banned by the United States in the 2000s after an outbreak of highly infectious foot and mouth disease in that country. Around the same time, interest in supposed 鈥淜obe beef,鈥� began to boom, perhaps due to its unobtainable nature.

听at the time in Forbes, Kobe is the capital of the Hyogo prefecture in Japan. Just like only sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France can be called champagne, only beef from Hyogo can be called Kobe.

But, those naming restrictions only apply in France or Japan, respectively. There鈥檚 no law preventing a restaurant or other business in America from selling you a bottle of Korbel and calling it champagne, or a piece of select-grade chuck and calling it Kobe. Only consumer awareness can achieve that here.

Olmsted鈥檚 advocacy for accurate food labeling seems to have stuck with consumers of high-end beef products. There鈥檚 now much more awareness of the full breadth of varieties beyond that initial demand for supposed Kobe, which was only ever a variety of wagyu in the first place.

Import restrictions began to ease in the 2010s, and all varieties of the stuff found its way into high-end restaurants and specialty food retailers. But high prices鈥擲un sells authentic Kobe striploins for $375-a-pound from his online retailer, 鈥攁nd the incredibly rich, fatty nature of high-grade Japanese beef don鈥檛 necessarily translate to American palettes.

鈥淚n America we eat big steaks鈥攂ig center-of-the-plate options鈥攁nd we prize beefy flavor or beefiness as one of our top criteria for good beef,鈥� explains Sun. 鈥淏ut wagyu, true Japanese wagyu is just as much about the fat quality and soft texture as it is about the meat. It’s a much more delicate thing often eaten with an Asian barbecue sauce filled with sake, mirin and soy. It鈥檚 sliced thin, cooked over high heat, not rested, and eaten with the fat dripping on top of warm rice.鈥�

Beef Grades, Explained

Beef is graded on the amount of useable meat a carcass will yield, and on the amount of marbling present in that meat. Here in America, the Department of Agriculture ranks cuts of beef sold in grocery stores for human consumption as select, choice, or prime.

Select grade beef, according to the USDA, 鈥渋s fairly tender, but because it has less marbling, it may not have as much juiciness or flavor.鈥� Choice, 鈥渨ill be very juicy and tender.鈥� And prime, 鈥渉as slightly abundant to abundant marbling and is generally sold in hotels and restaurants.鈥�

Japanese beef grades go much further. The Japanese Meat Grading Association scores yields as A, B or C (A yielding the most meat), then ranks marbling on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest.

There鈥檚 also the international Beef Marbling Score, which grades marbling on a scale of one to 12. And while BMS is not a government certification, it does provide us with the ability to compare American and Japanese or other international grades on a single scale. USDA Prime cuts max out with a BMS score of five, while wagyu can go all the way up to 12.

Marbling is what we call the intramuscular fat spread throughout a cut of beef. The more marbling, the juicier and richer that cut of meat will be.

Why Wagyu Tastes Different

There are two further factors in that fat content: melting point and flavor. Sun says that the fat in Japanese wagyu cows begins to liquify at much lower temperatures than that of breeds we鈥檝e historically raised in America, but that animals producing fat with lower melting points take longer to grow.

The American beef industry typically slaughters cows when they鈥檙e 18 to 24 months old. In Japan, the cows with that tender fat take 30 to 36 months to mature.

Diet is another major factor in flavor, as is the care and health of the animal being consumed. The extra time, feed, and care it takes to bring a cow to maturity in Japan accounts for Wagyu鈥檚 high prices, along with its scarcity.

That explains the widely-held mystique around Kobe. Americans tend to associate the Kobe label with the finest quality beef, but in reality, it鈥檚 just a breed of Japanese cow (the Japanese black cow, which is actually the most common breed of wagyu) that is fed a carefully cultivated diet unique to Hyogo Prefecture, and allowed to mature a little longer than is typical in this country.

Other, lesser known varieties of wagyu may offer different taste profiles. Sun imports steaks from cows raised exclusively on olives, for instance, or the elusive 鈥渟now beef鈥� from wagyu raised in the colder climate of Hokkaido.

What Makes American Wagyu Unique

Alright, we鈥檝e got our American-Japanese cattle, cuts from which can land anywhere on the USDA or BMS scales. Is this just a shortcut to con you and me into paying more for our steaks?

鈥淎 lot of the difference has to do with the American palette, and the style of cooking larger steaks where we don’t want a ball of fat, but we want texture and chew while still benefiting from the increased marbling that comes with wagyu,鈥� says Sun.

He goes on to say that quality breeders have been able to take things much further than the simple Angus-wagyu cross breeds, and are producing results that, while different from those achieved by Japanese farmers, should be considered as their own unique breeds, rather than simply an imitation.

Sun says that by starting with one of the four breeds of Japanese cow that are considered wagyu, crossing them with one of the heartier, faster-growing American breeds, then 鈥渂reeding back鈥� to a high percentage of wagyu, American farmers are creating animals that demonstrate the 鈥渢rue beauty of wagyu,鈥� along with the meatier textures and flavors preferred by American consumers.

Another advantage of breeding wagyu crosses in the United States? Importing bone-in cuts of Japanese beef is still banned. So, if you want a bone-in wagyu steak , buying American is your only option.

But, without laws mandating clear labeling, finding a product that鈥檚 going to match your expectations can be a challenge. You need to find a supplier that provides as much transparency and information as possible about what you鈥檙e actually buying.

USDA Prime Versus American Wagyu Versus Japanese A5

To determine whether or not American Wagyu can be worth a premium over a regular old steak, and if it can hold its own against the finest quality meat produced in Japan, I set up a simple taste test.

For the American wagyu, . They provide good information about the breed, along with a digital analysis of the percent of marbling present in the specific cut. This ribeye came from an F1, or 50-50 Angus-Japanese Black wagyu cross, and contains 30 to 39 percent marbling. Booth Creek feeds its American wagyu a grass-fed, grain-finished diet and slaughters them between 28 and 36 months. To my admittedly untrained eye, that sits somewhere between a BMS score of seven or eight, well beyond anything you鈥檇 find behind glass at a local grocery store.

As a control, I visited my local food co-op here in Bozeman, Montana, and picked up a grass-fed, grain-finished prime-grade ribeye from a local ranch. Still an indulgence at $27-a-pound, but hopefully representative of the best a traditional American steak is able to offer.

And, to compare American wagyu to the finest possible Japanese beef, I also scrounged around my deep freeze and found an that Sun sent me as part of care package a year or two ago. A zabuton is a cut from the neck or shoulder of a cow, and is typically considered chuck-grade when sourced from an American cow, but which is tender and densely marbled when pulled from a well-raised wagyu. This steak probably weighs only four ounces or so, but is sold at prices exceeding $200-a-pound.

How to Grill American Wagyu

One of the unique selling points of American wagyu is that it can be cooked using conventional grilling methods that will be familiar to most Americans.

My go-to method for grilling streaks is to first sear the meat at as high a temperature as possible, for 30 to 60 seconds on each side, rest it for 20 minutes, then cook it through in a 200 to 250-degree oven or closed grill until it reaches your desired temperature. The sear delivers a satisfying crust through on the outside of the steak, while melted fat has time to distribute through the inside as the muscle relaxes from the intense heat. Employing a pellet grill or smoker for the cook-through also delivers the flavor of wood smoke to the meat.

This is also one reason why I grabbed the little zabuton. Sun recommends cooking Japanese A5 quickly on high heat, to medium rather than medium rare for an enhanced texture. I was worried employing my generalist steak method might not make the most of A5, and didn鈥檛 want to waste a multi-hundred-dollar ribeye.

I cooked all three steaks using this method on the same grill, using the same wood pellets, at the same time. I pulled each when they reached an individually monitored 130 degrees internal, then rested them for 10 minutes before slicing.

What Does American Wagyu Taste Like?

The first piece of steak I cut into was the A5. It melted on my tongue like butter, and I tasted听the overwhelming richness for which it’s famous. And while not as quite as crispy around the edges of the melted fat as searing it to 145 degrees internal would have delivered, it still had exceptional flavor. The fat tasted sweet, almost like meat candy, as it dissolved in my mouth. Incredibly rich, this zabuton could easily have been an entire, very filling meal all on its own.

Next, I tried the plain-old ribeye. While it required actual chewing rather than just melting on my tongue, it was still extremely tender, and delivered all that meaty taste you want in a steak, complete with a welcome touch of smokiness thanks to the hickory pellets burning so cleanly in the Yoder鈥檚 fire pot. I serve steaks just like this at dinner parties all the time, and they never fail to please.

Then there鈥檚 the American wagyu ribeye from Booth Creek. I鈥檝e purchased American wagyu from my local meat counter before, with mixed, mostly disappointing results. So I was coming into this with low expectations. And man, I was wrong to do that. With a mouth feel and chew similar to that of the Prime-grade ribeye, the fat in the Booth Creek steak was much more present, and delivered a totally unique taste. Versus the sweetness of the Japanese A5, this stuff tasted nutty, with layers of complexity not found in the other two cuts. It wasn鈥檛 overwhelming either. Had it been dinner time instead of late morning, I could happily have finished the entire 16 ounce steak myself, maybe alongside some sweet potatoes and asparagus. But, instead, I鈥檓 saving it to turn into an epic sandwich I鈥檒l carry up a mountain this weekend.

American wagyu may not be the same thing as Japanese wagyu. But even in Japan, there鈥檚 a huge variety of flavors, textures and qualities across the high-end beef market, influenced by variables like breed, weather, diet, and care. Those same variables are at play in America, additionally influenced by our own preferences. Take the time to source your American wagyu from a quality source that gives you transparency around what you鈥檙e actually buying, because听fancy domestic beef absolutely deserves to stand alongside the imported original.

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Spend enough time eating hiking food, and you might start gagging at the very thought of a peanut-butter tortilla roll-up. But whether or not you鈥檝e hit that devastating milestone, rest assured: You don鈥檛 need to restrict yourself to beans and PB on the trail. With a little creativity, you can make a variety of flavorful camp meals with just a few cheap ingredients.

These four hiker-approved hot meals cost $3 or less per person. We鈥檝e broken down the costs per single serving, but at these rates, it鈥檚 easy to double (or even quadruple) the recipes without blowing your budget.

Spicy Mac Mash

This elevated take on the ramen bomb is cheesy, easy, and vegetarian-friendly. Cost: About $1.75 per serving.

Ingredients:听

• Annie鈥檚 White Cheddar Shells Mac and Cheese ($0.75 per serving)
• 1 box of instant mashed potatoes ($0.75 per serving)
• 1 tsp. olive oil ($0.15 per serving)
• Hot sauce, to taste ($0.10 per serving)

In camp: Boil water and cook pasta. Drain water, but leave a little behind to mix in instant mashed potatoes and the cheese powder for a thick, creamy, filling sauce. Fluff together with a fork. Top with olive oil and hot sauce.

Sausage Wraps

Wolf these down for a dose of protein and melted goodness. The ingredients below come in larger servings, meaning you can feed the whole camp. Cost: About $2 per serving.

Ingredients

• Your choice of pre-cooked sausage ($1.25 per serving)
• Tortilla or wrap ($0.30 per serving)
• Shredded cheese ($0.30 per serving)
• Pinch of pepper and salt
• Eggs (use powdered or dehydrated eggs, or ) ($0.25 per serving)
• Hot sauce, to taste ($0.10 per serving)

In camp: Heat sausage over a fire or stove. Once warm, place it in a tortilla or wrap and top with shredded cheese to get a melty effect. Add seasoning and scrambled eggs.

Backcountry Nachos

Treat yourself to something crisp and hearty out there with this crave-worthy recipe. Cost: About $2.75 per serving.

Ingredients:

• Tortilla chips ($0.40 per serving)
• Small can of nacho cheese, or shredded cheese ($0.50 per serving)
• Black beans, transferred to zip top-bag ($0.42 per serving)
• Tomato ($0.50 per serving)
• Avocado ($1 per serving)
• Jalapeno ($0.10 per serving)
• Cilantro, wrapped in damp paper towel in a zip-top bag ($1 per bunch)
• Salsa (optional)

In camp: Chop the jalapeno, cilantro, avocado, and tomato. Warm up your beans and cheese or stove. Layer your bowl or plate with a handful of chips鈥攁s many as you can fit. Pile on the toppings. Go back for seconds.

Packed Couscous Bowls

Salty, savory, and scrumptious after a long day, these couscous bowls are both easy to make in camp and worthy of your dining table at home. Cost: About $3 per serving.

Ingredients:听

• Dried couscous ($0.65 per serving)
• Bagged sun dried tomatoes ($0.40 per serving)
• Olives, transferred to zip-top bag ( $0.23 per serving)
• Broccoli (store in a zip-top bag and eat on day one or two, or buy freeze-dried) ($0.50 per serving)
• Chicken or tuna packets ($0.75 per serving)

In camp: Boil water and cook your couscous over a campfire or stove. While it鈥檚 still steamy, mix in tomatoes, olives, broccoli, and your choice of protein.

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Even if you hate getting out of bed, you have to admit that mornings are the best part of camping. Waking up slowly, rising with the sun, taking time to watch the world warm up over your first (and second) cup of coffee鈥攖here鈥檚 nothing quite like it. And as any fan of the slow morning knows, the best way to really draw out those golden hours is by extending breakfast as long as possible. In other words, turning it into brunch.

Brunch is an especially useful tool to have in your back pocket if you鈥檙e taking a first-timer on their first backpacking or camping trip. We鈥檝e found that the best way to woo a partner, sway a dubious family member on the outdoors, or impress a group of friends is to wake up a little early and surprise them with an elaborate breakfast.

Want to do it right? Here are five ways to get the most out of your next camp morning and throw the best backcountry brunch of your life.

1. Set the scene

If you鈥檝e ever been to a boozy brunch, baby shower, or other similarly festive mid-morning event, you know that presentation is half the battle. This is especially true if you鈥檙e trying to impress people. Lay out a tablecloth, pop up the camp chairs, and break out your best camping enamelware. If you want to dress up a little, go for it: An apron is always a nice touch.

2. Get the equipment

You don鈥檛 need special gear to throw a memorable brunch, but a few key tools can take things to the next level. If you鈥檙e car-camping, a foldable aluminum camp table and a few high-quality camp chairs can make a major difference in diner comfort. A Dutch oven will let you make cornbread, crustless quiche, and other delicacies; meanwhile a pie iron opens the door to and grilled breakfast sandwiches.

If you鈥檙e backpacking, you鈥檙e more limited. However, cooking on a remote canister stove or white-gas stove can give you more control over cooking temperature鈥攊deal for making pancakes and other low- to medium-heat baked goods. Also make sure you have the essentials: a good nonstick pan, plenty of fuel, utensils, a sharp knife, and a small cutting board.

3. Flip a flawless pancake

There are few people who don鈥檛 like waking up to a hot stack of pancakes. Unfortunately, there are also few people who can actually cook them in the backcountry without charring both sides and covering themselves in batter. The secret? This method:

1. Use a thick, aluminum, nonstick pan. Titanium and other lightweight backpacking pans tend to heat unevenly, burning pancakes in the middle and leaving the edges raw. Don鈥檛 be afraid to pack in your real kitchen pan for a special occasion.
2. Add oil such that it just barely covers the bottom of the pan.
3. Turn up the stove to medium-low heat and wait for the oil to heat properly before you add batter. You鈥檒l know it鈥檚 ready when the oil 鈥渟himmers,鈥� or sparkles with little bubbles. Another good way to test heat is by flicking water at the pan off the tips of your fingers. If they sizzle and evaporate right away, you鈥檙e good to go.
4. Add batter in small dollops with a spoon. Now, be patient. Flipping a pancake too soon can cause it to stick and break. You know they鈥檙e ready to flip when bubbles rise through the batter and burst, usually after two or three minutes.
5. Flip and cook for an additional two or three minutes. Cover with a small towel to keep warm until your diners arise.

Practice at home first. Once you鈥檝e mastered the technique, try these recipes:

4. Venture into French toast

Pancakes feeling a little too tried-and-true? French toast takes it up a notch. Try making by sandwiching nutella, peanut butter, or jam between two slices of bread (we prefer day-old Challah bread). Or, serve up our with fresh, sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Pro tip: If you don鈥檛 have a cooler on hand, opt for a can of coconut whipped topping, which lasts longer without refrigeration than your traditional dairy-based whip.

5. Cook over a campfire

If you鈥檙e camping in an area where fires are both permitted, you can really pull out all the stops. adds rich, smoky flavor and crispness to everything from baked goods to bacon. (Plus, it also looks really impressive.) Some ideas:

• Wrap sausages, onions, peppers, and breakfast potatoes in foil packets and bake over hot coals.
• Cook bacon and eggs with the .
• Tuck chopped apples, butter, and cinnamon into a foil packet, bake in hot coals, then spoon over pancakes or oatmeal.
• Make these in a cast-iron skillet or in a covered Dutch oven.

6. Mix a mimosa

Orange juice isn鈥檛 shelf-stable鈥攂ut you know what is? SunnyD. And Tang. We prefer the former, but you do you. Pick up a small bottle of SunnyD from the shelf-stable juices section of the grocery store and a can of champagne or sparkling white wine from your local liquor store (yep, wine comes in cans now). The best ratio is equal parts juice and bubbly. Pour into mugs and serve.

7. Brew a perfect cup of coffee

There are a dozen ways you could brew java, but if you鈥檙e trying to impress a cranky riser, cowboy coffee isn鈥檛 one of them. Elevate your morning joe by bringing fresh grounds in a zip-top bag or using a to prepare the beans in camp. The humble pourover is among the lowest-maintenance brew methods, but it can be hard to get right. We recommend a traditional French press for big groups and the highly easy-to-clean backpacker-friendly for small ones.

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Everyone loves a backyard barbecue, but what if you don鈥檛 have a backyard? Not long ago, I ditched my house for a second-floor apartment. While I don鈥檛 miss mowing the lawn, the absence of convenient outdoor cooking hurts, as smoking and grilling have been huge fixtures of my year-round lifestyle, especially since beginning three book collaborations with barbecue master Aaron Franklin. Franklin Smoke,听our third book, explored the intersection of grilling and smoking鈥攎y favorite way to cook. Once I lost my backyard, I had to find a grill that I could store in a closet and easily take outside when needed.

The portable grill market offers a wide range of models, but most of them excel at only one of two things: being easily transportable or grilling food well. The ($695)听appears to be an exception, as it combines true portability and high-level grilling performance with versatility as a smoker. I discovered the Nomad last year via a hypnotic and mouth-watering from my friend, the great live-fire chef Adam Perry Lang, who was using it to sear piles of tomahawk ribeyes. The unique design caught my eye, and I spent the summer testing a loaner model of the grill鈥檚 latest iteration, which comes with twice as much ventilation as the first-generation model. With minimal setup and easy breakdown, I happily found that I could be up and cooking in minutes whether at my apartment鈥檚 green space, a park picnic table, a truck鈥檚 tailgate, or a walk-in campsite.

The Nomad Grill and Smoker鈥檚 Brilliant Design

The Nomad may be the sleekest-looking piece of barbecue equipment ever created. It looks like something Q Division might have designed for James Bond, but every detail has a function, and no aspect is gratuitous. The more you use it, the deeper your appreciation gets.

The Nomad is shaped like a large briefcase or what used to be called a valise (before humanity woke up and put rollers on luggage). Its oversized plastic handle provides a comfortable and spacious grip. At 28 pounds, the Nomad is not something you鈥檇 want to schlep on a long trail, but for a short trip from hatchback to campsite, it鈥檚 compact and ideal.

The case鈥檚 exterior is made of perforated anodized aluminum, which gives it a polished industrial look but also provides toughness and airflow, as the exterior is really a shell for the grill inside. Two durable plastic briefcase-like clasps (that stay cool during use) unsnap to open the unit. When opened and laid flat, each half of the shell houses a heavy, die-cast aluminum box that will contain the fiery hot charcoal.

Together, the thick aluminum interior and shell allow for enough heat dissipation that the Nomad鈥檚 outer surface stays cool during use鈥攅nough so that you can set it on surfaces like picnic tables without fear of setting them ablaze.

Classic Charcoal Grilling

It takes two seconds to open the Nomad, and then it鈥檚 ready to go. The manufacturer sells proprietary high-quality charcoal made from Thai fruitwood and some fire-starter tumbleweeds, but any type of charcoal works. Whatever charcoal you use, I recommend starting it in a chimney, which is faster and easier than any other method.

The Nomad comes with a grill grate that covers one of the two sides when the box is open. Ordering another separately will let you double the area of grill surface (and add an extra three听pounds to the total package). The grate itself is unique and speaks to the quality of the manufacturer鈥檚 workmanship and design. Made from rigid, cast stainless steel, its slightly convex shape (for structural integrity and coal clearance) features a honeycomb pattern that successfully prevents almost anything from falling through. For ingredients with a propensity to roll鈥攕ausages, asparagus鈥攋ust turn the grate over and let it be a shallow basket. Cleverly, the grate is also magnetized, snapping satisfyingly into place and remaining there without rattling even when the Nomad is collapsed and on the move.

Once you dump the hot coals and set the grate on top, it takes five to ten minutes for the grill surface to get hot enough to cook on. Manual vents on the ends of each side allow for control over airflow. Open them to whip up the flames, close them partially to dampen heat, and shut them fully to extinguish the coals when the Nomad is folded and locked.

As a grill alone, the Nomad excels. The short distance between coal bed and cooking surface maximizes the heat intensity, making it perfect for searing. Every time, achieving a deep, flavorful crust on steaks was a breeze. For thicker cuts, I constructed a two-zone fire, mounding the coals on one half of the grill while spreading them out loosely on the other for a more mellow roast. Of course, you can also close the Nomad鈥檚 top to create an interior cooking chamber, which allows another set of possibilities.

Able and Creative Smoking

The ability to instantly shut the suitcase lid and turn the Nomad into an oven or smoker is one of its best features. When closed, the Nomad鈥檚 built-in analog thermometer conveys the internal temperature, and the side vents to control airflow become ever more important. If you plan to close the lid to create oven-like conditions, definitely organize your grill in two zones to make room off the coals for your food to roast. The thermometer told me that after ten minutes I was hitting temperatures over 400 Fahrenheit when using a fair bit of charcoal, though it was easier to maintain temperatures in the 350-degree range.

In this mode, adding wood chunks or wood chips directly to the coals or on the grate above them will provide smoke. Then you can configure the vents to create draft: open the vent next to the coals while keeping the one above it closed and do the opposite on the other end. This pushes air directly to coals, which smolders the wood, while the open vent next to food pulls the smoke across and out.

Smoking any slow-cooking cut (think brisket, ribs, or pork shoulder) takes hours, and this is not where the Nomad shines. Its heat retention is good, but not in the same league as something like the Big Green Egg, thus you鈥檒l need to replenish its coals fairly regularly, which is a bit of a pain considering you have to open it, set the meat aside, remove the hot grill, and add more hot charcoal that鈥檚 been prepped in a chimney.

My best results came from deploying the Nomad as the hybrid it is: smoking for short durations to add a savory-smoky layer of flavor on top of the juicy tang of charcoal grilling. In practice, that meant smoking marinated chicken parts with the Nomad closed for 20 to 30 minutes, then opening it, ditching the wood chunk, and cooking directly over the coals to get that pungent char. It worked just as well in reverse鈥攕earing thick-cut pork chops over high-heat coals, then moving them to the unheated end of the grill, adding a wood chunk over the coals, and smoking them for 15 to 20 minutes until done.

The results were spectacular, everything you鈥檇 want from a hybrid smoker-grill: professional quality cooking dynamics, achieved with great ease and efficiency, and a level of portability never before seen in a product like this.

When you鈥檙e done cooking, simply fold up the Nomad, snap the latches shut, close the vents, and your coals will be extinguished in no time. Cleaning up after any grill is never fun鈥搉o other word than filthy to describe ashes, grease, and char. The Nomad acquits itself well here too, though it is a bit unwieldy to turn over and dump. Nomad鈥檚 suggestion of using a shop vac to clean out the ashes is a good one. The rest cleans up well with a high-powered spray nozzle and maybe a little scrubbing if you want it to shine.

The only real downside of the Nomad is its price, listed on the website as $695. However, fans of both design and quality gear will recognize quality when they see it. And the Nomad is so brilliantly conceived, simple to use, and well-constructed, that it should not only function well for decades but also never go out of style.

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What鈥檚 the best way to grill a steak? There鈥檚 no one answer, but to me, there鈥檚 always been a wrong one. I鈥檝e long considered grilling with gas to be heresy, but it occurred to me that I鈥檇 never actually done a back-to-back taste test between gas and charcoal. Earlier this week, with very excited dogs, I fired up my grills and got down to work.

What’s the difference? Temperature, smoke, and convenience. While natural lump charcoal is able to get much hotter than natural gas or propane, and produces delicious wood smoke, it also takes time to light and bring up to temperature, is messy to use, and can be challenging for beginners to precisely control. In comparison, on a gas grill you simply turn dials and push a button to ignite the flame.

The Experiment: How to Grill a Steak

To control for variables as much as possible, I bought four identical choice-grade New York strip steaks. Not the expensive ribeyes I normally cook, they were maybe half-an-inch thick, and not terribly well marbled. Then, I set out to conduct two tests. First, a cook using the most basic methods possible. I wanted to eliminate any flavor difference created by ultra-hot sears, and just experience the difference in flavor, if any, between fuels. Then, I wanted to take advantage of charcoal’s high temperatures to see if the end result really is superior.

Pulling two steaks out of the butcher paper, I liberally coated each in kosher salt, then set them aside to come up to room temperature. According to Bon App茅tit, before cooking results in a more even temperature听and juicier results.

Grilling Steak: Gas Versus Charcoal

I fired up both burners on my patio鈥檚 built-in Viking grill (it came with the house), and let it heat up on full blast for 15 minutes. 550 degrees was the highest achievable temperature, so I inserted my Meater+ wireless thermometer in the steak, and threw it on the grill, being careful to leave the hood open. The wired probe on my Dot thermometer was throwing error codes and needs to be replaced, and the hottest ambient temperature the Meater+ can withstand is 500 degrees. Leaving the hood open may have allowed some heat to escape, but it also allowed me to monitor the steak鈥檚 internal temperature precisely.

When the steak reached 110-degrees internal, I flipped it over, then pulled it off at 125, setting it aside to rest while I heated up my Big Green Egg (BGE). To make things fair, I also set it to 550 degrees, and left the lid open while I followed the same method.

And the Winner Is…

I actually think I overcooked the BGE鈥檚 steak slightly. While resting, the gas steak reached a high temperature of 132. The BGE鈥檚 reached 136. And you can see that in the side-by-side shots, where the gas steak looks a little more evenly pink throughout.

The difference was stark upon tasting. While an unpleasantly sour taste pervaded every bite of the steak grilled on the Viking, the one grilled on natural lump charcoal just tasted like salt, fat, and heat. I鈥檇 have needed dollops of sauce to finish the gas steak, but could have eaten the charcoal one on its own with a reasonable level of enjoyment.

While that natural gas or propane grills burn their fuels without odor, I鈥檝e never found the taste they produce in steaks palatable. I don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 simply because I prefer the taste of wood-smoke in steak to steak without the smoke, but I do know I can taste a difference.

With the aid of a leaf blower, I鈥檓 able to take my BGE above 1,500 degrees (this is also very dangerous and is best left to experienced grillers). Of course, that鈥檚 only with natural lump charcoal, which contains nothing but carbonized wood, rather than the compacted sawdust briquettes that are filled with chemical additives. You don鈥檛 necessarily need a multi-hundred-dollar Egg to achieve a perfect steak; just burning natural lump in a standard kettle grill will elevate your flavors, while also facilitating higher temperatures.

Would results differ if I used a more elaborate method, and is it possible to hide the flavor of gas? My go-to grilling method for steak听is to do the hottest-possible sear on the front end, rest the steaks for at least 20 minutes, then put them back on at a low temperature to cook through. At home, I use that Big Green Egg for the sear, then rely on the more consistent temperatures of a pellet grill for the slow cook through. But that method often works just as well on lesser equipment.

Don’t Have a Charcoal Grill? Fear Not.

Because butter withstands higher temperatures than olive oil, and also because I was hoping its sweet flavor could mask the sour aftertaste created on the gas grill, I first salted then seared one of the steaks on my 24,000 BTU Viking range burner, using a Staub enameled cast iron pan. With that pre-heated as hot as possible, I melted some butter, then cooked the steak for a minute on each side, before moving it to a cool cutting board to rest.

To sear on the Big Green Egg, I simply point a leaf blower at the intake from a few feet away, then watch the thermometer dial spin around as a wall of flame emerges from the top. 30 seconds on each side produced a very crispy sear on this strip. I also rubbed the steak with a good quality olive oil听first, to seal in moisture.

After allowing both steaks to rest for 20 minutes, I threw them back on their respective grills, with both of those set at 250 degrees, to cook through to 125. Then rested each again for 10 minutes to come up to something north of 130 before slicing. I again think I slightly overdid the steak on the Egg, simply because I鈥檓 not used to cooking such thin pieces of beef.

The Bottom Line: Just Avoid Gas

With this method, the gas grill produced a more predictable result, but the sear was lackluster and the flavor of the gas was not dissipated at all, even with all that butter. The charcoal steak was a little overdone, but a lot more palatable anyways.

I鈥檒l go back to reserving my gas grill for occasional vegetable-only duty during big dinner parties, and keep my meats as far away from gas-fired grills as possible. Still, the dogs didn鈥檛 seem to care which steak they were given. All four disappeared in only a few quick chomps.

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Backpacking is work鈥攆un work, but you still might want a drink when you鈥檙e done. A dehydrator isn鈥檛 just for meals; it allows for with unexpected ingredients that don鈥檛 compromise pack weight. Dehydrate berries and citrus for sunset sangria or limes for margaritas. Experiment with your favorite flavors or try this recipe on your next trip.

Backcountry Old Fashioned

Makes 2 servings

• A few drops of bitters
• 2 sugar cubes
• 4 orange slices
• 4 Bing cherries
• 100 mL bourbon

At home:

1. Add a few drops of bitters to two sugar cubes (enough to saturate but not disintegrate them).
2. Dehydrate the sugar cubes, orange slices, and cherries at 135掳F.
3. Pack your cocktail ingredients with two 50-mL nips of bourbon.

At camp: 听

1. Divide the ingredients into two cups and add one serving of bourbon to each.
2. Stir vigorously until the sugar mix dissolves, and enjoy.

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