Saturday, April 30, 2011
Eat In, Not Out - 5 Ways to Ditch the Drive-Thru
By Kristl Story 
Kristl Story
Level: Basic PLUS
This article has been viewed 8 time(s).
Article Submitted On: February 21, 2011
Kristl Story Level: Basic PLUS
When my husband and I got engaged in 1987, we began a 12-month savings plan, so we would have enough money for a down payment ...
Are you a drive-thru diva? Be honest! How many times a week do you do the fast food drive-thru? Have you ever added up how much you spend each week on fast food? Do you go to the fast food drive-thru to grab breakfast on the way to school? Is the Starbuck's drive-thru part of your daily routine? How often do you find yourself in the fast food drive-thru for a quick lunch? When your kids ask what's for dinner, is your answer the drive-thru?
Fast food has become the American way. We use it as a crutch whenever we're in a time crunch, but in an effort to save time... we're wasting money and nutrition, and are we really even enjoying our food? If you're ready to ditch the drive-thru and save money, try these 5 tips to get you started!
Save the money - Take an entire week off from the drive-thru/fast food, and put the money you would have spent aside. Will you have $30, $50 or $100 at the end of the week? Why don't you use that money to treat yourself to a pedicure or a new pair of shoes, or better yet, pay off some credit card debt! Just think, if you get in the habit of saving all your drive-thru money, you might easily rack up nearly $2000 in savings this year! ($5 a day x 365 days = $1825)Let your kids do the cooking - If your busy work schedule leaves you no time to cook, and you children are pre-teens or teens... it's time they did a little cooking! You might require that they attend "mom's cooking school first," so you can teach them the basics! Work with your child to find quick and easy recipes that the entire family would enjoy.Learn to love your crock pot - The world is filled with crock pot recipes! Put a few ingredients in the pot each morning, and your dinner is ready and waiting!Stop by a warehouse club or your grocery deli instead of the drive-thru - Warehouse clubs and grocery store delis are loaded with prepared foods that are less than the cost of fast food.Buy a coffee pot, some gourmet coffee beans, and a few fancy flavored syrups - You too can be a brewmaster and save money!Once you ditch the drive-thru, you'll be well on your way to saving more money!
About me:
13 years ago, I left my job to stay home with our 3 children, and our household income was cut in half! I quickly discovered that the stay at home mom job description included more than just play dates. I was now the CEO of the Story family and also the maid, the cook and yes, the bargain shopper. So, my life on a budget began, and I created http://www.thebudgetdiet.com/ to share money saving tips with other stay at home moms.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristl_Story
This article has been viewed 8 time(s). Article Submitted On: February 21, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Eco-Friendly Food - Buy Local Produce
Food is a need that we all have in common. It is a huge segment of the economy, and making eco-friendly food choices reduces your impact on the environment, improves the quality of your food, and protects your health. Buying local produce is an essential activity if you want to switch your diet to eco-friendly food.
You have likely heard more than once that you should buy local food. Local is so entwined with the concept of eco-friendly because local produce by its very proximity to you means that less fuel was used to bring it to you. Most of the food at a supermarket has been grown and processed very far from you, often in a different state. For example, the bulk of the produce in any U.S. supermarket comes from California, Arizona, and Florida. And, depending on the season, a large portion also comes from other countries like Mexico, Chile, and South Africa. All of this shipping of food accounts for vast amounts of fuel consumption and global warming pollution. Buying local produces reduces this pollution.
When you buy local produce you also have a greater opportunity to know the agricultural practices used to produce the food. You can ask the farmer if pesticides and other chemicals were used. Armed with this information you can support growers who avoid toxic agriculture and therefore reduce your exposure to the many agricultural chemicals widely used. You can of course look for farmers with organic certifications, which is great, but keep in mind that farmers who advertise their local produce as simply not having been sprayed with chemicals are also providing quality food. Their produce is still an eco-friendly food choice because of the absence of toxic agricultural chemicals and the fact that it is growing close to you, even if it lacks an organic certification.
How do you find local produce?
1. Farmers' markets - These are becoming increasingly prevalent in communities large and small as the public seeks fresh local produce. At a farmers' market you'll be able to meet the farmers and ask questions. This will help you find the food that is the safest and freshest to eat.
2. Farms - More farmers are establishing direct-to-consumer business models. This farm-to-table approach lets farmers get retail price points, cut out wholesalers, and improve their per acre profit margins. Some of the farmers you find at farmers' markets will also have retail hours at their farms or sell by appointment. Another type of farm to look for is a "U-pick" farm. You can get very good prices if you do the picking and you'll never have fresher local produce.
3. Roadside stands - These pop up during the growing season in just about every region. Stop in and buy some local produce.
4. Check your local grocery store - Some small grocery stores and even supermarkets are specifically offering locally grown foods due to customer demand. Look over the selection at your supermarket and make the eco-friendly choices. Ask the manager to stock from local growers.
When you buy local produce you are making one of the easiest eco-friendly choices available to most people. Additionally you are strengthening your local food economy. The more you buy local produce, then the more growers will profit from your choice. Local growers will also be able to earn a better living and more consumers will have access to food that has a lower pollution burden. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that is both ecologically and economically supportive.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
What's the Difference Between a Dutch Oven and a Cooking Pot
Beef seared in bacon grease, simmered slowly in a Dutch oven with beans, carrots and potatoes has long been a staple of cowhands and modern day campers. A Dutch oven is placed over hot coals and those coals shoveled on the top of the oven. It slow cooks foods with liquids and bakes foods as well. A cooking pot cooks food rapidly or slowly when placed over the heat source.
Shape and Lids
A cooking pot doesn't have to have a lid to do its job. If it does, the lid may be glass or the same material the pot is made of. Cooking pot lids are often domed with a protruding round doorknob-shaped handle in the middle. An oven requires a tight fitting, thick lid made of the same material as the oven. The lid is flat across with a handle in the middle. The handle is made so a hook can be used to lift it off, since the lid and handle get very hot. Dutch ovens have a flat bottom with straight sides. The oven stands on legs so chunks of wood, or charcoal briquettes, have room to burn directly underneath the pot. The ovens also have a bail, a wire loop, attached to opposite sides of the pot near the top. The bail is used to carry the full hot Dutch oven off the fire. Cooking pots have handles, either one long handle or two shorter handles. The handles, in most cases, are not meant to be exposed to heat.
Materials and Shape
Cooking pots are made of various materials, or combination of materials, including aluminum, copper, stainless steel and enamel over steel. Dutch ovens are made of cast iron or aluminum. Cast iron conducts heat more evenly but aluminum is lighter. Cast iron has to be cured before using by rubbing with oil and heating while aluminum does not. Cooking pots do not have to be cured before using either.
Cleaning
Clean a Dutch oven by burning off any leftover food by turning the pot upside down over hot coals. Another method is to wash the oven with hot soapy water. Dry and then spread a thin coat of oil on the oven. Cooking pots may be scoured with steel wool, a plastic scrub sponge, soap and water or put in the dish washer. The cooking pots do not need a coat of oil.
Baking
While both ovens and cooking pots are used to cook foods, only Dutch ovens are used to successfully bake. The prime temperature for cooking in a Dutch oven is 350 F. which is the temperature often used for baking cakes and pies. Both the top and bottom of biscuits brown evenly in an oven. Cooking pots fry or steam but don't have the ability to bake. The temperature is hottest closest to the heat source which is at the bottom of the pot. A Dutch oven disperses the heat evenly throughout the interior of the oven.
Why I Prefer To Smoke Food Using Propane Gas
When choosing the heat source for your smoker there are a number of things to consider. The purist will always say that there's no substitute for wood because this provides the heat and smoke in the most fundamental way but I believe that we have to be a little bit more practical that at. After all we don't all have the ability to build a smoke pit in our back garden - and even if we did, I'm not so sure that our better halves would be that please with us either!
So if we assume that wood is out of the question, what are we left with? Well the choice is electricity, gas (propane or natural) and charcoal. Now I have to admit that electricity is super clean and easily controllable so it makes smoking for the lazy enthusiast quite simple but it does have significant disadvantages. At the other end of the spectrum is charcoal and definitely not super clean! It also can be expensive if you are planning on doing a lot of smoking (as I do) and controllability isn't its strong point either.
For these reasons I prefer to use gas and let me explain some of the reasons why:
Compared to charcoal, gas is on the pretty clean side of the spectrum and assuming that combustion is complete, the by-products of burning gas are simply carbon dioxide and water. Any odor that is present in gas is artificial in that it is inserted so that we can actually smell gas should it ever free flow without being burned but this odor is eradicated during combustion.
Gas is readily available and relatively cheap especially if using piped natural gas. Bottled gas (propane) is also readily available but not so cheap. I prefer to use propane because of its portability. You can buy propane in a tank (there's a variety of sizes) and assuming you can carry tour tank and your smoker in your car then you can literally smoke food wherever you want.
The disadvantage of piped natural gas is exactly that. You'll most likely need a gas engineers to safely plumb in your gas line and connect up your smoker and this means that your smoker has to be sited in a fixed position. It's maybe not quite as limiting as electricity where you would more than likely need to build a dedicated space in your garden but certainly you would need to ensure that it was sited in shelter of the prevailing wind.
If you are thinking that you could just disconnect your smoker and connect up to a propane tank, think again. Propane tanks have a regulator that controls the flow of gas and this flow is different to natural gas so a burner designed for use with propane won't work with natural gas and vice versa.
So propane it is. It's clean, it's portable and relatively speaking it's easy to control. So are there any down sides?
I don't want to scaremonger but the worst that could happen is an explosion. Explosions are rare but they do happen and it's usually through lack of care and attention. The most innocent of causes is if your burner is extinguished by a strong wind however the chances of this resulting in an explosion are small because we are outdoors and so ventilation is good and the build up of gas in a confined space is unlikely. Other causes include faulty regulators and burst pipes so it's worth double checking all you equipment periodically to ensure it is airtight.
The single biggest complaint that I've heard about with propane is when exchanging an empty tank for a full one and the faucet on the new tank doesn't work as well. The simple answer to this situation is that when you find a good tank, hold onto it. Don't do a tank exchange, take it to a refill station. Not only do you get to keep your tank but more often than not you get a greater quantity of gas in your refill.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
What Components Make A Good Charcoal Grill?
I've had a number of charcoal grills in my time and even made may own on a couple of occasions but I've still to find the perfect charcoal grill, in other words something that caters for all needs.
Charcoal is a challenge in itself, for many it's simply just too much hassle and they prefer the immediacy of gas - just switch it on and you're ready to cook in ten minutes. Others (like me) just can't stop wanting to play with fire and go for the traditional approach. When I say play with fire I'm not referring to taking unnecessary risks or having a death wish, I just mean that we love watching the flames.
If you are like me and want to cook on charcoal then the choice of grills that you have at your disposal in immense and so is the range of prices so how do you determine what makes a good grill and what makes a bad grill?
The first thing I want to say about price is that it does have it's part to play and there are reasons why some grills cost more. That said, does it represent value for money to pay more? On the whole I think yes.
You will pay more for example for a cast iron firebox and in my opinion this is an absolute must if you don't want to be changing your grill every one or two years. My first grill was made out of sheet steel and after a few cookouts, the heat had really got to it and it had warped beyond recognition, it just looked tired and worn, not something that you could wheel out a BBQ party.
I also had one of those brick built grills that had a sheet of metal upon which to place the charcoal. Again not made out of cast iron. The combination of heat from the coals coupled with a dose of rain and the metal simply disintegrated and a hole formed.
I then bought a cast iron tray, that was about 25 years ago and the same unit is still going strong today. That said about cast iron I can fully respect your choice not to go this route if you're looking for portability and weight is a factor. In this case go for a lower quality solution, pay less but just be prepared to buy a new grill every so often.
Another thing that drives the cost of a grill is the material used to make the cooking grates (that's the bit that you put your food on). There's generally three quality standards, stainless steel, porcelain enamel and cast iron.
Stainless steel is at the lower end of the spectrum, it does the job and it's relatively cheap. My personal preference is actually to go for porcelain enameled grate because they perform equally but they are so much easier to clean. Hot soapy water and a wipe with a cloth and generally any charred food comes away with ease.
Cast iron raises its head again and arguably is just as easy to clean because you can go at it with a wire brush. The big advantage is that when you get the grill really hot you can make some great sear marks on your steaks or veggies - to some folks, that's important but I have to say that to me, it's not.
The final point to make is that again, cast iron is heavy so if portability is what drives your priorities the steer clear of cast iron.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
What Makes For A Good Tailgating Grill?
Drive to the ball park, open the tailgate and set up for a party! It's a fantastic atmosphere as we enjoy our outdoor grill cookout and anticipate the game ahead. What are the essentials that make for a good tailgating experience? For me it's the grill that's critical because cooking is the center piece of the action, I need one that's powerful, flexible and packed with lots of handy features.
Of course your needs might be different, after all every grill can't be all things to all men so how do we determine which is the right grill for each and every one of us? In this article I'll discuss some of the unique features of each of the portable gas grills that I've experienced so far and these are the Aussie Adventurer, Coleman Road-trip, Holland and Weber Q series.
Because we are tailgating, weight isn't such an issue, most of these grills weigh in at about 30 pounds which isn't light but is certainly something that one person can lift and set up alone. After that I look at the power of the grill because this is going to determine the variety of food that I can cook well and in particular steaks. At the end of the day, if you are going to sear a steak you need a grill plate that you can really get up to a good temperature.
Grill power output isn't as easy to determine as you might think. You'll notice that every grill manufacturer gives a BTU (British Thermal Unit) rating to their grill burners and most folks believe that this indicates the power output but it doesn't. It actually refers to the energy consumption of the burner.
You might think that I am splitting hairs but this is important to recognize because unless the consumption of the burner translates directly into a good heat output then you're going to be disappointed about the quality of the searing results and in addition you will be spending money buying gas canister after gas canister. To be fair, the BTU rating does generally reflect the heat output but it's an important distinction and if you want the ultimate measure of power output look for the Kilowatt (KW) rating.
So who wins the BTU competition? The Holland grill blows everything out of the water so arguably if steaks is your thing then this is probably the grill for you. A couple of interesting points to make are that each portable gas canister lasts only 4 to 5 hours however to compensate for this the Holland grill does have an adapter kit so that you can attach a much larger gas tank. Again, if you're tailgating then carrying a larger gas tank probably isn't going to be a problem to you.
Next for me is the set up. How easy is it to set up the grill so that I can cook safely without the grill wobbling on being off the level? The Aussie wins on this score because it's the only grill in the five mentioned above with three legs (and adjustable ones at that). It amazes me that everyone knows that a three legged stool is the most stable to sit on in any terrain hence why milk maids used to use them so why hasn't this caught on? It's probably because so much more of the design has to be compromised.
I didn't include it above but if the stability of three legs is important to you then you should look at the range by Cadac too. Originally from South Africa, these hotplate grills are pretty good although I think that they are verging more towards cooking than grilling. Yes there's a hotplate for searing but then the other attachments are a paella pan for example which is taking us away from the smoke.
What Ingredients Make The Best Easy Dinner Recipes For The Family?
Other than on Thanksgiving Day, there is not one household I have found where someone wants to spend all day cooking in the kitchen. In fact, most families I know would want to spend the least amount of time in the kitchen possible on a day to day basis. This means there is a desire to focus on quick and easy dinner recipes.
Well every dinner is made up of the ingredients that go into it. When it comes to easy dinner recipes for the family, we must stick with fast cooking, easy ingredients. We use a rule of thumb in choosing ingredients. When cooking with kids, is it something they can cook by following directions and with minimum supervision. We want to be able to assign them a cooking task and have it be simple enough for them to see it through to completion. In order to achieve that, we have to follow the K.I.S.S. principle right from choosing our ingredients.
So what do we use to prepare these easy dinner recipes for the family?
1) Chopped meat. Ground beef is so flexible it can be used in a multitude of recipes to offer a solid meat product that can be used in burgers to Italian food to Mexican food to casseroles. If you are fat content conscious, you can substitute ground turkey for the ground beef.
2) Chicken tenders. This is the easiest for of chicken to use. Generally speaking, they can be used in almost any meal that calls for chicken. The difference is that the smaller pieces cook more quickly
3) Steak. Chuck steak is affordable and can be broiled in just a few minutes of each side. If you slice it before you cook it, it will fry up quickly as well.
4) Spaghetti. How can you go wrong with something that boils up in under 10 minutes. Kids love it, too!
5) Tuna fish. One of the quick standby meals in our house tuna noodle casserole. We have this perfected with a 20 minute start to serve process.
6) Canned ham. This is easy to throw into the oven as is, or you can slice it into ham steaks, which will cook up really fast. You can also dice it for use in casseroles.
7) Par-boiled rice. This cooks faster than regular rice and is less sticky. You can mix in almost anything to make it a meal.
8) Frozen vegetables. Using frozen veggie come out fresher tasting when cook, hold more nutrition than is in canned veggies, and cook into one pan meals easier
We work pretty hard to come up with recipes that can be cooked in one dish if possible. Whether it's a crock pot, a frying pan or a baking dish, it still one dish and makes clean up easy. The time and energy saved by think through these easy dinner recipes for the family is well worth the process.
Chris & Michelle Grimbilas both have backgrounds in teaching and education. Cooking is one of the things they both enjoy. They have five children who have shared the kitchen with them over the years. You can get more great easy cooking ideas at their Creative Cookery website. You'll find more cooking ideas,real resources that will help you in the kitchen, and best of all FREE GIFTS! Get software that shows you how to cook almost anything! Get free dessert recipes! Claim your gifts today at the Creative Cookery!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Grimbilas
Saturday, April 23, 2011
What to Look for in the Best Gas Grills?
Gas grills are significant investment. The best gas grills can cost upwards of $400 and can last for several decades. Most hardcore grill enthusiasts develop a special attachment to the grills, and they are often the most important equipment in any outdoor kitchen.
The concept of 'outdoor kitchen' itself has picked up speed of late. More and more people are adding a smaller kitchen to their patio or deck, one that is largely meant for parties, get-togethers with friends, or just lazy lunches on Sundays. Such kitchens typically feature a small sink, a work area, a gas stove, and most importantly, a large, multi-function gas grill. The last equipment often ends up being the centerpiece of the outdoor kitchen.
The best gas grills are designed keeping outdoor use in mind. Therefore, durability is certainly a key issue, especially when you consider that your grill may have to face the vagaries of the weather. The best grills, thus, are typically made of durable stainless steel that not only looks great, but will also last you a very long time. On the downside, though, these can cost quite a pretty penny and may be beyond the budget of most people.
A quality gas grill would also have several accessories and additional functions. The first of these would be the rotisserie accessory. Most manufacturers provide a rotisserie as a standard feature. It allows you to cook ever popular dishes such as rotisserie chicken, and other large cuts of meat.
The second function/accessory you should look for would be a smoker. Some cuts of meat, such as the brisket, require more than 20 hours of cooking time in a smoker. Smokers cook meat slowly over time, giving it a tremendous flavor. Anybody who has eaten barbecued brisket down in the South will readily testify this.
While most outdoor kitchens feature a small stove, I prefer my grill itself to have a couple of small side burners. These side burners are great for making/heating up sauces or side dishes. Whether it is a potato salad, a stew, or a sauce to finish up a steak, side burners save you time and offer tremendous convenience.
The best gas grills also feature plenty of other nifty features such as small cabinets, drawers, etc. to store cutlery, meat thermometers, etc. Although not essential, these welcome additions just make the entire grilling process a bit more convenient.
Because a grill can be a significant investment, it is recommended that you purchase a durable, quality cover for it. Outdoor grills tend to get damaged easily in rain, snow or extreme heat. A durable, heavy cover would only provide protection for your investment and prolong its life.
What Makes A Good Gas Grill Great
How do you distinguish between and average grill and a great one? So many of the gas grills that are marketed today are made in China where labor costs are so cheap that it's very difficult to distinguish between what is a good grill and what is truly a great grill.
There are some fundamentals that you need to consider in the build quality and that's predominantly around the materials used to construct your unit. Stainless steel is right up there whereas the lower cost end of the market will be powder coated. This is not to say that the powder coated models aren't any good, many share the same components as the stainless steel models it's just simply a matter of aesthetics and longevity.
Some like the clean lines of stainless steel whereas others like to see something painted the issue with painted is really around rust and ease of cleaning. In theory, provided the pint is punctured, there's not reason why rust should propagate but inevitably it seems to do so. As soon as you get and consider when it gets a knock, the paint gets scratched, you're rolling down the rocky road.
Not all of us can afford stainless steel and if you can't then the best way to protect your investment is by buying a grill cover and ensuring that you keep your grill out of the way of the weather. A grill cover will cost you about $45 and will definitely help you stop the rot.
Most of the problems that I hear about when a grill is a couple of years old is that the burners have corroded and blocked up. You'll notice that the grills at the top of the range advertize cast iron burners as being a key feature and this is not a coincidence, cast iron means reliability. If you are price sensitive and let's face who isn't then look just try and get to the entry level for cast iron burners and you'll hopefully enjoy a greater cooking lifespan for your grill.
If however you're not in a position to get cast iron burners do the next best thing and that is to check the warranty. Some grill manufacturers (Jenn Air to name one) have a lifetime warranty on their burners so if anything goes wrong, you can phone them up and they will ship out replacements. Just to be clear on this point, my understanding is that the parts will be free but the shipping costs may not.
While you are checking on the burners, check on the igniter too. Not just for warranty but also to ensure that each burner has an igniter. I recently cooked on a reputable branded grill to find it only had one igniter and if I wanted to use the left burner (where the searing plate was) I had to light the right burner using the igniter, turn on ta central burner to allow the flame to jump across and then the left burner with the flame jumping across from the central burner. Once lit I could turn off the center and right burners. What a performance!
For me a gas grill becomes great if it has a hood because this is when you can start to experiment with indirect cooking which brings a whole new dimension to outdoor cooking. You might consider this dangerous because once you're hooked you'll be out there spending on a smoker!
Your hood should have a temperature gauge on it but don't bother with a viewing window, they look good in the shops but after a couple of cookouts you won't be able to see anything.
What Is Smoking Food All About?
It was about three of four years ago that my desire to learn more about smoking food really took off. Many years ago at the food fair I bought what's best described as a shoebox smoker, very primitive but it worked and ever since then I've been keen to discover more about the smoking process and how it all works. If you fancy trying your hand at smoking your own food let me explain the processes involved and how it all fits together.
The origins of smoking were as a way of preserving food in the days before canning and refrigeration and there are three steps in the process. The first of the three steps really is now more about flavor than preserving and that's salting or curing. Flavors are now added to curing salts such as herbs and spices for additional seasoning and the salting process can take place as a dry cure or a wet cure (brine). One caveat to what I've written and that is that there are still areas of the world that rely on these preservation techniques eg Africa and poorer parts of Asia. Here preservation is of the utmost importance.
The second part of the process is weight loss and this is done in an environment of controlled humidity. The weight loss is brought about through the evaporation of moisture from within the tissues and the logic follows that the greater the weight loss, the better the keeping qualities. Why dry something out in a humid environment, surely that's defeating the object? Well in part yes, but by drying out at a known humidity therefore takes the guesswork out of the process and dependent on the food that you are smoking (and its weight) you will be able to predict exactly how long the process is going to take.
The third stage is the actual smoking and during the smoking process tarry deposits from the smoke settle on the food and these deposits are antiseptic in nature so they inhibit the growth of bacteria. The process can be further broken down into hot smoking and cold smoking.
Cold smoking takes place at between 10 and 29?C and ensures that the food remains in a raw state at the end of the smoking process. It's essential that the tight tolerances of temperature are observed because if the temperature gets too high then the food will start to cook and this will change the texture of the food and it could start to disintegrate. This is more relevant in countries where the ambient temperature is quite high where it might not even be possible to get the temperature below 29?C. Food smoked and eaten raw is mainly confined to fish but can include beef.
When hot smoking you are certainly trying to cook the food whilst imparting the smoked flavor and because of this the actual temperature is less important or to put it another way the range is larger. In the case of fish however there is a ceiling temperature of 93?C. Hot smoked fish is usually cold smoked first and then the temperature brought up to what is really a relatively low temperature for hot smoking. Mackerel done this way is absolutely magnificent.
Meat and poultry are smoked at higher temperatures (110 - 120?C) albeit care must be taken again not to exceed these temperatures because meat will easily become dry and frankly unpleasant to eat. Assuming the temperature is kept within range then meat becomes difficult to overcook and smoking can continue for many hours.
Once you have mastered the basics then it really is easy to smoke your own food. Probably the area that will require the most experimentation is the curing because it is quite easy to over-salt food and to be fair it is also a matter of taste.
Where Can You Purchase The Best Of All Breville Grills?
If you're looking for a simple way to prepare grilled food right inside your kitchen, then you need to find the highest quality indoor grill around. Many people agree that the Breville Smart Grill is just that. It has many advanced features that are not included on other indoor grills that you might see, which makes it one of the best Breville grills out there. It gives you a sophisticated temperature control system with an LCD screen, interchangeable grilling surfaces and much more. If you make the decision to buy one, you might be wondering where you should make your purchase.
While you have a number of options in front of you, I would start my search online. There are a number of outlets online that sell indoor grills, like the Smart Grill, at discounted prices. Here are some places to start your search.
Amazon.com
If you want to get a good deal on a brand new indoor grill, then Amazon has you covered. They work out deals with manufacturers all over the world - Breville included. Because so many people purchase from Amazon, they can offer you a huge discount on a number of items. They often sell the Breville grills at a very good discount.
eBay.com
If you are comfortable with purchasing a used grill, then eBay.com might be the place for you. It is the largest auction web site in the world that allows members to sell possessions that they own. Before you decide to make a purchase on eBay, make sure that you are comfortable using a grill that has been used by another individual or family. You will also want to make sure that all of the parts of the Smart Grill are in good working order before you actually send any money off.
CraigsList.com
A lot of people do not realize that CraigsList is a great place to buy small kitchen appliances. Plus, not everything on this classified ads website is used. Take a look to see if anyone is selling a Breville Smart Grill in your area. Keep an eye out for garage sales and estate sales because indoor grills are often sold at these events.
Besides these services online, you might want to check out some local department stores. Home Depot is known for carrying a wide selection of indoor grills, but you might not be able to find a discounted price like you may be able to online. The best strategy is to check multiple places before you actually make your purchase. Breville grills can sometimes get a little bit expensive, so you have to realize that shopping around might be worth your efforts.
Why Electricity Is Not Ideal For Smoking Food
I've been specific in my choice of words (energy source rather a heat source) because technically electricity isn't heat despite the fact that what we're actually going to use this energy for is to heat our smoker.
Heat is desirable in a smoker for two purposes:-
To make heat for cooking (unless cold smoking)To make smokeGenerally speaking the source of the heat is in the lower chamber of the smoker because hot air rises and this creates the draft that passes the smoke over the food in the food chamber. The one exception to this is if you have a remote smoke generator (other than in the bottom of the smoker) and in this case you might want to have a secondary heat source directly in the food chamber.
The fuel or energy source that you use must be a clean source in that the products of combustion are odorless (in most cases just carbon dioxide and water) otherwise you will taint the flavor of your food. Thus the preferred choices for fuel are charcoal, gas (propane or natural gas) or electricity. The one exception to the clean source rule is wood which when burned does give off a flavor but seeing as it's this flavor that we are trying to capture, forgive me if I refer these energy sources as clean, I'm trying to make the distinction to petroleum and oil based products.
The advantage of electricity is that it is super clean, it is pure heat and nothing else. Electricity is also really convenient in that you can just plug it in and go and assuming that you smoker has a method of adjusting the flow of electricity then it also makes for a really easy way to control the temperature within your smoker. If cost comes into the equation then generally speaking electricity is a good source of energy.
The down side to electricity is that it's dangerous especially when used outdoors and or where water is concerned. If you're on a long cookout then you are going to have your smoker outside for long periods of time - what if it rains? For these reasons any electrical appliance should be sheltered and placed on an inert surface such as concrete, so electricity itself might be relatively cheap but if you have to build a dedicated smoking area in your backyard just to use electricity then it puts a different complexion on the costs.
You could argue that provided you have a long cable and your external socket is protected then you have the answer. There issue with this is that the longer the cable, the more significant the voltage drop and therefore the less efficient your heat provision will be even to the point where it might not be sufficient. Another point to mention with long cables is that the cable must have the appropriate current rating otherwise it will get very hot and could potentially catch fire.
One final point about electricity is that it is only as portable as where you have a socket. For sure you can get electricity at most camp grounds but if you're into hunting and fishing than an electric smoker is going to be a challenge. If portability is important to you, then maybe electricity isn't the right way to go.
Friday, April 22, 2011
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