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Lucky for us, grilling is a year-round activity in California. But Memorial Day signals the official start of scrumptious barbecue season. That’s when we give our grills the deep clean they deserve and start gathering new recipes to wow our friends.
No matter how you grill — over gas or wood and charcoal — it’s time for simple tips and fresh recipes to keep your guests sated all summer long. And three new cookbooks from grilling gurus Stan Hays, Steven Raichlen and Aaron Franklin provide all the smoky, delicious secrets for novices and aficionados alike.
Let’s start with Hays, a grand champion pitmaster and co-founder of Operation BBQ Relief, a nonprofit that has cooked 1.78 million meals for natural disaster victims since 2011. When he’s not saving the world via barbecue or honing his recipes from season two of Food Network’s “Chopped Grill Masters,” the Kansas City barbecue master fires up an easy Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Jalapeño-Apricot Glaze for his closest friends and family.
The moist, deceptively easy dish is featured in Hays’ new cookbook, “BBQ Operation: 200+ Smokin’ Recipes from Competition Grand Champions” (Page Street Publishing Co., $30). “It’s an instant fan-favorite because it’s a very juicy lean piece of pork that’s cheap, and you can use the glaze for basting and as a dipping sauce,” he says.
Hays’ tip applies to all grilling: Don’t rush to turn your meat — your grill will tell you when it’s ready. “If it’s still sticking, it means it hasn’t developed that char yet,” he says. “Be patient.”
Grilling steak? For that aromatic wow factor, Hays adds a few rosemary sprigs to the grill. “It smells amazing and also imparts some of that rosemary essence into the smoke, which goes into the meat.”
Craving brisket but don’t own a smoker? Put the slow cooker aside and peek into barbecue master Steven Raichlen’s newest cookbook, “The Brisket Chronicles” (Workman Publishing, $30). It features more than 60 recipes on preparing this epic cut of meat, including a Korean method that calls for freezing the brisket, slicing it paper-thin and quick-grilling it on high heat. Yup.
Normally, direct grilling a tough cut like brisket would be a disaster, but this method yields crisp, fatty, beefy richness. “Most brisket is barbecued low and slow in this country, so this is a pretty easy way to win a bar bet about barbecue,” Raichlen says.
He serves Korean Grilled Brisket on lettuce leaves with an Asian cucumber salad, pickled Korean banchan and wasabi-soy dipping sauce.
If nothing speaks to you like a classic steak, then you’ll want to tuck into that chaise this summer and pore over “Franklin Steak” (Ten Speed Press, $30) by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mckay. Franklin is the brains behind Austin’s Franklin Barbecue, which has sold out of brisket every day of its existence. But his favorite thing to grill at home is steak, and in this new guide, he tackles every detail to create a truly sublime version, from sourcing the best beef and seasoning it to buying or even building the ideal cooking vessel.
His core advice is simple. First, don’t limit yourself to one cut. “It’s based on mood and taste,” Franklin says. “If you like something fibrous and lean, go for a bavette. If you crave fattiness, steer toward a rib-eye.”
Always choose the freshest, well-marbled cuts — at supermarkets, they’re often showcased in the glass case — with large, single muscles as opposed to connective tissue.
From there, you can read the co-authors’ lectures on everything from heat zone configurations to salt. Salt generously and early — 24 to 48 before grilling, according to their trials. But it’s the simple tips on tools that were most helpful to us: Invest in heavy-duty tongs and commercial sheet pans for schlepping between kitchen and grill. Buy an oil squirt bottle, which can be used for everything from building the best charcoal chimney to cleaning your grill and adding sheen to a steak.
Finish that steak off with Franklin’s Perky Red Wine Sauce, one of nine essential recipes in the book. It’s a simpler version of bordelaise, with a kicky acidity from the addition of lemon juice, which contrasts beautifully with the rich meat. Even better, if you’re cooking the steak in a pan on the stove — yes, Franklin approves — you can make the sauce right in the pan, stirring up and savoring every last tasty steak bit.
