Tuesday, July 22, 2008

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

Greetings, gentle readers. I've been swamped dealing with some family issues this last week, I don't have a regular post ready for you (I'll tell you about my experience last weekend trying to make Carolina-style pulled pork a little later). In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this video for Barbeque Baby Back Ribs from the BBQ Web Boys.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How to Grill a Bacon Double Cheeseburger

Now that we've dealt with the wonders of grilled sausages, it's time to tackle another great staple of the American grilling experience, hamburgers.

Even though I try and eat a variety of more healthy foods, every so often I just feel the need for a good burger. My favorite is the bacon double-cheeseburger. This may be a heart-attack on a bun , but what a way to go.

NOTE: You really don't have to use cheese or bacon with this burger mixture. You could also just put one on a bun, instead of two, and you'll still enjoy it, just fine. It's a great recipe, if I do say so myself. Even my neighbor, who is a much better grillmaster than me, likes these burgers.

Grilling up pre-made hamburger patties from your grocers freezer is fine, when you're in a hurry. But, I'm coming to the belief that grilling should never be done in hurry. Really good barbecue is done slow. Why treat grilling hamburgers any differently?

Well, there are few reasons to do it a bit faster, actually, but all in all, I'm not going to fire up my grill unless I've got some time to really play with it.

Having cooked up dozens of hamburgers in my time, I've learned a few things. First, I don't like just throwing together a patty of pure ground beef. Sure that's good for fast food, but I like adding a few things to the meat, first. If your on a tight budget, it can also help stretch the meat a little farther. I suspect that's why people started doing this in the first place. I'm not talking meatloaf, here. (I've got some ideas for grilled meatloaf, though, so stay tuned.) We're just going to add a few more ingredients to enhance the ground beef, and keep it moist and tender throughout the process.

While your grill is heating up, you can cook up the bacon. One pound should do very nicely. As far as I know, you can't really direct grill bacon. You'll have to fry it a pan. If you have a small cast iron skillet, I suppose you could do this on the grill, but I used my stovetop. Cook on medium heat, turning occasionally, until nice and crispy.

Next, slice up some of your favorite firm cheese, like a sharp cheddar or colby. Colby-Jack, a mixture of Monterey Jack and colby cheese, is a favorite at my house. You'll need one slice for each patty. For this recipe, that's about eight slices.

Now it's time to mix up the hamburger patties.

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons horseradish mustard (or other favorite dark mustard)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (you can use minced garlic, but for some reason the powder works better in hamburgers)
2 pounds of ground beef (you could use other ground meats, if you prefer)

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl and then add everything except the meat. Mix thoroughly. Add the ground beef and mix well. You could try using a large spoon, but it's best to get primitive here. Use your hands. Just make sure you wash them first.

Shape the meat into eight patties, about 3/4 inch thick.

When the coals are fully lit and ashing over, spread them out in an even, single layer on the bottom of your grill. Put in the top grill grate and cover, heating it for about 15 minutes. Clean the grill and apply vegetable oil to it with tongs and a folded paper towel, dipped in the oil. Make sure you oil it well.

You want the coals to be “medium” temperature. I always wondered how in the world you were supposed to figure this out. It turns out that “medium” means I can put your hand over the grill (not actually touching the surface ... duh) for about 4 seconds before your hand starts to cook.

Direct grill the hamburgers patties for about 6 to 7 minutes per side for a medium done burger, 8 or 9 minutes for a well done burger.

During the last minute or two of cooking, put a slice of the cheese over the burger, and then top the cheese with a couple of slices of the cooked bacon. Cover the grill and finish cooking. This will help melt the cheese and reheat the bacon.

Stack two patties on a toasted bun with more mustard, catsup, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, onions (grilled tomatoes and onions), or whatever else you like on your burger, and enjoy. Just remember to exercise a little longer the next day to make yourself feel better.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

What Grilling Gear do You Need?

As a foodie and amateur cook, I've learned a few things about the kitchen. There are certain kitchen tools that are essential to food preparation. As a neophyte (or Neanderthal) grill master, I had a feeling there were certain essential grilling tools, as well. And hey, I'm a guy. If outdoor grilling really is a form of urban man-sport it's only natural that we'd find a love of tools bleeding over from all of our failed do-it-yourself projects and aborted car repairs.

So far, I've not been proven wrong. A few weeks of charcoal grilling is hardly a long time, but I'm a fast learner. Here are some of the essential grilling tools, outside of the grill, that I've come across, so far.

Chimney Starter

A chimney starter is basically a large tube with holes in it that's supposed to let you light the charcoal more evenly. The idea is to light it in the chimney starter and pour it into your grill, once it's ashed over.

I've seen lots of people on TV who love these things and get great results. My dutch oven friend, Mark Hansen, has one and hates it. He told me he's never been able to get the charcoal to light, no matter what he's done.

I don't have one. I bought “quick-light” charcoal (charcoal impregnated with lighter fluid) and the bad said “not to be used with chimney starters” so I didn't buy one. I saw someone use one to smoke cheese, once, so I may have to pick one up one of these days. Just not today.

Tongs

Tongs are quickly becoming my tool of choice when it comes to food manipulation, especially meat. I like them a lot better than the traditional “grilling fork” that lets all those yummy juices escape when I stab the meat. On the grill, tongs serve their traditional purpose of moving food around, but they also come in handy when repositioning hot coals before, and after, lighting.

To light my charcoal I'm using a product from Diamond called Strike-A-Fire. Essentially it's an over-sized flat match made of particle board soaked in lighter fluid. (Be careful using stuff like this, by the way. The do contain products that have been shown to cause cancer and birth defects.)

The idea is to light the Strike-A-Fire like a match and then arrange the coals over it once it's fully engulfed in flame. To be honest, it takes longer to fully ignite than I'd like. Tongs to the rescue! I use my tongs to hold it at an angle, with the burning end pointed down, allowing the flames to move up the rest of the match, shortening my lighting time significantly.

Once the Strike-A-Fire match is fully ignited, I need to arrange the coals around it. Not having fire-proof asbestos hands, I use my tongs to arrange the coals around the fire.

Once the coals are completely lit, and the fire has died down so the coals show a nice coating of ash on them, I use the tongs to rearrange them across the bottom of my grill grate. For a small grill like mine, it works great.

Grilling Gloves

I've got four criteria for a good grilling glove: 1. Stand up to high heat for a long time. 2. Be long enough to protect my forearms when I reach across the hot grill (I like my arm hair just the way it is, thank you). 3. Not break my wallet. 4. Not be a mitt.

The first three seem like obvious issues. The fourth one has to due with the fact that I hate mitts when it comes to cooking – oven mitts, too. I don't feel like I've got as much control with a mit. I know, it's stupid. For some reason I'd rather use a regular square hot pad than a mitt.

Grill Mop

If you're going to be applying a marinade or other sauce during cooking, you've got to have something to slather it on with. The traditional tool is a grill mop. It looks just like you think it would – a toy mop for Cabbage Patch dolls. It seems to be favored over the traditional soft paint brush (which I would use) by grill masters, though. Who am I to argue?

Metal Spatula

When I started looking at all the tools that could be had to clean and prep your grill, my mind wobbled. Every incarnation I could find came down to one or more of three options: a scrubby brush, a wire brush, and a thing that looked like a thick, short metal spatula. (There is one I found that resembled a gray lava-like stone, but it was kind of expensive.) Some of them were plastic, some were wood, and most of them looked like they were made in a Jr. high school shop class. I wasn't impressed.

I decided to by-pass them all. I already had all of those things for my kitchen. Why pay for a second set of the same tool for my grill? It's just silly.

Metal Sheet Pans

I guess you don't have to have these, I just found them useful for transferring large amounts of meat and veggies from the kitchen to the grill, and back again. Just don't use the same ones for the raw meat, as you do for the cooked. Unless you want to wash them, first.

Disposable Aluminum Baking Pans

These will save you a lot of clean up when it comes to grilling certain foods, such as the sliced onions I grilled up with my sausages. I've also seen them used to great effect as drip pans for indirect grilling. You just put them in the middle of the bottom grill rack and arrange the coals on either side.

Aluminum Foil

Ask any Boy Scout, and he'll tell you. The best way to cook up meat and potatoes around a campfire is to roll 'em up in aluminum foil before you chuck 'em in the coals. Aluminum foil is also a godsend when it comes to grilling more delicate foods (like most fish fillets) that just won't hold together when cooked directly on the grill.

Metal Skewers

If you want a good grilled shish-kebab, you've gotta have a skewer or two. Yes, the bamboo ones are cheaper, but you have to deal with the fact that they're going to burn and splinter no matter how much water you soak them in before hand. Make sure your's are sharp, and flat. That way your food will actually turn over when flipping, instead of just spinning around on the skewer.

Grill Pan

I've only seen these, to be honest. I've never used them so I don't know how “essential” they are. If you're doing a lot of grilling, though. I think they'd come in handy. I'm definitely getting one for the future. Basically they're flat sheets or pans with small holes in the bottom. They're used for foods that are too small to put on the grill directly, but large enough that you still want to get that great, dry cooked, grill flavor. I think it might be easier to make grilled shish-kebabs with one of these than a skewer.

I'm sure I missed a few. If we've got any grill masters around, I'd love to hear more suggestions for essential grilling gadgets and, heck, anything else that you can think of that would help a neophyte grill cook out.

Friday, July 11, 2008

How to Make Grilled Sausage and Onions or how July 6th became Independence Day

After the emotional rollercoaster of the last two days, Sunday came around and the whole family was exhausted. We didn’t make it to church, I’m sorry to say. No planned apostasy or anything. We just didn’t get up in time. I guess we were missed, though. My home teacher called to check up on me, later in the day.

The nice part about the day was there was nothing to distract me from firing up the new grill. I’m sure that somewhere there’s someone thinking I should feel guilty about not going to church and, worse, grilling outdoors on the Sabbath.

Okay. I do feel a little guilty for not going to church – more sad than guilty, really. But I don’t feel a bit guilty about grilling. I wasn’t throwing a party. This was feeding my family, dagnabbit. Besides, doesn’t delaying gratification for two days to deal with my sick father count for something? Please? (I can justify almost anything.)

I have to admit, I kind of liked grilling with charcoal instead of gas. Yes, it was my first time and I was a little nervous. Playing with fire is both exciting, and dangerous. I don’t think I put enough briquettes in, though. The heat wasn’t quite as high as it probably should have been, so everything took a little longer to cook.

I was anxious to try out some tricks I’d learned from Cooking Illustrated for grilling sausages and onions. As I went along, I realized that I’d have to modify some of them. To start with, I was cooking more sausages than they did. I also didn’t have as big of a grill as they do, so I had to juggle a few things. In the end, the food turned out to be quite delicious. I didn’t even get burned.

Charcoal Grilled Sausages with Onions

Ingredients

3 medium to large yellow onions
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (or less if you don't like so much pepper)
11- by 9- inch disposable aluminum roasting pan
2 1/2 pounds fresh sausages (about ten links – I used a combination of mild Italian sausage and red wine sausage)

Using a chimney starter or the “pyramid” method, light enough charcoal briquettes to give you a good, solid, single layer of briquettes across the bottom of your grill. For my small grill, that's about 20 to 25. Allow them to burn until fully ignited and partially covered in ash (about 15 to 20 minutes). Build a single level fire by arranging the briquettes evenly across the bottom of your grill. Position the cooking grate over the coals, cover the grill, and heat the grill for about 5 minutes. Take this opportunity to scrape the grill clean with a grill brush or spatula before you put any food on it.

While the briquettes are firing, peel the onions, cut them in half, and then cut into 1 /4 inch slices, pole to pole. Combine the onions, oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a large microwave safe bowl and toss together. Microwave the onion mixture for about five minutes to begin the cooking process. Stir it once about half way through the cooking, and then again when done. Transfer to the disposable roasting pan, and spread evenly across the bottom.

Prick the skins of the sausages in several places with a fork or sharp knife to let the excess fat flow out during cooking. Arrange the sausages over the onions in a single layer, and cover the top of the pan, tightly, with aluminum foil. Cooking the sausages this way, to start, allows them to help flavor the onions, and reduces flare-ups because much of the fat has already seeped into the onions.

Place the roasting pan on the center of the grill and cover. Cook for about 15 to 18 minutes. Move the pan to the side of the grill and carefully remove the foil. Using tongs, remove the sausages from the pan and place on the grill. Grill them, uncovered, for about seven minutes, turning every so often, until golden brown on all sides. Transfer the sausages to a platter and lightly tent with aluminum foil to keep them warm. Cover the grill and continue cooking the onions until most of the liquid evaporates and the onions begin to brown, about ten more minutes. Give them an occasional stir just to make sure they cook evenly.

Serve the sausages on good buns, smothered in mustard and cooked onions. Serves 5 or 6, depending on how may sausages they want to eat.

NOTE: Because I didn't get the heat right to begin with, it took longer to cook the sausages than the recipe called for. That's okay. One thing I've learned is that you need to adjust things once in a while.

Because my grill was small, I also didn't have enough room on my grill for both the sausages and roasting pan. I did have a small heating rack that folded up in the grill when it was covered. There was enough room over the sausages to not interfere with them when I closed the top so, I folded up the sides of the roasting pan, to reduce it's vertical signature, and placed it on top of the heating rack, and then covered the grill while the sausages were grilling outside of the pan. It created a kind of two-tiered oven arrangement. I had to support the heating rack with my tongs as I was closing the lid on the grill, but it seemed to work pretty well.

After grilling the sausages, I didn't leave the onions on the grill as long as I could have. They weren't browning very well because I just didn't have enough heat to begin with, let alone after several minutes of grill time. I realized that, after a while, all I was really doing was keeping them warm. If I'd started with a hotter fire, and more charcoal, I think the onions would have browned a bit more.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Hospital Chat or how July 5th became the 6th

After taking time to visit my Dad in the hospital, and buy a new grill, it was getting a little too late for grilling as part of my planned Independence Day celebration. That was okay. My family and I would simply do the grilling on July 5th, instead.

So, on July 5th, after getting most of my Saturday morning "chores" done, I sat down to assemble the new grill. It turned out to be a little daunting. My wife's more mechanically inclined than I am but, I wasn't going to let her work on it. This was a grill, and I'm a man. I didn't want the conversation with my friends to turn into:

Frank: "Nice grill, John."

Me: "Thanks! My wife built it for me."

Frank: (sputter, cough, snigger) "What? You didn't do it? Ha! Hey Charlie! Guess what? Newman's wife built his grill for him!"

Charlie: "What is it, Newman? Is turning a screwdriver too much for you? Buwah ha ha ha!"

I'm sorry but, even in the adult playground that's just too much scorn to take. I had to build it myself or risk being labeled a pansy-man.

The grill assembly wasn't bad. There were a few times when I let out howls and pseudo curses (Dang it!) but, to my credit, for once I kept the real cursing down to a minimum.

After putting the new grill together, I took a lunch break After scarfing down a quick lunch, I got ready to use the grill for the first time - to baptize the grill, so to speak.

Grills, of course, do not suffer baptism by water, but by fire. Lots of hot charcoal generated fire.

Getting up out of my chair the phone rang. Just great. I thought. One more delay between me and playing with my new toys.

It was my oldest brother. "John, you need to get your butt up to the hospital now. The doctor wants to talk to us all about Dad."

I was speechless. Several scenarios immediately ran through my brain. They all ended with my dad is dying and may not make it through the next hour, let alone to the end of the day.

"Okay. I'll be up in a few minutes," I barely replied, knowing full well it would take me an hour to drive to the hospital.

My Lovely Wife and my sixteen year old son, the Boy, decided to come up with me this time, leaving the younger ones in the care of my oldest daughter, Writer Girl. We hurried and got everything together, tramped out to the car and made our way, yet again, to the VA hospital in Salt Lake City.

What had seemed like "gloom and doom" turned out not to be so bad. The surgeons were very optimistic. The problem was that my Dad came down with a fever, and they couldn't explain it. It looked like an infection, but they weren't sure where it was coming from. The doctor wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page, in terms of what was happening with my Dad, and that make sure we could all agree on what needed to be done with his care.

This was a really good meeting for everyone, especially my mom. She was having a hard time explaining it all to the rest of the family. (The next day they discovered he'd developed an abscess in his gut and now they can deal with the infection.) There were tears all around, and much hugging. My two older seemed to think the other brother didn't agree but, they're both wrong. All my life they've fought like ... well ... brothers. In spite of their misgivings about each other, we were all agreed about what to do with Dad. They just didn't want to admit it to each other, or themselves. I may beat them both with a stick before this is all over.

Once again, though, by the time MLW, the Boy, and I got home, I was emotionally drained. It was too late to start grilling, anyway, so we all just scrounged the fridge for leftovers and frozen burritos

My 4th of July grilling plans had been moved once again. Now I would have to celebrate Independence day on July 6th.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Grill Hunting or How the Fourth of July Became the Fifth

Celebrating Independence Day without grilling something seems un-American. What could be better on the 4th of July than a grilled hot dog, a baseball game, and a fireworks display? Baseball wasn't in the works this year, but the grilled dogs and fireworks sure were. There was only one problem. My wife had tossed our old portable grill out with the trash. It was time for me to get a new one.

I had this family celebration all planned out. I'd buy a new grill, get some great sausages, buns, and veggies, come home, and then we'd feast, All-American style. Later, we'd play games and watch the neighborhood fireworks from our front porch. (Most of our neighbors are fireworks freaks, so we don't have to be.)

The morning of July 4th came. After a leisurely morning, I was getting ready to set out on my plan when I got a strong feeling I should go visit my father. No problem. I'd visit my dad for a few minutes, and then go on my go out on my grill finding mission on the way home. Then we'd be ready to celebrate the 4th of July properly.

Let me explain. My father's been in the hospital for the last few weeks. He's in his eighties, has Parkinson's disease as well as Alzheimer's, and had been originally admitted for a bowel obstruction. He responded fairly well to the first surgery but, his colon gave way above the original surgical site and they had to do a second surgery to repair the damage. After the second surgery he was doing better so, I was ready to celebrate Independence Day with my wife and kids, free of worry for my Dad. I just felt like I should go see him, first.

It was a really strong feeling. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're taught to pay attention to such things. It's might be the Holy Ghost talking to you. MLW said, “Maybe you feel that way because he's on his way out, and you won't get a chance to see him again.” I couldn't deny her logic, or the feelings of the Spirit, so I left.

Leaving my wife in charge, I got in the car and headed east out of Tooele, around the north side of the Oaker mountains where they border the Great Salt Lake, and in to Salt Lake City. Driving across to the east side of the valley, I found my way to the VA hospital where my Dad was staying. It was about an hour drive. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic, so I made good time.

When I got there, my oldest brother and his wife were also there, along with my Mom. My other brother (the middle one), had just left.

Dad was doing pretty well. His vital signs were better than the last time I'd gone to visit and my Mom seemed to be in good spirits. I stayed awhile, wished them all a Happy Independence Day, and headed back home. I had followed the promptings of the Spirit, and I felt good about it. Now, I could start my grill hunt, free of guilt.

I had seen some ads in the local paper for grills ranging anywhere from $15.00 for a really tiny stove top grill, to the huge master grill setups for nearly $1,000.00. I don't grill that much and I just couldn't justify buying the huge ones. Both cost and desire had me steering clear of the really fancy things that would get most other men drooling. I'll admit, even I was impressed by some of the bigger ones I found. “This one has a smoker box, two side burners, and a grilling surface large enough for a baby moose? Wow.”

Next came the question of gas vs. charcoal. You may remember that I was leaning to the gas side of things. After looking at a few grills that fit within my usage estimates and budget, I decided to go with a relatively small tabletop grill. I also decided to join my Neanderthal brethren and go with charcoal.

Let me explain. It turns out that yes, gas grilling is better for the environment. Normally that's something I actually care about. Yes, when it comes to grilling, I'm used to using gas. The problem was that my wife finally told me why she'd thrown out our old portable gas grill. She got tired of me waiting to clean it.

Cleaning that grill was a pain so, I'd put it off as much as I could. This time around, I wanted something easier. Not that the grill surface would easier to clean, it's the stuff under the grill surface. The charcoal will burn up most of whatever hits it, I thought. Not so with the gas grill. It just bakes the stuff onto the burner. With charcoal, the ashes get thrown away so, it's not like I have to scrub them off. Besides, the grill I got has an ash receptacle on the bottom to make it all easier.

I also liked the idea of charcoal because of some of the grilling techniques I'd been learning about. You can put an aluminum foil drip pan in with the coals for indirect grilling that you wouldn't be able to do as easily with a gas grill. A smoker box sounded like an interesting idea, too. I also have to admit I was excited by the idea of playing with fire.

Choosing a grill that would meet my needs, picking up some starter matches and charcoal, along with a couple of disposable aluminum foil roasting pans, I was set to pick up the meat. Up to this point, the adventure had cost me about $50.00, so I was pretty pleased.

Next stop was the grocery store. I picked up some really good Colosimo brand sausages (sweet Italian, red wine, and bratwurst), bakery made hot dog buns, corn on the cob, and a few other groceries.

The ingredients were set, and all was ready for the celebration. The trouble was, because of the time it took to get all that ready, when I got home it was getting later than I'd have liked and I was tired. I was also hungry and I wasn't the only one. None of us wanted to have to wait to assemble a grill, get a fire started, and experiment with charcoal for the first time. So we ordered pizza, instead. The grill would just have to wait for the next day.

The fireworks were nice, though.

When Saturday came and ... well ... remember that prompting of the Spirit I told you about? It turns out there may have been more to it than I initially realized ....

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Bacon Salt – Should everything taste like bacon?

According to J&D's Down Home Enterprises, yes it should. J&D's makes Bacon Salt, an artificially flavored seasoning salt. They make three basic flavors, Original, Hickory, and Peppered. One day, they sent samples of their product to a fellow food blogger, and friend of mine, Mark Hansen. He'd told them about me when they contacted him and so, they sent an extra set for me as well.

Disclaimer: I am not being paid for this review, unless you consider them sending me free Bacon Salt as payment. I love free food, but it won't guarantee you a perfect review.

To be honest, I was pretty skeptical. I don't think everything should taste like bacon. A lot of things could be made better with bacon in them but, everything? Come on! For example. I don't think that a bowl of sweetened cold cereal will taste better with bacon in it. On the side, maybe. But not in it. I also don't think caramel flan will taste better with bacon in it.

Hmmm. Maybe I'm wrong about the flan. Probably not, but I'll let you know.

My hat (cover?) is off to the Bacon Salt company, by the way. At the request of a US Marine Corporal stationed in Iraq, they started sending crates of Bacon Salt to our servicemen overseas. It just might replace Tabasco as the Marine Corp's condiment, of choice. (Thanks for taking care of my fellow Marines, J&D. I served in the USMC for a time, myself.)

After trying Bacon Salt in various dishes for the last month, I've been pleasantly surprised. Even if they don't actually contain bacon. If you're a lacto-vegetarian (I think that means you'll drink milk and eat cheese, just not cheeseburgers), this seasoning should work for you. There are some milk based ingredients, though, so the die hard vegans may not want it. (Cool! More for the rest of us.)

First, the bad stuff. They all contain monosodium glutamate. I'm not a big fan of MSG. (Note: I recently saw that they're now offering a variation on the Original spice mixture without it. Kudos to J&D). It's not that I'm allergic to it or anything. I just don't think it's ingredient I want a lot of, when it comes to my health.

Now for the good stuff. This is darned good seasoning salt. That means something coming from me. When I was younger, I overdosed on commercial seasoning salts and now I can't stand most of them. Bacon Salt has brought me back from seasoning salt hell.

My favorite is the Original Bacon Salt. It's good on everything. Eggs, hamburgers, green salads, chicken, rice, cottage cheese (no lie), sliced cucumber, grilled corn ... it's just a great seasoning salt. It's flavor is much milder than I expected. The “baconey” flavor acts an an enhancement, not a distraction. Nice work, J&D. I give it five zucchinis on the zucchini scale.
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My next favorite is the Peppered Bacon Salt. It's a bit bolder than the original and it works really well with hamburgers, pork chops, chicken, and chili. I didn't like it as much with eggs. When it came to eggs, noodles, and rice, I much preferred the original, with a bit of my own black pepper, to the bottled blend. I'm not sure why. I give it four zucchinis.
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My least favorite was the Hickory Bacon Salt. It was pretty good, but it just wasn't working for me. Normally I like a kick in the tongue but, with corn on the cob, it was just wrong. Part of the problem, I think is that I simply preferred one of the other two flavors, more, with everything I used them with. I give it two zucchinis.
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Tasteflash – My brain just told me Hickory Bacon Salt might be really good on grilled zucchini.

In any case, if you want to kick up your summer grill fest a bit, and are looking for a good seasoning salt, you might want to give Bacon Salt a try. Start with the original, though. If you like it, then go for the others.