| Flavor and the Menu magazine's top 10 flavor trends | | | | match the searing flavors that you get on a propane |
| of the year for 2009 includes barbecue for the first | | | | or charcoal grill outdoors. |
| time. Now that's hardly news to those of us who see | | | | A quick review of recent offerings shows that many |
| more trees than people when we walk outside, but it | | | | of the new indoor grill's had hinged covers which |
| apparently is a big deal to our cosmopolitan cousins. | | | | allows you to raise the cover high enough to put a |
| When you start seeing magazine reviews of city | | | | thick steak on the grill and still cover both sides of |
| restaurants that include $78 bottles of zinfandel along | | | | the meat with heat. If your indoor grill cannot do that |
| with a pulled pork sandwich you know that you are | | | | then it is really just a sandwich maker because any |
| on to something. | | | | grill that cannot cook a 2 in. thick porterhouse is not a |
| Apparently the city folks have discovered indoor | | | | grill worth having. Not that there is anything wrong |
| grilling. I suppose the feeling is that if you are going | | | | with a sandwich maker of course but we wouldn't go |
| to cook something on the grill, even if it is indoors, | | | | calling a merry-go-round horse a thoroughbred, would |
| that you have to slap some barbecue sauce on it to | | | | we? |
| make it genuine. Another one of those culinary | | | | One other thing that gets a redneck grillers dander |
| reports says that winter grilling is the fastest growing | | | | up is that some of these manufacturers are calling |
| segment of food preparation methods. That's okay | | | | their indoor grills "user-friendly" which has to be some |
| with me. Grilling is good any place and any time of | | | | kind of code word insinuating that your teenage |
| year. | | | | daughter can grill that porterhouse as good as you |
| The popularity of the George Foreman grill probably | | | | can. For shame. There is some primordial connection |
| kicked off the trend but some of the bigger names | | | | between fire and testosterone and maybe we |
| have entered the business too giving consumers a | | | | wouldn't better off by poking at it. |
| big variety of grilling equipment and styles to capture | | | | Here's another thing. I see people writing about a |
| the flavor of outdoor cooking any time of year. It | | | | sophisticated and expanding American palate that |
| remains to be seen, however, whether any of these | | | | includes grilling things like panini, quesadillas, and |
| new indoor grilling machines can get hot enough to | | | | crostini. Is any of that stuff related to hamburger? |