Nothing says summertime like firing up the
coals, cooking meat and vegetables in the outdoors, and enjoying
the taste and aroma of freshly grilled food.
The primeval technique of using fire and smoke
to cook your food is nothing new — it’s still as
American as apple pie and flying the flag. It’s also quite
simple, unlike barbecuing, which requires slower cooking over low
heat. Best of all, because much of the fat sizzles right off the
meat or seafood, grilling is one of the most healthful cooking
techniques around.
Perry T. Hines, who has been cooking since he was 15, says that the secret to grilling
is patience. Hines has earned a loyal following of customers who know
that they can usually find him in front of his three large metal
smokers at P.T.’s Bar-B-Que in the 1500 block of Taylor Avenue,
where he rotates slabs of pork ribs, chicken, and pork shoulders,
turning them and moving them around so that each piece gets the right
amount of heat. When the heat proves too much for Hines, he takes a
break in the shade of a makeshift tent.
Hines has been selling chicken and ribs and
shredding pork for sandwiches at his stand on Springfield’s
East Side for 10 years. The former basketball coach and teacher learned the tricks of the trade from his father,
who owned a Decatur barbecue business. He doesn’t advertise and
hasn’t upgraded to an expensive grill or gadgets to achieve his
results. He’s still using smokers made of old metal drums and
piano hinges. Bottles of vinegar and spices sit on a nearby table.
Customers place their orders from a recycled Snowball Express
concession stand.
Hines’ method includes placing hickory
logs in the bottom of each drum, then adding a pyramid of charcoal.
Once the pyramid has burned down, he spreads the charcoal out
evenly, adds the meat to the grill, and waits about three hours.
Hines, who runs the business with his nephew
Lavell Johnson, uses liberal amounts of Mrs. Dash and
Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer (without MSG) to make the meat
tender without adding salt. He uses white vinegar instead of water
to stir up the flames. After cooking the meat, Hines slathers on a
homemade concoction of onions, apple-cider vinegar, and seasonings
with a small basting mop to add even more flavor and moisture.
Harvey Utterback, owner of Utter’s
Catering and BBQ, has his own secret for grilling success. He
slow-cooks his ribs in a smoker for three-and-a-half hours, then
places them on the grill to finish the cooking. To season the meat,
Utterback says, you should use whatever “fits your tastes. I
use a mixture of everything — a little Greek seasoning,
garlic, or whatever you like.”
Utterback, who served his grilled specialties
on the Old Capitol Plaza for 10 years, beginning in 1978, says he
learned to grill through trial and error. His secret? “Just
cook it slow,” he says. He uses a large smoker on wheels that
holds two-and-a-half pigs at a time.
Lunch is served through the week in the 2900
block of South MacArthur Boulevard, where Utterback grills beef
brisket, beef, pork ribs, and chicken and serves up boneless-pork
sandwiches. He also does a lot of catering; pig roasts are the top
request by customers. Utterback’s smoked ribs were a favorite
last month at the Culinary Court during the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Museum opening festivities.
But grilling isn’t just about burgers,
brats, and slabs of ribs. Julianne Glatz, owner of the RealCuisine
cooking school, uses the grill as another tool to cook creative
fare. She advises using real hardwood charcoal, which burns hotter
than charcoal briquettes. Glatz says that she avoids charcoal made
with petroleum by-products.
Glatz, who grills everything from calamari and
pizza to vegetables and fruit, says that foods with minimal fat or
oil, such as fish and seafood, should be marinated or brushed with
oil or butter for best results and to keep the delicate flesh from
burning.
“Grilling is popular because it’s
fun and participatory — and you can fiddle with it,”
Glatz says. “It’s an art, rather than an exact science,
because there are so many variables, such as temperature, humidity,
and type of charcoal — and food cooked over a fire just plain
tastes good.”
Best bets
Here are a few of this summer’s best
food-related events:
July 2 and 3 What’s
Cooking
Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic
Site, near Petersburg
(217-632-4000, www.lincolnsnewsalem.com)
The New Salem State Historic Site offers a
glimpse of the culinary world of village residents in the 1830s.
Volunteers dressed as early settlers will demonstrate open-hearth
cooking in 15 of the village’s buildings, as well as at two
open outdoor pits, and re-enactors portraying a traveling family
will cook in a tripod-hung pot outside a wagon. The menu will
consist of deer, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, raccoon, and chicken.
“Vittles” will be prepared as one-pot meals and cooked
in open fireplaces. Volunteers will also be preparing cornbread,
pies, cakes, buckwheat, mixed-grain bread, and johnnycakes. The
event is for demonstration purposes only — you won’t be
dining on a bowl of coon — but sarsaparilla will be served.
Charles Starling, a volunteer and full-time
interpreter at New Salem, says that the new event is designed to
show visitors that menus at that time consisted of fish and a lot
of pork and beef. “Corn and pork were the main staples in
their diet,” he says. Demonstrations will also be held on
turning corn into hominy, grits, and mush, plus whiskey distilling.
Children will be given the opportunity to churn butter.
Demonstrations will be staggered throughout the day.
July 23 Taste
of Downtown Classic
Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield
(217-544-1723, www.downtownspringfield.org)
The sixth annual Taste of Downtown offers
more than 70 culinary treats prepared by local chefs. Last year,
more than 20 downtown restaurants served up samples of everything
from sushi and sea scallops to hot dogs and butter cake. The event,
sponsored by Downtown Springfield Inc., lets locals and visitors
eat their way through downtown. It also gives newcomers the
opportunity to discover the city’s culinary treasures. Even
if you don’t get to try everything you’d like to taste,
most items served at the event by participating restaurants are
available on the restaurants’ regular menus. Expect such
items as gyros, mango margaritas, hand-dipped ice cream, banana-rum
pastries, homemade potato chips, and fried oysters.
Aug. 27 Old Capitol
Blues & BBQ
Washington Street, downtown Springfield
(217-544-1723, www.downtownspringfield.org)
The aroma of slow-cooked smoked ribs and the
strains of smooth blues music will be floating over downtown
Springfield during this annual event. More than 2,000 people dined
on baby-back ribs and danced in the streets during last
year’s party, which was staffed by 50 volunteers, and seven
teams participated in the rib cookoff. In addition to competing for
prizes, the teams sell their barbecued pork ribs and other smoked
specialties to event-goers. This year’s event is expected to
be bigger and better — organizers plan to expand the cookoff
to include more than 20 teams. The Illinois Pork Producers sponsor
the event for the first time this year and will donate the pork
ribs cooked by competing teams. The event was nominated for a Best
New Event by the Illinois Main Street program.
Sept. 2-4 Ethnic
Festival
Ethnic Village, Illinois State Fairgrounds
(217-629-7871)
This Labor Day tradition may not be as big as
it used to, but size doesn’t always matter. The three-day
festival, featuring ethnic food and music, is still a great way to
end the summer. Irish, Greek, and Spanish organizations are the
three main groups serving up food and music this year, but
volunteers will also offer Indian, Cajun, and French food, and a
new item, elephant ears, has been added to the menu.
From gyros to pizza, bratwurst to baklava,
the edibles from various cuisines continue to attract food lovers.
The event began in Sherman in 1974, at St. John Vianney Parish,
under the direction of the late Rev. Peter Mascari. Locals of
Italian, Irish, Greek, and German extraction were the first to sign
on, followed by the area’s Polish population. As the years
went by, Russian Jews, Filipinos, and East Indians joined the fun.
By 1980, the festival had become so popular that it was moved to
the fairgrounds.
Although the Ethnic Village pulls in large
crowds during the state fair, the Ethnic Festival has always prided
itself on being a refreshing alternative, offering the food without
the crowds and confusion. Spanish, Greek, and Irish groups will
perform nightly, as will local rock bands.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2005.
