26 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT
WEDNESDAY,JUNE11,2003
Secrets to great-tasting summer barbecue
Turn on the heat and fire up the grill, it's barbecue time! But wait, it's not just any ole' barbecue blitz, it's Kansas City barbecue, baby!
So how is it possible to copy the taste of that smooth robust Kansas City barbecue zing? It's all about adding wood chips, blocks and planks to the grill, plus a key sauce that creates fantastic barbecued food.
One place to find smoky barbecue is at a favorite Kansas City restaurant, Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ. Being America's best-rated barbecue restaurant in the Zagat Survey, this place prides itself on creating that campfire-grilled taste.
What makes Fiorella's so damn good is that all its meats are seared over a large hickory wood fire and are consistently slathered with a sweet, tangy sauce. This award-winning barbecue can literally make a grown man cry.
Another deserving Kansas City barbecue classic is Gates and Sons Bar-B-Q restaurant. As Gates began in 1946, people went gaga over the finger likin' barbecue taste. Just like Jack Stack, all of Gates' meats are cooked over hickory chips and wood blocks in a large pit, adding that delectable flavor that is undoubtedly loved by all.
Kansas City residents are so spoiled by such blissful barbecue places like Gates and Fiorella's that I'm surprised barbecue sauce isn't being pumped throughout the veins of the entire Kansas City populace.
Luckily though for Lawrence and other residents, it's a godsend that Gates and Fiorella's barbecue sauces can be found in
all major grocery stores. Now with the yearned-for sauce at hand, great tasting Kansas City barbecue can be created at home.
With the tangy sauce already taken care of, all you need now is to find wood chips or planks to create that mesquite flavor in your own backyard barbecue.
Wood chips and chunks are widely available at stores like Sears or at webergrill.com. Wood chips and chunks can be used on any grill to smoke or barbecue your favorite ribs or other tender meats. Each comes in a variety of woods such as mesquite, maple, hickory and other flavors to enhance grilled food.
Wood planks (otherwise known as a board) are another way to smoke foods and can be found at places like Home Depot. Wood planks are perfect to cook whole fishes for a nice indirect smoky flavor, plus clean up will be a breeze as this block just sits on top of the grill.
So, now you know where to find the lumber, but how are these smoky enhancers actually used? Three simple rules: 1. Always soak planks, chips, and chunks in water or a favorite beer until thoroughly soaked and drained. 2. Wood chips and chunks can be placed over coals where as again, the plank rests on top. 3. Smoke should release and grill is ready when temperature reaches 230 to 250 degrees.
To learn more about using wood chips, blocks and planks, read your grill's owner's manual or take a look at Weber's Big Book of Grilling by Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae.
So next time, forget the barbecue takeout, dust off your grill and acquaint yourself to cooking outdoors with these new grilling tactics. You'll start creating deliciously smoky Kansas City barbecue in no time.
EATTHIS
Christina DiGiacomo
lchronister@kansan.com
KC Betty's Best Baby Back Ribs
Born and raised in Kansas City, my mom has learned the art of making the easiest and best baby back ribs. Serve with potato salad and watermelon!
3 Slabs of Pork Spare Ribs or (boneless country style ribs for lighter version), cut into sections
1 small vidalia onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt and pepper
2 cups of favorite barbecue sauce
2 cups of hickory wood chips, soaked in water for 45 minutes, and drained
1. Place a large pot of water over high heat and let come to a boil. Once water is boiling, turn down heat to medium-low and add salt, pepper, onion, and ribs to the pot. Let simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes to two hours or until tender.
2. Build a charcoal fire in an outdoor grill until coals are covered with a gray ash.
Nutrition Facts
Serve$ 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories 411
Calories from Fat 69%
% Daily Value*
% Daily Value
Total Fat 31g 48%
Saturated Fat 11g 54%
Cholesterol 115mg 38%
Sodium 453 mg 19%
Total Carbohydrate 2g 1%
Dietary Fiber 0g 32%
Protein 29g 57%
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 4%
Calcium 5% Iron 9%
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values my be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
On a gas grill turn up to high heat for five minutes and then turn down to a medium heat.
3. Place wood chips directly over coals; on a gas grill, place chips in an aluminum-foiled pan over heat source.
4. When grill starts to smoke, place ribs on grill. Turn ribs quickly for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes has passed, brush on barbecue sauce for two minutes very quickly, otherwise sauce will caramelize and turn into sugar. Makes four servings.
DiGiacomo is an Apple Valley, Minn., senior in communication studies. She studied at Dante Alighieri cooking school in Florence, Italy.
HEALTH
Iowa Applebee's recovers from lizard in salad
By Seung Min Kim
The Daily lowan via U-wire
University of Iowa
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Although business at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar in Coralville, Iowa, dwindled after a customer found a severed lizard head in a salad last month, business has picked up again, restaurant managers said.
"It was a total turnaround at the beginning, a few weeks after the incident," Lindsey Clark, manager, said. "But now it is back to normal, like it was before."
She said that while business may have
An investigation proved that the lizard head found in a Santa Fe chicken salad was an isolated incident, said Ralph Wilmoth, the director of the Johnson County Department of Public Health.
"Quite a few people have come in and praised us," she said. "They told us they understand that it was an accident and that they still enjoy Applebee's."
declined for a while, public support increased in the weeks following the May 2 incident.
After reviewing the company's history and finding no previous violations, and after thorough inspections of the restau
rant's facilities and finding nothing "unusual," health-department officials concluded that Applebee's had not committed any infractions that may have caused the incident.
"It has been pretty much thoroughly reported that it was a fluke," Wilmoth said.
Applebee's general manager Mike Rose declined to comment, saying the matter is "a done issue."
The lizard head found in the salad is undergoing tests at the UI Hygienic Laboratory for salmonella, a bacterium that causes food poisoning, and other infectious diseases. Final results have yet to be released.
Wilmoth said that in his year-and-a-half tenure as the public-health director, there have been no other incidents such as this, nor does he believe any other incidents like Applebee's have occurred recently at other restaurants in the Iowa City area.
Clark said that since the incident -- which was linked to a small fence lizard becoming embedded in a head of lettuce that was cut up for salads — Applebee's has started using pre-cut and pre-cleaned lettuce to prevent further occurrences of this nature, although Wilmoth said he doesn't know if cooking practices have changed at other area restaurants.
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