How to Score Big at Your Next Tailgating Party with the Big Green Egg

It’s autumn in the U.S. and that means American football is front and center as the most watched sport of the season!  Whether you are rooting for your college favorite or for that big pro team that hopes to make the Super Bowl, it’s all a thrill from the first cheers to the final touchdown.

But why limit a good thing to just the roar inside the stadium?  Those in the know extend the fun by starting their pre-game celebrations at tailgating parties. Once simple affairs based on just having food available, today’s tailgating parties involve tents, tradition and terrific food.

But let’s start at the beginning.  First off, despite what some Internet sites list as ‘history’, tailgating did NOT start at the First Battle of Bull Run (or the First Battle of Manassa to use the southern name for the Civil War’s first major battle).

Tailgating is about the game of football, not armies, guns and death.  Indeed, the first intercollegiate football game (Rutgers vrs Princeton) wasn’t even played until 1869 – four years after the Civil War ended.

And then due to the lingering feelings of loss and rage, the northern and southern universities delayed playing football against each other another decade.

So, NO, tailgating did not start on the battlefields of the American Civil Wars.  Rather it started instead at a Yale football game in 1904 according to research done by Peter Chakerian.  

Due to the distance of the playing field from the University, fans knew they would arrive at the field tired and hungry.  Thinking ahead, they brought food and drink and, as a result, a new culinary tradition was born.    

The actual term “tailgating” is credited by historians to the innovative fans of the Green Bay Packers.  Back in 1919 when the team first took the field, there was no stadium and no seating for the fans.  But what fan wants to stand for a whole game - Ouch!!!

The fans resolved the problem by simply backing up their pickup trucks and dropping the tailgates down.  And in an instant, a new American word was created: tailgating.  

Today tailgating parties are an American sports tradition on campuses and at pro stadiums around the country.  Some parties are rustic with spicy chili and grilled cheeseburgers.  Others are quite elegant with signature cocktails and miniature quiches.  But all feature great food, often cooked on the legendary Big Green Egg.

First seen in Japan by U.S. servicemen after World War II, this grill was unique and very different from the more traditional metal “cut barrel” barbecues used back home.  And so were the cooking results: simply amazing flavors.

Oval in shape and containing a unique ceramic interior, it produces gourmet cuisine that easily surpasses the standard overcooked and often dried out backyard fare often served stateside.

By 1974 an preceptive business man, Ed Fisher, rediscovered the Big Green Egg.  He knew a winner when he saw it.  The result was the creation of a family owned company that would change tailgating (and outdoor cooking in America) forever: The Big Green Egg Company!

Word quickly began to spread about Fisher’s remarkable green grill, that was also a smoker and an oven as well as a traditional barbecue!  The meats (and pies and vegetables and game and pizza and more) that were coming off the Big Green Egg were attracting attention at tailgating party after tailgate party across the country.  Soon everybody wanted an Green Egg.  They even coined a word for it: “Egg-citing!”

But Fisher didn’t stop there.  He has constantly worked to improve the design and tailor the Green Egg to modern needs.  Today the exterior (still green, of course) is glazed with the same tile finish that is used on the Challenger's heat controlling external space tiles.  

Now there is an outstanding cookbook also available called, of course, The Big Green Egg Cookbook, that lists one remarkable recipe after another for such treats as Eggplant Fries, Jalapeno Ham Steaks, Glazed Lobster Salad, Creamed Corn and French Toast with Pears and Cherries as well as Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie and Kahlua Coffee Brownies!  Not your usual barbecue grill fare.  But oh so good!

But what's best of all is that, though tailgating has moved from vintage wicker baskets and aging farm trucks to space age grills that encompass designs from half a world away, what's most important has always remained the same. 

It doesn’t really matter where we live or what team we cheer for.  What’s most important to remember is that it’s fellowship that matters, not the numbers on the board.  What's how we can really score every time!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

Thanksgiving Menu Myths: Cranberries and Turkeys

Holidays are funny things – we love them yet often their true origins are confused or lost.  Take Thanksgiving for example.

Although the Pilgrims did celebrate their first harvest, it was merely a common English farm practice to do so.  At various time during the colonial period (depending on the timing of the incoming harvest), fall celebrations were held from September to November. Generally they lasted three or more days.  As the young nation moved into the 19^th century, the holiday became more concerned with honoring patriotism with many communities celebrating a general “Day of Thanks” on George Washington’s birthday in the early spring!

By mid-century the decision to celebrate a holiday of thanks was largely a local one.  There was, however, one tenacious champion for the holiday – Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, the widely read editor of Godley’s Lady’s Book. Beginning in 1846 she wrote endless editorials urging the establishment of a national day of contemplation and gratitude.

But as the issues of state’s rights and slavery slowly tore the country apart, few politicians were willing to listen to her more reasonable requests.  By 1861 the nation was embroiled in a terribly bloody civil war that would drag on for four more years and cost millions of lives.

During the first three years of the war the north lost many, many battles.  Heart breaking casualty lists filled page after page in northern newspapers each week.  As a result, Union morale fell and some northern senators even spoke of ending the war by recognizing the south as a separate nation.

Lincoln knew he had to raise hopes.  He declared a national holiday in November to give thanks for America’s “general blessings”.  

Chief among Lincoln’s own hopes was his urgent desire to see his newest general, Ulysses S. Grant defeat the south’s legendary General Robert E. Lee.

For nine long and brutal months Grant battled the Confederate Army in a series of battles at the Siege of Petersburg in Virginia. 

Grant understood his men well and knew both their courage and their limits.  When he saw his men exhausted and near the breaking point from fatigue and battle shock, he ordered the army cooks to make up huge kettles of red cranberry sauce to brighten the soldiers’ dull dinners.

Cranberries were later added by grateful northern citizens to their post Civil War holiday dinners as a way of honoring Grant (by then President of the United States) and his long-suffering men, who finally defeated the brilliant Lee. 

Over time, however, the sacrifice of the Civil War veterans was forgotten and everyone came to believe that it was the pilgrims who make cranberries a must-have part of every Thanksgiving dinner.  Not so.

Similarly many sources insist that turkeys were the original and only authentic Thanksgiving meat.  But records from Plymouth’s early days note that other meats were served including deer, duck and fish. 

Sadly, these great meats are often omitted and forgotten today. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin so revered the turkey he wanted it to be our national bird.

Franklin wrote many letters to the various committees of Congress urging a more peaceful bird than the eagle be chosen as our national symbol.

Even from elegant Paris he wrote his beloved daughter Sally that "...the turkey is a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on." 

So hail the often misunderstood turkey and consider enjoying some of all those other delicious meats that we overlook each Thanksgiving as we raise our brimming glasses and remember all our many blessings.

And if you feel a lack of the holiday spirit now or ever, just remember what dear Ben Franklin told somber John Adams, "Wine, dear friend, is the proof that God truly loves us!" Enjoy the Holidays everyone!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010