Everybody knows that undercooked ground beef is risky. But there is one innocent looking food that is probably riskier: Raw sprouts. Mike Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia has been quoted as saying "I consider sprouts to be among the most...

According to multiple news reports, on Saturday German scientists identified the source of the deadly E. coli O104:H4 outbreak around Hamburg, Germany, as bean sprouts not hamburgers, lettuce, tomato, or cucumbers. No surprise to anybody who pays attention to food safety issues.

It's the time of the year for Dad to go out and immolate his paycheck, turning succulent pieces of meat and crunchy fresh veggies into hockey pucks and piles of ash. With Father's Day coming up on June 21, it's also time for...

On Tuesday the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), with much fanfare, finally changed its cooking temp recommendations which were waaaay out of...

"Why is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a barbecue?" Anonymous

Starting charcoal...

There is nothing more seductive smelling, no perfume, no mushroom, no wine, than the scent of hardwood smoke after it has tickled spice rubbed pork. And I don't think I'm alone in that opinion.

You can make damned good smoked meats on an all-purpose charcoal grill (click here...

The snow has melted, the robins are back, and it's time to recycle that old piece of junk out back and get serious about amping up your outdoor cooking chops. But an online search or a trip to the big box store can be daunting. There are too many grills...

There is no bigger blow to one's manhood than standing in the dining room and announcing that the ribs are still not ready while the wife's potatoes and beans give out their last gasp of steam.

The problem is that it's a lot harder to control the temperature of most...

Got some leftover corned beef? Me too. Here's what to do with it. Make a hash of it.

I love corned beef hash, but I hate the bowl of paste that passes for the real deal in so many diners, and I especially despise the stuff in the can. So...

Beans are a great source of nutrition, and they play an important part in American regional cooking and culture. Their roots are often in other cultures, but the recipes have been thoroughly Americanized. They are especially important to barbecue culture, and that's my beat. It's hard to find a pit...

It has been said that recipes are about 1% of all Google searches, a significant number when you consider how many gazillion searches are done every day on Google, so Google is attempting to make it easier to find recipes on the internet and ring up more ad dollars in...

Pork chops are blank canvases. They love to be painted with herbs, spices, smoke, and sauces. There are several different cuts you need to know, but my favorite cooking method works equally well on all cuts. When handled properly, all cuts make richly flavored and juicy fun. The major differences...

It's winter and I'm not grilling as much as usual, so I've been fiddling with my meatloaf recipe (which I also cook on the grill in the summer). It's getting pretty good, but whenever the topic comes up with friends, they all have some great ideas and new twists on...

I love love love the "barbecued" pork and ribs in Chinatown. They have a distinct pork flavor, a glossy sheen that implies the sweet glaze beneath, and a glowing red-pink color that penetrates the surface.

Unlike traditional Southern American low and slow smoke roasted barbecue, there is no...

"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises." Mae West

The fastest way to a woman's heart is with chocolate. Actually, it works on me, too. And even though working with chocolate is tricky, nothing could be simpler to make than chocolate truffles. Just like the ones they serve...

The secret, and it is not much of a secret anymore, is to eat what is fresh and in season. Mussels are in season at Superbowl time and a super bowl of them is sure to be a hit at your party. And as finger foods, they are surpassed only...

So I'm reading Time Magazine and there it is in black & white, Adam Rapoport, the new editor of Bon Appétit is predicting that Pimento Cheese will be big in 2011!

Well maybe in NYC they're just discovering this traditional Southern staple, but in my house and in...

Samuel Johnson, author of the first English dictionary, wrote "Claret is the drink for boys, port for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." By that definition, Scandinavian glögg will make us saintly.

Glögg, pronounced more or less like gloooog, is a sweet, high-octane,...

Even though I have dug a path through the snow to my grills, I am already planning my agenda for spring. So many new foods to try! So many new techniques to test! If you're like me and love cooking outdoors because everything tastes better when cooked over open flame,...