Barbecue Secrets

“I was brought up in a very meat and
potatoes culture,” he adds. “I come from
a Ukrainian family where we ate the three
pork groups – bacon, ham and sausage.
And I was always the guy as a teenager that
whenever there was a backyard barbecue,
I’d be the one who brought the threeinch
thick porterhouse steak and have it
all marinated beforehand – and I’d insist
on grilling everyone else’s meat for them.
I just always loved it.”
Shewchuck adds that he is delighted
by changes he is seeing in the Canadian
meat industry that make it easier for him
to use locally grown meat in competition,
noting that better quality meat has been
coming on the market in the last four or
five years.
“I think the cholesterol fascists have
finally been at least displaced by people
who like meat with really excellent flavour,”
he says. “I try to (use locally grown meat)
whenever possible. I’m starting to see
changes that I like. When I first started to
compete, I would look for pork and beef
that was raised in the U.S., just because it
had a higher fat content and was tastier and
would stand up to the long, slow cooking
of barbecue. Now I try to eat locally – I
certainly look for Alberta beef, I try to buy
local pork here in B.C.”
Classic Dadburger Deluxe Recipe
Makes
12–16 patties,
depending on
how big you
like them.
Burger patties
• 6 lb | 2.7 kg ground beef (or combine
equal amounts of ground beef and
ground pork)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 head roasted garlic, cloves squeezed
out and mashed with a fork
• 1 Tbsp | 15 mL toasted sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp | 25 mL dark soy
sauce, Worcestershire sauce or
a combination
• 1/2 tsp | 2 mL freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp | 1 mL cayenne (or more, if
you like more heat)
• lots of freshly ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup | 125 mL cold water
Fixin’s
• barbecue sauce
• 12–16 cheese slices (optional)
• 12–16 hamburger buns
Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.
Gently combine the burger ingredients
in a large bowl with your hands, taking
care not to overwork the meat. Wet
your hands in cold water before you
form the mixture into chunks the size
of tennis balls. Flatten them into patties,
placing them on the baking sheet. Each
patty will be about 1/2 lb (250 g) before
cooking. Place them in the freezer for
one hour to firm them up.
Preheat your grill for medium direct
heat. Take the burgers out of the
freezer and grill them for six minutes
per side, or until they are springy to the
touch, glazing them on both sides with
barbecue sauce. Top each patty with
a slice of cheese for the last couple of
minutes of cooking. Serve the burgers
on buns with your favorite condiments.
- excerpted from Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuck’s
Barbecue Secrets Deluxe!
meatbusiness.ca
May/June 2009 Canadian Meat Business