Grill of our dreams

Weber is considered 'the grandfather of grilling culture,' a cookbook author says.
By BILL DALEY
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Ask Eileen Prager which of her two sons will inherit the family's Weber grill and she laughs, clearly startled. "Will it outlive us?" replies the homemaker from Hillsborough, Calif. Though unexpected, the question is a fair one. After all, Elaine and her husband, Fred, inherited the "Westerner" grill as newlyweds in the 1970s. Her in-laws had bought the grill in 1958 when Fred was just 11 years old.
Friends in this tony San Francisco suburb have climbed upward grill-wise, adorning their homes with fancy gas rigs bedecked with costly frills. The Pragers have clung to their battered beige Weber bordered top and bottom in brown and bearing the distinctive silhouette of a long-horned steer head on the front.
Despite the comments from friends -- "Why don't you come into the modern era?" is fairly typical -- the couple has never bought a new model.
"We say, 'Gee, why? We're so comfortable with this,"' Eileen Prager recalls. "It's like part of the family."
And, like family, Illinois-made Weber grills need little or no introduction to today's consumers.
Ingrained in psyche
Indeed, for many Americans, the brand name is so synonymous with grills that "Weber" has taken on a stand-alone connotation usually reserved for life's necessities -- like Kleenex, Band-Aid or Tabasco.
"You have to have it," insists Jane Stern, co-author with her husband, Michael, of numerous books and articles on American food culture. While the Sterns' grill is used mostly as an impromptu snowfall gauge these days, she can't imagine not having it in the yard of their home in Redding, Conn. For Stern, a Weber grill was and is a mark of "grownup-hood."
That a Weber could become something more than a grill helps explain how Weber-Stephen Products Co. of Palatine has become one of the leading manufacturers of outdoor grills in the United States.
The family-owned company won't talk about how much money it makes. However, Hoover's Inc., the business research firm located in Austin, Texas, pegged Weber's estimated worldwide sales at $160 million for 2001. The company's reach extends to 34 countries on six continents.
In the United States, where grilling is a national pastime, Weber is considered "the grandfather of grilling culture," according to Paul Kirk of Shawnee Mission, Kan., author of "Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue."
For Kirk, who writes that he prefers a 26-inch Weber charcoal grill to the more standard 22-incher because "it's much harder to fit three slabs of ribs over an indirect fire on a smaller grill," the appeal of Weber grills is their versatility.
Radical concept
It is this idea of an "indirect fire" or "indirect cooking" that proved a "radical" milestone in the story of grilling, says Steven Raichlen, author of "The Barbecue Bible," "How to Grill" and two dozen other books. His public television series, "Barbecue University with Steven Raichlen," is partially sponsored by Weber.
"Theirs was the first grill that enabled you to smoke in the back yard without having a pit or a major smoking device," the Miami resident says.
Chris Schlesinger, a grilling expert, author and restaurateur based in Cambridge, Mass., is famously opposed to Weber's closed-cover dictum -- he thinks grilling with the lid down imparts an off flavor in most instances -- but he concedes that Weber's simple, concise instructions have drawn countless people to grilling.
"Weber put out a well-made, well-thought-out, relatively inexpensive piece of equipment that coincided with a population with a steadily increasing taste for grilling," he says. "To some people, grilling is daunting. To build a fire, place something on it, cover it and not worry about flames makes it seem more accessible."
Everybody's doing it
Today, 81 percent of families in the United States own an outdoor grill, according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, an industry trade group based in Arlington, Va. The choice now is not whether to grill, but what to grill on.
First, the would-be griller has to consider whether to go with gas -- now the most popular option -- or charcoal, or electric. Should the grill be portable or a built-in appliance in one's "outdoor room"? Then he or she has to choose from among the competing brands, including Weber's main rival, Char-Broil, which is the flagship unit in the W.C. Bradley Home Leisure Group, a family-owned company in Columbus, Ga.
'A guy thing'
Weber's market research indicates customers are split fairly equally by gender, with men edging out women slightly in terms of who picks out the grill. Historically, though, grilling has been considered a "guy thing." And, as Schlesinger notes wryly, once "guys are involved, you've got to get geared up."
At Weber, the gear is dear, a vital product segment that Michael Kempster Sr., Weber's executive vice president, says makes up nearly 20 percent of the company's business dollarwise. Accessories number in the hundreds and range from an extra-wide spatula designed to help turn fish, to racks for holding ribs, potatoes or corn on the cob, to a very space-age canister that can substitute for a beer can in the cavity of an upright chicken.
Getting out the message on grilling has long been a Weber signature, from the earliest days of sidewalk and park demos to today's "Grill 101" lesson on the company's Web site and its line of cookbooks.
Here are three recipes from "Weber's Big Book of Grilling," written by Purviance and Sandra S. McRae.
CHICKEN ON A STICK WITH AN ASIAN DIP
"The paste in this recipe does amazing things for chicken, giving it complexity in a matter of minutes," Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae write in "Weber's Big Book of Grilling."
1 teaspoon each: granulated garlic, granulated onion, paprika
1/2 teaspoon each: cumin, dried lemon grass, dried basil, dried thyme, coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons each: fresh lemon juice, rice vinegar, water
1 tablespoon minced green onion
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
For seasoning paste, combine the garlic, onion, paprika, cumin, lemon grass, basil, thyme, salt and peppers in a medium bowl. Whisk in oil. Add chicken; toss evenly to coat. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 30-60 minutes.
For the dipping sauce, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, rice vinegar, water, green onion and red pepper flakes in a small bowl; pour into small serving bowls.
Prepare grill. Thread the chicken chunks onto skewers. (If using wooden skewers, soak them first in water 20 minutes.) Grill until the meat is firm and juices run clear, 8-10 minutes, turning once. Serve warm with dipping sauce.
Makes 8 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 173 calories, 56 percent of calories from fat, 11 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 41 mg cholesterol, 2 g carbohydrates, 17 g protein, 1,159 mg sodium, 0.5 g fiber.
RED SNAPPER FAJITAS WITH BLACK BEAN SALSA
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 skinless red snapper fillets, about 6 ounces each
Salsa:
1 pound plum tomatoes, cored, diced
1 medium avocado, finely diced
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed, drained
1/4 cup each: finely diced red onion, chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon each: vegetable oil, minced jalapeno pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
Fajitas:
8 flour tortillas, 10 inches in diameter
1/2 head romaine lettuce, cut into thin crosswise slices
Whisk together lime juice, oil, garlic, cumin, salt and red pepper flakes in medium bowl. Place snapper fillets in a large food storage bag; add the marinade. Press the air out of the bag; seal tightly. Turn the bag to distribute the marinade; leave fish in marinade for no more than 30 minutes. For the salsa, combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Season with more salt and lime juice, if desired.
Prepare grill. Remove the fillets from the bag; discard marinade. Lightly brush or spray both sides of fish with vegetable oil. Grill directly over the heating source until the fish begins to flake, 3-4 minutes, turning once. Remove from the grill. Separate into large flakes with two forks.
Heat the tortillas on the grill about 1 minute without turning. Wrap in a kitchen towel to keep warm. Pile the lettuce and fish on the warm tortillas; top with the salsa.
Makes 8 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 412 calories, 28 percent of calories from fat, 13 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 49 g carbohydrates, 25 g protein, 600 mg sodium, 6 g fiber.
BABY BACK RIBS WITH SPICED APPLE-CIDER MOP
2 cups apple cider
2 shallots, minced
1 small jalapeno, seeded, minced
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons each: white wine vinegar, tomato paste
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon each: coarse salt, freshly ground pepper
2 to 3 slabs baby back pork ribs, about 4 pounds, at room temperature
Heat cider, shallots and jalapeno to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until 1 cup of liquid remains, about 20 minutes. Add ketchup, white wine vinegar, tomato paste, brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Heat to a boil; remove from heat. (Sauce may be made ahead and refrigerated until ready to use.)
Prepare grill for indirect heating; season ribs with remaining 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and pepper. Grill, rib side down, over medium heat until the meat is very tender and has pulled back from the ends of the bones, about 2 hours. Baste the ribs often with the mop up to the last 10 minutes. Slice into individual ribs.
Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 940 calories, 62 percent of calories from fat, 64 g fat, 23 g saturated fat, 255 mg cholesterol, 25 g carbohydrates, 62 g protein, 734 mg sodium, 0.7 g fiber.