Man Meets Meat

Here it is - the picture that speaks a thousand words! This picture says what the "beloved" of the male gender is. Two words -- FIRE and MEAT!

From Wikipedia

In 1952, after he became frustrated with the uneven and uncontrollable flame of open brazier grilling at his Mount Prospect, Illinois, home, determined backyard griller George Stephen, Sr., set out to build a better grill with a lid that allows outdoor cooks to grill in all kinds of weather.[3] Stephen worked at (and was part owner of) the Weber Brothers Metal Works, a Chicago custom order sheet metal shop that produced, among other products, half-spheres that were welded together to make buoys for use in Lake Michigan.[1] There, he cut one of the buoys in half and fashioned a dome shaped grill with a rounded lid, and the classic original Weber kettle grill was born. George's neighbors called it ‘Sputnik‘.[4] Suddenly George’s invention, which was first called 'George's Barbecue Kettle', was in such hot demand he couldn’t make them fast enough.[1][5]
Because the grill became so successful after he began selling it in 1952, Stephen formed the barbecue division of the Weber Brothers factory. In the late 1950s, Stephen bought out the Weber Brothers factory and became the sole owner, devoting all his professional time to manufacturing and selling the Weber kettle. Soon thereafter, Stephen changed the company’s name to Weber-Stephen Products Co.[6]

Pat had gotten a birthday gift from a friend - a grilling class at The Weber Grill restaurant in Schaumburg. She didn't want to go by herself so she asked me to take the class as well. I ended up bringing along a friend as well.

I loved the picture above! It was above the grills that they had. A picture of George Stephen's promo initiative. When he created these grills, he used to take them around to parks and just start grilling and then sell the grills as the grunting males gathered around the smoldering meat. It was at one of these parks in Arlington Heights that the head of ACE Hardware saw the demo and approached Stephen about selling his grills in his stores.

Saturday we headed to Schaumburg for the painfully early 9 a.m. class where we were to learn about rubs and mariandes and smoking. It was kind of early to look at big 16 lb slabs of brisket and spare ribs, but we muddled through it. It was actually a really interesting and educational class -- and we can't skin over the tasting section when they fed us at the end with two different kinds of spare ribs, brisket, pork shoulder and ham -- oh, plus potatoes, salad, beans and apple cobbler.... We left VERY full!

We also had a little education on drinking... Here's Pat with her Bourbon flight :) We also got to sample a Shiraz and a Manhattan. I took little swigs of the bourbon, but it burned so bad I stoped. It was like the drink that Flora's mom in Hungary made me drink before I ate all the food she prepared. Its supposed to help you digest things easier when you have a heavy meal. Once again - it just burns...

The head chef from Schaumburg and the head chef from the downtown Weber Grill's were the teachers for the class. They were excellent... the one chef from Chicago is TOTALLY dedicated to meat! One arm has a tattoo of a skull with two butcher knives and a chef cap. He was excitedly telling us about the new tattoo he's getting next month - it will be on his other arm and its going to be a diagram of a pig and the cuts of meat on it. Extremely nice guy but WAY too into meat! :)



Me, Pat and Kim with George Stephen...