subject: Future Frolics Might Take A Staggering Turn For The Diverse If We Begin Producing Our Own Tuck And B [print this page] Today is my boy's 4th birthdayToday is my boy's 4th birthday. We will soon be infested by grandparents carrying pressies, but hugely better is the present on its way for me transported by the fine fellows from DHL. This is my micro-brewery with all the equipment and ingredients to create my own ale. For today, a new mission begins. ALE!
Nothing enhances a gathering around the bbq grills more than an excellent beer. And now, along with the quest I am already engaged in for the idyllic combination for the burger and, when my sausage maker arrives, that too, I shall add brewing! It is completely probable that next summer, we may be putting my gas barbeque to use and cooking tuck and grog almost wholly home made since I also like to harvest my own veggies and herbs. And at this moment I realise I may be attempting to replicate "The Good Life". Oh my.
Well, nonetheless we are where we are, so we will go on and create great things. I have a beginners kit containing all the ingredients I need to make a barrel of beer and discover how all the bits of equipment and processes work. I may try several batches and then begin to experiment. I did once watch Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his friend John Wright the forager, use nettles and make a beer with that, which seems like a wonderfully good scheme since I have lots of it close by me which means that supply should be endless. And if nettle tastes like it smells, then it'll be lovely.
Which naturally returns us back to the argument to do with the gas barbeque and the charcoal barbeque about which produces the superior tasting food? Is it the fuel in the charcoal barbeque that makesproduces the smoke that gets into the food as it burns for the only time in its existence, or the accumulated drips of fats, oils other assorted juices that fall on the lava coals or the burners of the gas barbeque and mak a differently aromaed smoke?
Hard to say of course, because the old school will state that the real taste originates from the time before the development of the gas barbeque and that the association of coals, smoke and food is a hark back of a period when all cooking happened over an open fire fuelled with wood, charcoal or other physically flammable material.
"Yeah, but..." the geeks reply, "the gas barbeque removes the hassle involved in using your filthy old charcoal barbeque since we light our flame instantly without need for flavour affecting accelerants and afterwards we don't have to sweep up the ash". Also the argument of economy might arise, since a cost per use of a gas barbeque ought to be less than a charcoal barbeque, though not necessarily sufficient to make a huge saving.
However, with a modicum of luck and a following wind, as long as the initial attempts are potable, then doing our own burgers, sausages and beer should make a substantial saving as well as providing a welter of fun and amusement as we create recipes and concoctions. What we must hope is that the makers of our delight don't follow the way of the pasta maker and find a dusty patch at the back of a cupboard.
