Green Options » alton brown

Four Reasons to Not Buy that Unitasking Kitchen Item

Robin Shreeves — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:13:41 +0000

Over the past year, I have changed the way my family eats. I do a lot more cooking of whole foods and a lot less opening of boxes from the freezer. My time spent in the kitchen has increased dramatically. There have been many times that I’ve thought “making this would be so much easier if I just had the right gadget.” But I’ve refrained. Often the item I’d like to have is what Alton Brown of Good Eats calls a unitasker - a kitchen gadget that is only good for one purpose.

Why shouldn’t you go out and buy a unitasker? I’ve got a few good reasons.

You most likely already have something in your kitchen that will do the job. I recently returned a panini maker still in a box to a friend who was lending it to me because it had been sitting unused in her cupboard. I had the idea that I would be making loads of tomato, mozzarella, and basil paninis this summer. When I finally got around to making one, it occurred to me that I could make it in my grill pan and use my cast iron skillet as a weight to press it down.
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Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” To Receive Sustainable Make-Over

Alex Felsinger — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:38:27 +0000

Science-savvy chef Alton Brown has announced that future episodes of his hit Food Network show Good Eats will include discussions about sustainable and local food choices. Brown said he decided to make the change after noticing that many of his biggest fans were packing some extra pounds from following the typical American diet that his shows often promote.

Brown, who also hosts Iron Chef America, said he hopes to use the popularity he has earned during his time at the Food Network to help the environment. Good Eats attracts an average of 770,000 viewers for new episodes, and then re-runs flood the network for years to come. “After nine years at the Food Network, hopefully I’ve got some credibility and leverage,” the celebrity chef said. “It shouldn’t ALL be fluffy holiday stuff—it shouldn’t ALL be butter, for God’s sake.”

Weekend Grub: Grilling with Chimney Starters

Philip Proefrock — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:44:19 +0000

Image Credit: Joshua Thompson via Wikipedia
This week's Weekend Grub is less a recipe for what to cook than some suggestions about how to cook it. If you're looking for recipes, check out yesterday's post on vegan BBQ.

Summer is here, and for many, that means time to start cooking outdoors. For some, bottled gas (propane, most commonly) is a preferable choice for a number of reasons, while many others prefer to cook over charcoal. I'm not going to get into a long debate about which is the best. It's something like the 'paper-or-plastic' debate. Given some of the issues around the extraction and processing of propane, as well as it's non-renewability compared to wood charcoal, I think that it's possible to make the case either way.

If you choose to cook over coals, there are some considerations that can help make your grilling a greener experience. A chimney starter is a simple, inexpensive, easy-to-use tool that quickly gives you coals ready for grilling. Most importantly, there is no need to rely on starter fuels to get a good fire for grilling. I was introduced to the chimney starter by a good friend several years ago. I was immediately drawn to the simplicity and efficiency of it. It concentrates the heat to start the coals more quickly and evenly than just lighting them in the grill. (Cooking celebrity Alton Brown famously even uses a chimney starter as a kind of concentrated mini-grill for quickly searing tuna. I haven't tried this myself yet, but I plan to, when I have a suitable opportunity. The recipe for Chimney Tuna Loin is fairly quick and easy, but requires a high quality piece of tuna.)

The chimney starter is a simple tool. Very basically, it is an open ended metal cylinder with a grille in the middle, and a handle on one side. Stuff a single sheet of crumpled newspaper into the bottom, and fill the top part with as much charcoal as you need, then light the newspaper. The paper serves as kindling to get the coals started, and the cylindrical shape keeps the heat focused on the coals themselves. After a few minutes, you'll have flames coming out the top, and the coals are ready to go.

In addition to how you start your coals, you can also make greener choices in your selection of the charcoal itself.

First of all, choose natural, or lump, charcoal rather than processed briquettes. Briquettes have undergone more fabrication, so there's more energy spent to make them. They also have various ingredients in addition to charcoal, binders which hold them in their shape, for example, as well as sprayed-on hydrocarbons which are used to make the "easy light" or "match light" briquettes. Some other things that can be found in briquettes include: coal dust, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone and borax. If you really want to get into it, I found that there is a website with lots of information specifically about lump charcoal, and even has reviews of different brands of charcoal.

Secondly, look for the origin of the charcoal. A couple years ago, I bought a bag of lump charcoal rather than briquettes, and was proud of myself for doing so until I saw that it came from Brazil. (Wonderful, someone's found a way to make even more money off of clearcutting rainforests.) Charcoal isn't something that you need to import from thousands of miles away. I've since found a store that carries charcoal that is domestically manufactured, and that is what I've used since then.

Lastly, if you are sticking with hamburgers, but have decided to try some locally-raised, grass-fed beef, remember that there is typically less fat in it than there is in most typical supermarket ground beef, and you should adjust how you cook it in order to have it cook properly.