I just wanted to get a quick post up and give a shout out to Darin Gragner from Alchemy Kitchen. We attended his PCC Cooks class on barbequing. He was a lot of fun, and the amount of information that he provided in a short time was incredible. He also has a good sense of humor and maybe a bit of actor in him. 🙂 The three tastings were fun as well. Oh, and there was beer. I don’t really drink beer for the most part, but of the three pairings, there was one that I liked, the Fort George Vortex IPA was something that I could drink again.

This was the last of his PCC classes for this summer, but he’ll likely be back next summer. He also offers small group classes directly here.

I don’t want to spoil all the fun, but here are a few good tips that I learned:

• Don’t cook white fish too low & slow, the enzymes in the fish will basically melt it. Go for at least 300 degrees F. Salmon can be cooked slower though.
• It’s reasonably safe to cook pork to only 140 degrees F. now (which is well done for pork). The last case of trichinosis from commercial pork was decades ago, a result of better pig feeding & handling standards enacted in the 1980s (see, sometimes government does work). Trichinosis is still a concern in wild game and certain other types of meat though.

Ben