Even on Father's Day, dads are happy to grill

On Mother's Day, most families try to give mom a day off from cooking. But, on Father's Day, maybe the best gift you can give dad is letting him cook dinner on the grill.

According to Weber-Stephen Products Co., birthplace of the iconic Weber kettle grill, 52 percent of grill owners cook outside on Father's Day compared to 45 percent on Mother's Day.

While I couldn't find definitive numbers on how many men grill, experts agree that men and grilling go together like baseball and beer. "I'm convinced [grilling] is just wired into our DNA. We come out of the womb prewired to grill," said grillmaster Jamie Purviance, 44, author of four grilling books for Weber in a phone interview from his home in northern California. "It doesn't feel like cooking to me, it's recreation.

"The fact that you can be outdoors, there's few dishes, cleanup isn't an issue and most of the stuff on the grill is meat-based, all those [things] add up to a reason to love it," said the father of three. "And, of course, most important, it tastes so darn good."

The local dads we spoke to would agree.

Dan Head, 35, of Stratford, started grilling seriously about two years ago, using real wood charcoal.

"I think a lot of men think they can grill well," said Head. "I go through phases. When I started I bought the cheapest grill, and didn't like that so I went out and bought a 21-inch black Weber grill. "The nice thing about grilling is you can't hurry it. Once you get started it takes patience. You

have no choice but to relax with a beer you can't walk away and leave the fire unattended," he said. "My wife says I get into my 'Zen' [when grilling]."

Head grills year 'round in rain, heat or freezing temperatures. Even with his arm in a cast, following a biking accident, Head plans on grilling today, making a favorite chicken recipe for his wife, Sally, and daughters, Hannah, 4, and Emma, 2. Thinking back on the times his dad grilled for the family, Head said those meals weren't always very successful.

"What he did well were things on a high heat" like steaks, he said.

Controlling the heat, especially with a charcoal fire, is tricky, said Purviance, who cooks with either gas or charcoal. However, his last cookbook — "Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The art of cooking with live fire" — had him spending an entire year cooking with charcoal exclusively. "Gas grilling is easier in many ways, you just turn a knob," said Purviance. "Dads who learn to grill on charcoal have an intuitive feeling on how fire works. But it's never too late to switch."

Growing up in New Jersey, he said his dad's grilling was all about "the Towering Inferno" — dousing the charcoal briquettes with lighter fluid until the flames

leapt high into the sky. "I haven't used lighter fluid in 10 years," said Purviance. "There are so many ways to light [charcoal]. The most common is using a chimney starter.

"You put [briquettes] in the cylinder with newspaper and light the newspaper. Everything's burning at the same rate so when you dump them out there's an evenness [to the fire]," he said.

In his book, Purviance recommends building a two-zone fire for direct and indirect heat, using a single, low layer of charcoal that covers two-thirds of the grate. "It's important to have one-third of the grate without charcoal as a safety zone to move food to as needed," he said.

Purviance said real aficionados grill with natural charcoal, also called lump charcoal, made only of wood. "It's usually one kind of wood — mesquite, hickory or fruit woods. The charcoal is the heat source and the flavor," he said. "A briquette is a mixture of some wood, sawdust, or scrap wood that's shaped into pillows and held together by other materials — we're really not sure what — limestone, clay, and sometimes some kind of petroleum product to help them light easier. That's what concerns aficionados," he said, although some people are making natural briquettes, he added. "I typically use a combination of briquettes and lump charcoal for evenness of heat," he said. "I let the briquettes burn off completely and add lump charcoal to keep the fire going."

It takes time and planning to cook with charcoal, but worth the effort, said Yankee Magazine's senior food editor Annie Copps, a devoted griller for 15 years and a convert to charcoal after years of grilling with propane. She said, "You have to be organized and make a checklist because you're going to be out there for a while." Copps points out that women, too, are getting into grilling. "Men don't get to have all the fun," she said. "I love the way the food tastes when it's grilled. What got me hooked is that almost every single cuisine relies on grilling in some way. That brought me to it.

"Now I grill everything from fruits to lobsters. I think you can't grill pudding," she said.

Grilling is indeed getting more popular, according to a 2008 Weber survey. Seventy-one percent of grill owners said they fired up their grills at least once a week, up from 69 percent last year. More than half — 57 percent — say they grill year round.

Steven Raichlen, 55, author of "The Barbecue Bible" — celebrating its 10th anniversary this year — and seven other books on grilling, said he agrees men love to grill, but he sees an uptick in the number of women taking his barbecue classes. The split is about 60 percent men, 40 percent women, said.

Raichlen said he's got a following among college students, especially the guys. College is when that first wave of passion for grilling usually gets started — at tailgating parties, he said. The first things they grill are burgers, bratwursts, hot dogs and steaks, he said.

For 10 years, Charlie Anderson, 45, of Trumbull, a physical education teacher at Trumbull High school, grilled only with gas and didn't have the passion like he does now, he said. A friend introduced him to charcoal grilling about a year ago, he said, and grilling has become a whole new ballgame. His wife, Gillian, said he now has three grills on their deck — one gas and two charcoal.

"When I changed to charcoal it got to be a lot of fun," said Anderson, the father of two, Benjamin, 13, and Abigail, 9. "You have to plan when to have the coals hot and plan the cooking time. It takes more time, but not more effort."

Clayton Boras, of Stratford, said he first learned about grilling at about the age of 11 by watching his father grill.

"He wasn't as good as he thought he was, but he loved to do it. If he was doing ribs, they'd be on fire," he said with a laugh. "I love to grill because you can do so many things.

"I learned early how to add flavor to things," said Boras, 40, noting he's in the process of upgrading his gas grill to a Weber E450 with a rotisserie and built-in smoker.

His three daughters — Marisa 14, Julianna 12, and Mikayla, 10 — and wife, Dianne, appreciate his cooking skills, he said. Boras, a year-round griller, said he plans on making ribs today with a barbecue beer sauce. "It's a slow process," cooking the meat until it's ready to fall off the bone, he said. "It could take all day."

Recently, he taught daughter Marisa how to grill a family favorite — chicken marinated in Italian dressing. "It's really good," Marisa said. "At Thanksgiving he deep fried a turkey. It sounds weird, but it's really good."

FLANK STEAK

2 flank steaks, approximately 2 pounds each

1/4 cup thyme, freshly minced

2 tablespoons tarragon, freshly minced

2 tablespoons black pepper, coarsely ground

1 tablespoon rosemary, freshly minced

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Add all seasonings together in a small bowl and mix well, forming a coarse paste. Spread paste evenly over both sides of each flank steak. Wrap each flank steak individually with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two to 12 hours. Build a charcoal fire for direct grilling. Grill steaks directly over coals (approximately 450 to 500 degrees) for five minutes on each side. Internal temperature of steak should reach 140 -150 degrees for medium rare to medium doneness. For optimum tenderness, cut flank steaks across the grain into 1/4 inch slices and serve. Serves six.

— Recipe created by barbecue expert Chris Lilly for Kingsford Charcoal

Note: Flank steak is one of the most overworked muscles of all cuts of beef. If prepared wrong, it is the toughest. If prepared right, it is one of the best-tasting charcoal-grilled foods. Try using this versatile cut of beef as a topping for salads, a filling for quesadillas or an entre. Some fresh herbs, a quick grill and barbecue sauce on the side will make this steak explode with flavor.