Thank You George Stephen for my Greek Kabobs



Last saturday, as a brief but welcome stretch of blue sky filled in the jagged spaces under the pine limbs at the cabin, I looked down to the five sticks of Greek Kabobs sizzling over the center of the coal-heated Weber rack

and had a good feeling that they would cook well and turn out. When properly filled and placed, the coal bins – lit on this model automatically by a propane flame...no need for the liquid starter thankfully – let off a nice even steady heat, to somewhere between 350 and 400.  Because the kabobs are already cut meat, the extra surface area, plus the heat of the sticks themselves through the middle, allows for a quicker cook, just watch for signs of juice to rise up to the surface where the seasoning has been laid on generously

for only a few minutes per side, plate it, then let the kids sample quick before the heat is lost.  We know we have a good batch of meat when Julia, the tallest leanest 6th grade carnivore in town, first eyes it up, maybe wrinkles up a lower lip, but then tastes it and gradually scoots up to the edge of her seat, as though performing surgery, and doesn't let go of the utensils until the last morsel is on its way down the hatch.  These were no doubt nice cuts of meat from the Holmen Meat Locker, but it dawned on me what the right grill can do for you, too.  Our Weber, a sort of modern retro-green model, still resembles the concept of the original

hemispheres that George Stephen, welder for the Weber Brothers Metal Works outside of Chicago, invented back in 1951.  He had gotten tired of cooking meat in the old open top ancient 'brazier' style grill because ash kept flying in the food and there was too much lost heat in the process.  His company fabricated metal sphered buoys for the Coast Guard, so George decided to cut out two spheres, put them together, and before you knew it he had a product in high demand, and Weber eventually became its own business for Stephens and his family (all 12 of his children manage Weber!), and is now the premium gas and charcoal grill manufacturer in America.  Julia thanks George Stephen for my Greek Kabobs.