Hamburgers & Hot dogs
Burgers have to be one of the favorite grill foods for the US. I'm going to make some today but spice them up a little bit. When I was at the grocery store I noticed they had very lean ground beef on sale as well some pork sausage. I took home a substantial quantity of each. Pork makes everything better.
Since the beef was so lean I decided to mix 2 pounds of it with 2 pounds of the pork sauge to keep it moist. I added it all in the mixing bowl along with some of my favorite seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, onion, cumin, and some Country Bob's sauce and mixed it thoroughly.
I mixed the ground meat and spices by hand and then made patties that were roughly half a pound each from the meat. Come hungry!
I started a chimney full of lit lump charcoal and poured it on the right 1/3rd of my grill. I added two small chunks of mesquite wood for flavor. I put the burgers and a few left over hot dogs directly over the coals. On the side without the coals I put a potato par-cooked for 4 minutes in the microwave, split into 6 wedges, brushed with olive oil, and then dusted with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin. The lid vent on the grill is open fully and the bottom vent 1/3rd - 1/2 way. Cook over direct heat for 8-10 minutes per side until they have a nice color. I threw a pack of hot dogs on too.
I have my timer waiting near by and some bbq sauce. Today I'm using K.C. Masterpiece. I rarely use a bottled sauce without doctoring it up some. Today it is 2 parts K.C. Masterpiece, 2 parts apple juice, and 1 part apple cider vinegar. Add spices as you like as well.
After the 8-10 minutes per side your burgers will start to look great on the outside and have a great flavor from the high heat. Its time to brush them with sauce and move them to indirect heat to finish cooking. The hot dogs will be browned now. You can either move them to the indirect side to bake some sauce on or let them them take on a little more smoke flavor, or go on and chow down.
With the burgers and potatos both over indirect heat now, I will brush them with my thinned out sauce on both sides every 5 minutes or so. 3-4 coats usually puts a nice glaze on the burgers and should give them enough time to cook the rest of the way to 165F on your instant read thermometer.
Here I've plated my burger with some home made creamy cole slaw, the fries, and some cucumbers and vidalia onions that have been soaking in a salt/vinegar/sugar pickling water bath for a couple days. The fries will be so delicious you probably won't want ketchup. Extra hot days may call for a manhattan for the chef.