The Tundra Grill is built to last, justifying its price tag. Whether you are cooking out in your backyard or braving the tundra, this grill has all the features and equipment to accommodate. The Tundra comes with a stainless smoke hood to induce draft in a gazebo or lean-to, or to keep out the rain so nasty weather will not thwart dinner plans. The Grill is wind deflector also helps make outdoor cooking a cinch. Zinc-coated steel shrugs off anything Mother Nature dishes out, while Birchwood handles allows for safe skillet use. Worried about messy ash clean up? The Tundra has got you covered,the Grills ash box and scoop makes for one-step ash disposal.

1) Who said you have to stick to meat? Much can be done with bread and fruits over an open flame. To make this into a fun activity with your kids, use cookie cutters to make the bread and fruit into shapes. You can decide on themes like “animals” and “letters” or ask that each shape be different from the others! Then, let your kids decide which toppings they would like to put on. Add cheese, onion and various spices to bread and cinnamon and honey to fruit.

2) Try foil-wrapped surprise meals. Place different combinations of chicken, fish and vegetables with sauces and spices in foil packets. These cook in less than 20 minutes and lead to no-mess, lip-smacking results. Children will love the surprise element and can easily switch packets. You can even ask your family for combo suggestions before the barbecue, or draw ingredient names out of a hat to create new meal ideas.

3) A little variety goes a long way. If you tend to stick to the same old beef burgers and pork wieners, why not try grilled pizza or salmon steaks? Similarly, try to mix it up with condiments and seasoning. Sick of ketchup? Try salsa instead. Look online where you’ll find hundreds of easy recipes for barbecue rubs. These give your food that extra pizzazz and prevent the mess and drip that comes with barbecue sauces.

4) Barbecues don’t have to be rushed. In fact, barbecue devotees will tell you that today’s quick broiling is an insult to the term, which should represent a process of slow cooking on low heat. You can find many slow cooker recipes online, and the wait is a great opportunity to pass some quality time with your family and friends. Entertaining backyard activities include creating an outdoor canvas to paint on or playing backyard bowling with household items.

5) Mom said not to play with your food, but there’s always an exception! Barbecue games are great fun and tasty at the same time. In the game Glutton, each player gets a certain amount of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese or any other side dish. Various kitchen utensils are put in a box and the players blindly pick a few. On the go, they begin to eat their dish with the items that they took out. The first to finish his or her food wins the prize!

Are you ready? Let’s go:

1. Purchase ribs that are evenly covered in meat. In other words, don’t buy a slab that is fatty on one end and fleshy on the other. Avoid slabs that have exposed bones!

2. Allow for one pound of ribs per guest. This is a generous helping but for more impressive appetites, make it two!

3. When preparing the meat, make sure you remove the membrane on the underside of the ribs with a sharp knife. If you don’t it blocks the flavor intake.

4. Always marinate your ribs in the refrigerator, not at room temperature.

5. Don’t even think about boiling those ribs! Above all else, boiling the meat causes it to lose all its flavor. If you just have to pre-cook your ribs before slapping them on the cooking grate, try steaming your slabs instead as this will help lock the flavor in.

6. Before placing your ribs on the grate for Barbecuing or smoking, make sure you coat the metal with a generous helping of oil.

7. Barbecuing demands constant attention! As soon as it goes on your grate, stay close by and keep an eye on it. Watch the cooking temperature and avoid going above 250 degrees Fahrenheit — the best ribs are cooked slowly over indirect heat for about five hours.

8. Put down that fork! Always use tongs to handle your meat once it’s on the grate. Why pierce the meat and let the flavor ooze out if you don’t have to?

9. If you’re going to baste during cooking stay away from anything with sugar in it. Your best bet is to use vinegar and/or water-based products only.

10. Only lay on the BBQ sauce in the last 20-30 minutes of cooking. Any sooner than that and the heat will cause the sauce to caramelize and burn your meat.

What do you know about Barbecue?

1) Barbecues originated in pig-pickin’s, feasts that were common in the Southern United States prior to the Civil War. Whole pigs were cooked and eaten by the crowd.

2) “Smoking” was used as far as 6000 years ago in order to make meats safe to eat and store. The meat was exposed to smoke and low heat in order to prevent bacteria and enzymes from growing.

3) In Australia, a barbecue is commonly referred to as a barbie. The famous statement “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you,” which appeared in Australian tourism advertisements, is often used to refer to the country.

4) What most North Americans partake in today isn’t actually barbecuing. Barbecuing is cooking at temperatures around the boiling point of water (180-220*F) for a longer time period, in order to make the meat tender while preserving its natural juices. Today, the method most commonly used is in fact broiling: cooking at 475-700*F in much less time.

5) According to the Barbecue Industry Association, half of all marshmallows eaten in the U.S. have been toasted over a grill.

6) For an easy way to check how much propane you have left, bring your bathroom scale outside and weigh the gas tank.

7) The origin of the word barbecue is unclear. Some believe it came from the American-Indian word barbacoa for a wood on which foods were cooked. Others say it came from the french words “de barbe à queue,” meaning “whiskers to tail.”

To add a smokey flavour to your gas-grill-cooked foods or foods cooked inside the house, use “liquid smoke.” A condensation of actual smoke, this product can be easily added to your barbecue marinade or sauce.

9) Brisket, the extremely hard cut of meat taken from a cow’s chest, takes one to two hours per pound to barbecue. That’s an average 12 hours on the grill for a basic 8-pound piece!

10) Kansas City, Missouri and Lexington, North Carolina both claim to be the barbecue capitals of the world. Memphis, meanwhile, stakes a claim to being the pork barbecue capital.