A New Way to Grill Via Adam Perry Lang's "Charred and Scruffed"

Clinched and planked racks of lamb*

By Sarah Freeman

We’ve been too kind to cuts of meat - massaging them with oils and cooking on non-stick grills - it’s meat, not salad, so rough them up a little! That is the idea behind Charred & Scruffed - a grilling bible that harnesses techniques to draw out more flavor and better prepare meat.

The third cookbook from classically trained chef turned BBQ champion, Adam Perry Lang, abuses steaks, chicken and seafood in ways usually frowned upon. These include “scruffing” the meat before cooking, which creates more surface area where seasoning and bastes can cling and allows for pockets of crusty flavor to form. On the grill - a charcoal or wood fire hibachi, not a top-of the line slicked-down gas grill - Perry Lang cooks meat at a high temperature, flips it multiple times, and bastes the hot side to build up a crust. He also advises cooking certain cuts directly on the charcoals in a technique called “clinching” to add crunch.

The grilling methods are intertwined with information on spice rubs, bastes applied with bunches of dried herbs, as well as recipes for side dishes. The results include lobster tails cooked on a wood plank placed directly on charcoals, thick cut pork chops guaranteed to be juicy and tender smoked brisket with chimichurri crust. Overall, it’s a BBQ guide that will put hamburgers and hot dogs to shame.

These recipes are in his new cookbook, or can be seen live at the Grill and Chill Festival on June 9 and 10. Perry Lang will be on the main stage, Sunday from 1:45 to 2:30 PM, demonstrating the techniques from Charred & Scruffed.

*Photo excerpted from Charred & Scruffed by Adam Perry Lang (Artisan Books). Copyright 2012. Photographs by Simon Wheeler.