Tailgating With Uncle Bud

A time honored tradition for football fans has been the practice of gathering in parking lots before the gridiron contests to partake in various types of food and drink as well as participating in non-lethal forms of outdoor entertainment.

Traditional forms of culinary enjoyment are the usual hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwurst while some areas display some of the local preferences such as cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, ribs in Kansas City or sausages in Chicago. Personally, I prefer to prepare a lovely porterhouse steak (rare to medium rare of course) paired with a bottle of 12 year old Lagavulin. That however is not feasible for a large group of people, and I for one, do not like being around most people.

One item that seems to be popular across the country is the chicken wing. I actually developed a fondness for ostrich wings while I was was in Australia working as a custom didgeridoo manufacturer, more meat the better has always been my mantra. However, finding ostrich wings in your local Walmart or Food and Stuff in the States proves to be difficult while the smaller chicken wings are readily available at most all purveyors of edible goods. The technique for cooking ostrich wings taught to me by Aboriginal tribe I worked with actually works very well with chicken wings. It is as follows:

1. Set up your grill/fire to cook both indirectly and directly.

2. Remove the tips and separate the wings into (I hate this word) drummies and flats.

3. Pat wing pieces dry

4. Apply seasonings. The tribe used a concoction of salt, dried wattleseed and crushed pepperberries which provided a spicy yet tangy mouth explosion. Those ingredients are definitely difficult to find in the greatest country in the world so salt, pepper, steak seasoning, favorite rubs are fine just use whatever you feel comfortable with. Do however, use Uncle Bud's tip of putting in a dash of baking powder with the rub. It helps achieve crispiness that adds to the enjoyment of consuming poultry skin.

5. Add wings, seasoning, baking powder to a large ziploc bag or bowl and toss until each wing piece is sufficiently covered.

6. When the indirect part of the grill reaches 325, place the wings (again on the indirect side) on the grill and turn occasionally until browned and cooked through.

7. Once the wings are sufficiently cooked through, place them on the direct heat to achieve the highly coveted grill marks that the commercial advertisers want you to think means a good quality grilling has been achieved.

8. Remove, provide various dipping sauces if desired (Uncle Bud does not approve of Ranch dressing) and enjoy with a cool beverage before going in to cheer your team to victory.