New Favorite Recipes for the Grill

By: Corky Pollan

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Each year we lug out our grill, and each year we wind up grilling the same old foods in the same old ways. This year I vowed to take advantage of my gas grill’s versatility and in the process I’ve come up with two new favorite uses. One takes mere minutes, the other five to six hours.

Grilled Clams and Oysters

I adore clams and oysters but opening them has always been a bit of a hassle. So this summer, I’ll let the grill do the job for me.

Here’s what you’ll need:

8 to 10 oysters
8 to 10 clams
Lemons
Hot sauce
Platter
Kosher salt

Here’s what you do:

Scrub the oysters and rinse the clams. Heat the grill to medium-high.
Lay the clams in a single layer on the grate, place the oysters on the more thickly curved halves of their shells to retain their juices, and close the grill. The clams and oysters will open after six or seven minutes.
Remove them from the heat, add a spritz of lemon or a dash of hot sauce and place them on a platter lined with kosher salt. Voila! Summer’s easiest and quickest hors d’oeuvre.

Slow-Cooked Pork

Slow-cooking a pork shoulder on the grill takes 5 to 6 hours, but the result is incredibly flavorful, tender, and juicy pulled pork. Since there’s no turning or checking it’s a forgiving and mindless kind of cooking, perfect for a summer’s day; so read a book, go for a swim, sunbath.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Large bone-in pork shoulder covered with a layer of fat
Cup or so of wood chips
Foil pan
Oven thermometer (if your grill doesn’t have one)
Full tank of propane

Here’s what you do:

Twelve -- or better yet, 24 -- hours in advance of grilling, cover the pork with a fifty-fifty mix of sugar and salt, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate it.
One hour before grilling, remove the pork from the fridge to allow it to reach room temperature. At the same time, soak the woodchips in cold water, drain them and wrap them in foil, poking a few holes to release the smoke.
Start the grill and set the burners on low (you want to maintain a temperature of 250 degrees, no higher) and place the packet of chips under one of the grates.
Turn the center burner (or burners) off, place the pork fat side up on top of the center grate, set the drip pan underneath, and close the cover.
After five hours, begin checking the internal temperature of the pork. When it reaches 185/190 degrees and the meat is fork tender, transfer it to a cutting board, tent it with foil and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.
Shred the smoky, succulent and moist meat with two forks and toss it with your favorite barbeque sauce. I’m partial to vinegar sauces; acid goes so well with pork.

That’s it. Occasionally you might add additional wood chips and check the grill temperature to make sure it doesn’t rise above 250 degrees.

Try the slow-cooked pork with one of these sauces:

What's your twist on traditional grilling?

More Cooking Ideas From Corky

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Corky Pollan, former Style Director of Gourmet and Best Bets Editor of New York Magazine, has returned to her first love, cooking. In her Devour posts, she’s eager to debunk cooking myths and solve some cooking mysteries.