THERE’S SOMETHING TO BE SAID ABOUT DADS!

They’re there for us through thick and thin and taught us the value of hard work and dedication. Whether they choose to spend Father’s Day in front of a grill, working on the family car, or on the golf course, it’s their time to shine.

We wanted to do something a little different around here to celebrate our fathers and yours! So, we teamed up with Jokari, a company we present products to, to give away their newest line of grilling tools to one lucky dad!

One lucky winner has the chance to win the following Jokari products:

• Catch-All Peeler
• Unique Avocado Tool
• Unique Pizza Cutter
• Unique Grill Tool Set
• Bottletop Baster

It’s easy to enter, visit davison.com/fathers-day-2018 and while you are there, drop some knowledge on our grilling IQ quiz!

The contest is open starting today and ends at 11:59p.m. on June 17. A winner will be randomly selected on June 18. Good luck.

The post Father’s Day Grilling Gadget Giveaway! appeared first on Davison.

This three-day weekend is the perfect time for people to get outside and cook up some deliciously juicy burgers and hot dogs on the grill.

The roots of American grilling are entangled in life after World War II. When the soldiers returned home, many lived in small bungalows with small backyards. From that point on, all that they wanted was peace and quiet and a place to unwind and relax; thus, the backyard became sacred territory. At first, simple free-standing metal braziers began to replace the traditional barbecue pit. Then, the way food was cooked shifted from slow-cooking techniques to grilling, which as we know, entails cooking meat over high heat.

All inventions go through rounds of varying ideas until the final product can come to fruition and this was exactly the case when it came to the grill. George Stephen was a father with a growing family and enjoyed the taste of grilled steak; however, he struggled with his flat, open brazier. So, rather than continue fighting, he decided to take matters into his own hands and come up with a better way to grill.

Would you believe us if we told you the first gas grill was actually made from a buoy that was cut in half? Although this may not sound like the safest mode of grilling, the invention idea for the grill was born from a buoy!

It all began in 1952, when George Stephen was working at Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago, Illinois. At the time, Stephen was working on marine buoys for the Coast Guard when he came up with the invention idea for a better way to grill. His invention was a dome-shaped grill that was equipped with a lid that would protect the cooking food from the elements and seal in the barbecue flavor. The buoy was cut in half and Stephen added air vents, three legs to the bottom and a handle on top of the prototype. Eventually, he cooked up an invention that we know and love today, the grill.

For over 60 years, one man’s passion for grilling has turned into an invention that is a staple of most households around the world. In fact, today, Weber grills in particular are sold in more than 72 countries!

So, this weekend as you fire up your gas grill, just think that Stephen’s invention that started in a marine buoy is still helping to keep your bellies full and your grilling dreams afloat!

Copyright Davison 2014

Sources:

http://www.weber.com/about/weber-story-1950

http://www.weber.com/about/weber-story-today

Images:

http://www.weber.com/images/singles/weber_story/weber_grill_1952.png

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/all-hail-the-iconic-weber_b_1590457.html

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcREIMX7rGscoAyJWAwfRsmCbbc-ogiwrqoCien_z4bVXQJSHeo17Q

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• Charcoal Briquettes – Charcoal has been used for thousands of years for heating, smelting copper and silver, and for railroad fuel. But charcoal’s transition from a heating and industrial fuel to a recreational cooking material took place in 1897 when a man named Ellsworth Zwoyer patented the “briquette.” Surprisingly, it was Henry Ford who helped popularized its use in the 1920s when he began making briquettes from the sawdust and scrap wood generated in his car factory. Soon E.G. Kingsford began mass producing and commercializing his own briquettes. But since Ford and Kingsford were brothers-in-law, they settled the family dispute when Ford agreed to focus on the auto industry and Kingsford would get the business of selling charcoal briquettes.

• Hot Dogs – Claims about who invented the hot dog are difficult to assess. One story says that a German butcher, Johann Georghehner, invented the ‘little-dog’ sausage in the late 1600s.  Others say it originated in Frankfurt, Germany; hence the name frankfurter. And of course the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, point to the term “wiener” to prove their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog.  But what about our traditional American hot dog?  Well, again there is some controversy. One group claims that German immigrants sold them, along with rolls and sauerkraut, from a push cart in New York during the 1860s. In 1871, Charles Feltman, a German butcher opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling sausages on a roll. No matter who was first, by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, sausages in rolls became a ‘hot’ item and a big seller, and when baseball became popular, hot dogs became a staple at the ballgame and were here to stay.

• Baked Beans – Like the hot dog, there are many stories about who invented baked beans.  Some say they originated in France, but curiously, the beans used to make baked beans are native only to America, so we’ll pass on that one.  Many food historians say that New England Indians mixed beans with maple syrup and bear fat. They then placed the mixture in an earthenware pot, buried it in a pit, and covered it with hot rocks; voila – baked beans.  But probably the person most closely associated with popularizing baked beans was Henry J. Heinz, who began his now famous Heinz food company in 1867 in Pittsburgh, PA.  One of his first products he canned was baked beans (ketchup was, of course, his first) baked beans have been a cook-out staple ever since.

So there you have it; a little history on some of the people involved with creating or popularizing some of our favorite cook-out staples.  Now all we need is a tall cold drink and some good friends and family.

Images:

http://grillgrrrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Old-Charcoal-Image.jpg

http://www.everythinghotdog.com/images/HotDogvendorold.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heinz_Baked_Beans_with_Tomato_Sauce_trade_card_back.jpg

Sources:

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Charcoal-Briquette.html

http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38594/pid/38594

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_beans

http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-adams-quick-and-easy-boston-baked_07.html

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BBQ, on the other hand, is a little closer to home, chronologically.  First, the term “barbecue” appears to be a derivative of the West Indian term “barbacoa,” which means a method of slow-cooking meat over hot coals.  Then there are reports that the early American settlers were BBQing their meats during big celebrations, and even George Washington is rumored to have been a huge BBQ fan, though we’re not sure how with those wooden teeth of his.

Many say that BBQ really started in the 1800s during cattle drives out West, when the cowboys wanted steaks but their mean bosses didn’t want to feed them the good meat. So, the bosses gave the cowboys tough, stringy pieces of meat (like brisket).  Through some trial and error, the cowboys figured out that if you left this brisket cook for a long period of time with indirect heat, it tasted pretty darn good.

Others say that true BBQ started in the South prior to the American Civil War, and it was the pig that was a staple of the slow cooking, not beef. In fact, it’s said that plantation owners would release pigs into the woods to graze for months knowing that they could be easily hunted when food supplies were low.  But the months of foraging made the meat tough, so the Southerners learned to slow cook the pork so that the meat fell off of the bone.

And in the 1950s, with the construction of the interstate highway and the explosion of the suburbs, people had the backyards perfectly set for a life filled with BBQ, and it really began to thrive.  So no matter what your preference, grilling or barbequing, beef or pork; American’s eat it, love it, cook it millions of times a year, and have contests to see whose BBQ is the best.  All we can say is, “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your grills.”
Photos:
http://grillingaddiction.com/wp-content/uploads/cave-grilling.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3243/3006923221_859600b313_m.jpg

Sources:
http://thehistorykitchen.com/2012/07/03/the-history-of-barbecue-and-grilling/
http://beetitsquashitspinacharound.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/human-evolution-and-the-history-of-barbecue/
http://www.brownielocks.com/bbq.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~class/ma95/dove/history.html
http://www.bbq-my-way.com/history-of-bbq.html

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