If you are fortunate enough to have a refrigerator outdoors for your summer cooking, it is a blessing. If not, you will find one of the portable ice boxes a great boon to your efforts. Here you can keep ice cubes for drinks, butter, cream, and any of the foods which need cooling. Wooden or plastic trays or flat boards for raw working materials and a tray for glasses and bottles about settle the situation. A minimum of clutter in the supply division is as important as a minimum of clutter in the gadget collection.
Certainly an inventory and clearing-out from time to time of gadgets and supplies are important to your continued efficiency as an outdoor cook. And adherence to the simple, direct methods of cookery without benefit of all the time- and labor-savers, so called, will result in truly good food.
I repeat, outdoor appetites and thirsts are far more hearty than the average indoor ones, so timing is an absolute requisite. Experience proves every day that there is nothing more disagreeable than waiting overlong for food. It dulls the keenest appetite.
Provide hearty drinks for your guests and something definitely on the substantial side in the way of accompaniments for them. If you have a reliable kitchen garden or a good source of supply, you can start them no better than with a large bowl of iced raw vegetables and a bowl of appetizing sauce to accompany them. To wit:
Scandinavian Paste
Moisten ½ pound cream cheese with 3 tablespoons lime juice. Beat well until soft and well permeated with the lime flavor. Add 2 tins French sardines, mashed and blended with the olive oil from the tins, 3 tablespoons finely cut chives, ½ cup chopped parsley, and 1 teaspoon (or more) salt. Blend well and taste for seasoning. Due to variation in the acidity of the fruit, additional lime juice may be needed. And if the cheese is not so creamy and soft as desired, add heavy cream gradually to suit.
Another and slightly more sophisticated drink accompaniment which spells summer is one that contains prosciutto and fruits. Thin strips of prosciutto shaved practically transparent may be rolled around ripe melon cubes, lightly salted, and dotted with freshly ground pepper. Or wrap strips of this well-flavored Italian ham around ripe figs—the wedding of the flavors is palate joy!
A general necessity for extensive outdoor cooking would seem to be a barbecue sauce. Everyone has his favorite. The one given here is a good workable sauce that is also versatile and which may be enhanced with additional flavors to suit a variety of dishes.
Barbecue Sauce
Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a deep kettle. Add 12 finely chopped shallots and cook until transparent. Blend well ½ cup strained honey, 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup tomato purée, ¼ cup thick steak sauce, and 1 tablespoon Worcestershire. Add this mixture to the shallots and allow it all to come to the boiling point, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
This next I consider a delightful main course for a summer meal in the garden. With a huge green salad and perhaps some tortillas or a crisp French loaf it makes a most satisfying dinner or Sunday lunch.
Glazed Broilers
Naturally you will plan half a broiler for each person, or if they are squab size, a whole one. Split the cleaned broilers and brush well with melted butter and a good sauce (the one given above is ideal). Place the birds in a broiling rack and secure. This dish may be prepared on either a vertical or horizontal grill. Just before placing each chicken on the fire, brush again with the sauce. Place the bone side of the chicken against the heat first and switch to the skin side when the broilers are half done. These should take 25 to 30 minutes to cook. Brush them frequently with sauce to be certain that each broiler is coated with it and definitely glazed.
This grill is a case of choosing your own combination and insuring a little variety and novelty in your repertoire of outdoor productions. Our choice is lamb chops, kidneys, sausages, hamburger patties, and eggplant.
Mixed Grill
You will need two broiler racks, one for the slower-cooking foods and one for the faster-cooking ones. In one rack place 6 loin lamb chops 1½ inches thick and 6 sausage patties or 6 large pork sausages. Brush them well with butter or barbecue sauce and place in front or over the coals. In the second rack place 6 1-inch slices of eggplant well brushed with butter, 6 small hamburger patties which have been marinating in barbecue sauce for ½ hour, and 6 lamb kidneys, membrane removed, which have been soaking in milk for 2 hours.
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