Steven Raichlen's Project Fire

In today's show, we harness the flavor-boosting, fat-melting power of live fire to produce grilled fare that not only tastes good, but is good for you. From the paellas of Spain to the grilled beef salads of Southeast Asia, this show explores barbecue health food.

Steak. Few other words in the English language have such power to make our hearts beat faster and our mouths water than sizzling slabs of beef seared over live fire. In this show we embark on some meaty globe hopping, exploring over-the-top steaks from France, Cambodia, and the American Southwest. Hot fire. Sizzling meat. It's a carnivore's dream come true.

Let Texans brag about brisket and Carolinians praise pulled pork shoulder. But just which rack you relish depends on where you fire up your smoker or grill. In the American Midwest, ribs generally mean baby backs or other pork ribs, while in Korea, the bone of choice is the beef short rib. In the eastern Mediterranean, lamb ribs reign supreme. In this show we give you three of the best ribs ever.

This show is all about barbecue, hold the meat. Veggies for hardcore carnivores who crave killer accompaniments to their favorite grilled meats. Veggies for health-conscious grillers who want to incorporate more grilled vegetables into their diet. Vegetables for everyone who delights in the smokiness and supernatural sweetness live fire imparts to plant and dairy foods.

The town where I grew up boasts plenty of awesome foods for grilling. Pit beef was born here, and this jaw-stretching sandwich of grilled top round sliced tissue-thin and piled high on a kaiser roll with fiery tiger sauce, remains some of the best barbecue on a bun. In the seafood department you find a sweet white-fleshed fish the rest of the world calls striped bass.

A lot of American barbecue began with inexpensive meat cuts. It took low, slow cooking over smoldering hardwood to make these tough cuts tender and palatable. With the economic insecurities brought on by Covid-19, we're all feeling the pinch, and budget grilling has taken on new urgency. Besides, why should Kobe beef and tomahawk steaks get all the love?

Pollution. Overfishing. Abusive labor practices. There's a lot of negative news coming out about the seafood industry lately, and much of it breaks your heart. Today's show celebrates seafood we can eat because it's fished in a way that's humane and environmentally sound. Activists call it sustainable seafood. I call it three great reasons for firing up your grill.

From its humble origins as a picnic served from the back of a buckboard wagon to today's high-tech, high-octane outdoor foodie extravaganzas, tailgating continues to enthrall, make that obsess, American sports fans. As for barbecuing, we've been doing it since before there was even a United States. The two come together in this show; our annual celebration of tailgating.

When I was growing up, a trip to Baltimore's Little Italy always meant culinary adventure. Today we celebrate Italian grilling and the food of Little Italys around North America, honoring the Italian reverence for simplicity and fresh seasonal ingredients, and the American passion for big flavors and ingenious grilling techniques. On the menu a North American twist on Italian grilled classics.

In humankind's long march to food security, two ancient preserving techniques have stood out over the millennia: curing and smoking. The first involves preserving foods with salt, soy sauce, or sodium nitrite. The second technique involves blasting foods with flavorful clouds of wood smoke. Today, we're pushing the envelope on traditional curing and smoking.

In this show we explore three unexpected techniques for grilling. The first stands the vertical rotisserie used in Mexico and the Middle East on its head to make a Yucatan classic: crusty juicy tacos al pastor. The second involves a roofer's torch, used to brûlée a spectacular pineapple dessert. The third involves a mystery ingredient that virtually no one on the planet has ever grilled.

This show focuses on my favorite food growing up: callinectes sapidus, better known as the Maryland blue crab. And no trip to Charm City is complete without crab cakes at Faidley's at Lexington Market. Which brings us to the summum of the Maryland crab experience: a crab feast known as Maryland steamed crabs. The Project Fire version starts with a blazing wood fire.

When I was growing up, dessert at a barbecue was an afterthought. How times have changed! We now grill pineapples and pound cake. We smoke-roast crumbles and crisps. We smoke apples and even ice cream. Desserts aren't just served as barbecue: they've become the barbecue itself.