Posted by DesMoines Register, IA on August 06, 2008 at 12:37:42:
'Old-school' grill champ returns
By TOM PERRY • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • August 6, 2008
The first time Bob Friesen cooked out at the Iowa State Fair, he was among pioneers, venturing where few had gone before.
The next time he fires his custom-made drum grill at the fair, Friesen will be participating in an outdoor activity now pursued with zeal by millions of Americans.
Friesen, champion of the first Farm Bureau Cookout Contest in 1964, has been invited back Tuesday, along with all other past champions, for the 45th installment of the popular Grand Concourse event.
"I'm going back for the fun of it," he said. "I like to see what everybody else is doing."
More than 60 contestants and seven past champions are scheduled to participate in next week's competition. Judging starts at 10 a.m., and winners will take the stage at noon. Samples are often available.
Friesen, 78, will cook in the past- champions category. He will be required to prepare a dish using deer meet.
"They threw me a little curve with that deer meat," he said, explaining that until preparing for the competition, he had never cooked deer meat.
Friesen's plan is to lean on one of his favorite hamburger recipes, adapting it to ground deer meat.
The Farm Bureau chose deer meat because farmers wouldn't mind seeing people eat more deer meat from legally hunted deer. Friesen has experience with just about every other meat, he said. He'll be bringing more than 4decades of cooking experience with him to the fair.
"I think I've done everything on the grill except bake a cake," he said.
Friesen and a handful of other contestants were among the pioneers of outdoor cooking competitors, said Bob Rust, former Iowa State University animal science professor.
Rust, 81, has judged every Farm Bureau Cookout Contest. Outdoor cooking had been around for centuries, of course, but the early 1960s was more or less the bronze age of outdoor cooking, he said.
There were so few outdoor cooking enthusiasts, Rust said, "you almost had to go out and beg for contestants."
Friesen cooks on custom-made grills, identical to the ones he built for himself back in the 1960s.
"I'm old hat," he said proudly.
Starting with a 55-gallon drum or barrel, Friesen adds a false bottom, where he places charcoal, and caps the cooker off with a chimney hat. He controls heat with venting in the barrel and chimney.
"I've cooked a lot of food on these over the years," he said.
With his wife, Pat, Friesen has fed hundreds during the years at various functions, such as golf outings.
Friesen wandered away from competitive cooking at the fair as the event became more fussy.
"I really got away from the cookout contest when the guys started setting the table with linen and fine china, crystal, pouring good wine," he said.
"To me, that's not a barbecue."
The look of outdoor cooking has certainly changed during the years, said Nancy Degner of the Iowa Beef Council, who has been a Farm Bureau Cookout Contest judge for 30 years.
"There's really been an increase of sophistication in the grilling process," she said, referring to the competition.
Outdoor cooking equipment has improved during the decades, allowing outdoor cooks better control over temperatures. The difference between the wobbly brazier grills of the 1960s and the new stainless steel propane grills is immense.
Also, in Degner's view, the number of contestants submitting flavorful entries has improved during the years.
The meat that would have been used in 1964 would have more likely had more fat and marbling than most 21st-century meat products, Rust said.
"But the meat wouldn't have necessarily tasted better than today's meat," he said, explaining that it is mostly nostalgia that has led to the notion that the fattier meat of yesteryear had more flavor.
It is like the old proverb, Rust said: "God sends meat. The devil sends cooks."
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