Bringing the heat at region's firehouses

Putting out house fires, firing up grill all in a day's work

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department Capt. Jeff Duer grills steaks outside the firehouse early last month. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Mike Ridgell of Dameron wraps a stuffed ham in cheesecloth to hold in the stuffing before boiling the meat at the Ridge Volunteer Fire Department.

Firefighters are known for cooking and barbecuing, and here in Southern Maryland many fire and EMS volunteers "throw down" for fundraising dinners and cookouts, manning the flames and tending the meat in a good cause.

While a throw-down indicates a defeat in the wrestling world, in the culinary world it's defined as cooking a huge spread of delicious grub. Chefs around the nation compete in cooking challenges called "culinary throw-downs" as cooking contests have become more and more popular.

Dale Bowen, who is known as the grillmaster at Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department, said, "I cook whatever they want, it's always what they want — ribs, chicken, beef. We always have cookouts in the summertime."

Bowen, a 24-year volunteer, specializes in ribs and whole hogs and has barbecued for parties, weddings, Bowen's Grocery — his parents' store in Huntingtown — and just this year began barbecuing through his business "Butts Up Barbeque" for tailgate parties before Washington Redskins football games at FedEx Field.

After 15-plus years of tending the grill, Bowen started his business with a homemade trailer grill. Now, for the games, he brings three trailer grills and cooks pork, beef and chicken for 2,500 to 3,000 fans who are invited to each cookout.

"I love it. A group of us go up there," he said, adding that they cook for seven hours without stopping. Two other volunteer firefighters from Huntingtown, Ricky Hayes and Bo McKenny, help Bowen at most of the events.

Bowen said he has learned some trade techniques through watching cooking shows, and he likes chefs Guy Fieri and Bobby Flay, whose TV show is called "Throwdown With Bobby Flay."

But in 2004 he started hauling his grill around to cooking competitions, where he said he has learned techniques to better his barbecuing skills.

Bowen has barbecued in several competitions, including the National Capital BBQ Battle in June in Washington, D.C. His team placed third for whole hogs and chicken in 2007 and fifth for ribs in 2008. And he placed second in whole hogs and chicken in 2008 at "Pork in the Park" in Salisbury.

Everybody does it differently, Bowen said of barbecuing, and "at competitions I've learned how to do things better. I've taken things from other people. That's how I've learned the most."

One of Bowen's main tips would be, "Don't be in a hurry." It's the slow cooking that keeps pork tender, whether it's ribs, shoulder or whole hog, he said.

The meat is judged for "appearance, taste and tenders. They're the big three," Bowen said, so the spice rubs and sauces are a big part of the final product.

While Bowen has made his pork rub public and sells it at Bowen's Grocery, he doesn't want to reveal the recipe. He typed up the recipe on a 2-inch-square, now well-worn piece of paper he folds and keeps in his back pocket.

"I sit on it so nobody can get it," Bowen said. Bowen will say his rub uses brown sugar, paprika, garlic, onion powder and salt and pepper, then, he adds, "and lots of other stuff."

"I never did measure, but now that I've got it how I want it, I measure it," he said.

Bowen also creates his own barbecue sauce and measures the ingredients to keep it consistent, but he has not packaged the sauce for sale.

Where's the beef?

While Bowen's specialty is pork, Jeff Duer, public information officer at Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department Company 3, said he prefers grilling beef, his favorite being porterhouse steak. With a New York strip on one side and filet on the other, Duer said, "You get the best of both worlds."

Duer grills for fellow firefighters and mans the grill when he goes tailgating, but it's not a good time to grill when he's at the firehouse on Sunday during football games. Sunday seems to be the busiest day for Company 3 and "very few times do we get to watch an entire game," he said. During a Monday night football game last month Duer said his cooking got interrupted by a call for a gas leak. The fire station went on 2,900 calls in fiscal 2009, said Duer, who's volunteered with the department for 30 years.

Duer's philosophy is the hotter the temperature the better when cooking steaks and burgers.

"With steaks, you need to get them on, then off there — the quicker the better," he said. Duer prefers a medium rare steak, cooking it on a preheated 500-degree grill, adding, "personally, I don't like hockey pucks."

It's more convenient to use a gas grill because it's easier to keep a consistent temperature, but Duer also enjoys cooking on a charcoal grill. "There's nothing like the flavor of a charcoal grill," he said.

Duer will relay cooking strategies, but when it comes to the seasoning he uses, he's not as forthcoming.

"I can't reveal it, of course, that's not right." Duer, who's not one for prepackaged seasonings, said "garlic's a must, the fresher the better." He also seasons his steak with freshly ground black peppercorns and sea salt, but "not too much [salt], 'cause it dries out the meat."

Letting the meat stand after cooking will also keep the juices in the meat, with a steak sitting for about 15 minutes before cutting into it, he said. Roast, chicken and turkey also need to stand. The larger the meat the longer it should stand before cutting.

Cooking ribs requires the opposite strategy of beef, with a low temperature and hours of tending, he said, while chicken and shrimp need a constant temperature of about 350 degrees.

He learned to butterfly a chicken (cutting the breast bone in half) and has cooked a 7-pound chicken on the grill.

"I never tried it before, but it was awesome," said Duer, who said he learned many of his cooking techniques from his father, Lee Duer of Waldorf.

"He's cooked ever since I can remember, cooking for all the family functions," Duer said of his father, who has the timing down when cooking a lot of different foods. "That's the art of it all, especially with big meals," he said.

Duer is also the main cook at his home, saying, "The deal is I cook and she [his wife] cleans — it works out pretty good."

Along with grilling a variety of meats and seafood on the grill, Duer is always trying different concoctions of spices. Duer, who doesn't measure, said he needs to write down the different spices he uses because he'll nail a good flavor at times and he won't remember all the spices he used.

"It's got to pass the nose," he said of preparing seasoning mixes.

Whether it's cooking for firefighters, friends or family, it's not a chore for Duer; it's a hobby. "It's a lot of fun," he said. "It's relaxing."

Stuffing hams for funds

While cooking can be relaxing, it can also be labor-intensive. Such is the case with a Southern Maryland traditional stuffed ham, but Ridge Volunteer Fire Department members have learned that the more the help, the easier the task.

Prior to Election Day in 2008, the department decided to stuff and cook 20 hams and make sandwiches out of them to sell as a fundraiser.

The fire station sold 1,000 stuffed ham sandwiches from the 20 stuffed hams on Election Day last year, said John "Peanut" Gatton, the fire department's president. "We sold out last year," Gatton said, at a price of $4 a sandwich.

Since it was such a success, they did not want to wait another four years for another fundraiser, so on Nov. 4, Virginia's Election Day, they decided to stuff hams again and sell them as a fundraiser.

The company's ladies auxiliary and fire departments volunteers pitched in at the firehouse and took an assembly-line approach to cutting the vegetables, stuffing, wrapping and cooking the hams, Gatton said.

"Whoever shows up to help gets put to work," said Gatton, a volunteer firefighter for 32 years. Gatton said he and the men cut the vegetables and boiled the hams, but the ladies auxiliary did the stuffing.

Dawn Gatton, John's wife, said her family has "been doing stuffed ham forever. I don't ever remember not doing them." When the company decided to stuff hams, she offered her fourth-generation recipe. The recipe came from her father's grandmother, Mabel Curley, a lifelong St. Mary's County resident. The recipe calls for cabbage, onion and red and black pepper, but it does not use kale, watercress or mustard seed, said Dawn Gatton, the president of the ladies auxiliary.

At the Ridge firehouse, "We try to have everybody learn how to do everything," said Dawn Gatton, who's volunteered for 26 years.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving some of the volunteers got together at the firehouse to make stuffed hams for their own families, bringing together a crew that helped each other chop, stuff, wrap and boil hams for Thanksgiving feasts.

charvat@somdnews.com