Tailgating

[MichaelB]

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to tailgate with a bunch of friends who are in and around the food biz. What a party!

We drove from Cincinnati to Indy for the Colts/Jets game. No comments please about missing the best pro game to have been played in Cincy in 15 years. Our event had been planned for a year.

Our host has a specialty prepared foods company. Included in the troop were a chef, a pastry chef, two line cooks, a wine rep, 4 people involved in restaurant management and assorted friends, spouses and significant others.

The food?

Five varieties of cured or smoked salmon

Three version of cured duck

A huge pot of chili

Lamb racks, lightly smoked then roasted with a red wine demi dipping sauce

Gnocchi with sauteed spinach and brown butter

A sliced and grilled pork product -- I did not catch the Italian name but believe it translates to "Face of the Pig"

An enormous cheese platter

Assorted breads, crackers, etc.

Fruit

Brownies

Champagne and wine sufficiently varied to earn awards were it a restaurant's wine list

Beer

I probably missed a few things.

We were the highlight of the parking lot! Perhaps the best memory will be of the couple walking past and as they eyed lamb warming in a saute pan, the guy points and says "nice rack!"

Way too much fun based on how I felt yesterday.

Edited November 18, 2003 by MichaelB (log)

[Cusina]

Wow, what a spread!

I love reading tailgate menus from around the country. They are so varied. Something great about eating in a parking lot out of your car/truck/RV with 10,000 other fans. Makes even freezing your tail off at Lambeau in December fun!

[Marlene]

I want to be at your next tailgate party

[Schneier]

Sounds like fun.

[jo-mel]

~~~~~Our host has a specialty prepared foods company.  Included in the troop were a chef, a pastry chef, two line cooks, a wine rep, 4 people involved in restaurant management and assorted friends, spouses and significant others.~~~~~

Now THAT is some classy tailgate!!!!

My most memorable tailgate was for a college game. I was cooking some potstickers, Chinese chicken wings, some lettuce wraps and I forget what else, in the trunk of our car (sizable trunk). A pick-up pulled up beside us and the guys started to put their lunch together. They looked our stuff over, and asked what it was. My husband, (a Dinty Moore/Chef-Boy-Ardee gourmet) asked what they had. ----- a loaf of white bread, some sliced baloney and cheese, a jar of mayo and some mustard.

My husband ate theirs and the guys joined us!!!

[Varmint]

Well, we're already planning for an eGullet tailgate party for the 2004 football season in Chicago. Check it out here.

[beans]

Not too many football fan responses. I tried here too. But I'm a die hard fan. And this is a toughie of a weekend.

Michigan v. OSU!

I'm watching and nearly biting my fingernails to the quick.

And! If this isn't enough, well I've gotten tickets from a kind beer distributor for the Browns v. Steelers game tomorrow!! We'll be tailgating, weather permitting, at the marina and possibly boating over to North Coast harbor if the good weather holds.

I've already started the cioppino, inspired/reminded by another eG recent Cooking thread, and will be toting that to the party. I'm not sure what everyone else is bringing. Bloody Marys better be on the list.

[Mayhaw Man]

Today, the tailgating center of the Universe is in Oxford, MS where the Tigers and the Rebels are about to battle it out for the SEC Championship (in reality anyway) and the Tigers are battling to stay in the hunt for the Sugar Bowl and the National Championship. If LSU loses they might as well go home for the rest of the year as far as the Sugar/NC goes and if the Rebs lose they have a very thin shot at the SEC championship.

THe stadium only holds about 65,000 but they are estimating that there are 100,000 plus in Oxford today for the game. (as a disclaimer I am in no way a Tiger fan although I have lived in Louisiana all of my life) If you have never witnessed the parking lot in Baton Rouge for a football game you cannot imagine the amount and variety of food that is available. These people go "whole hog" for the tailgating thing. An average person who has never been here might not believe it, it is pretty amazing. Giant seafood boils, BBQ trailers cooking slab after slab, big grills filled with chicken, seafood, vegetable, and everything else you can possibly think up. The Tiger fans take this traveling buffet on the road and have gotten pretty famous in Omaha for their weekong tailgating sessions that have taken place during many recent College World Series. If you are ever in the neighborhood on a fall afternoon it would be well worth your trouble to go see this amazing spectacle.

[jo-mel]

When did tailgating actually start?? I suppose I could google it, but I wonder if it is only a North American thing or what. Did someone just want to beat the traffic, and get a good parking position at a stadium ---- so brought lunch, and it blossomed with everyone trying to outdo one another?

Whatever----- it is a phenomenon. Fun to be part of, and interesting to walk around and take notes. A giant festive block party!!

[Mayhaw Man]

When did tailgating actually start?? I suppose I could google it, but I wonder if it is only a North American thing or what. Did someone just want to beat the traffic, and get a good parking position at a stadium ---- so brought lunch, and it blossomed with everyone trying to outdo one another?

Whatever----- it is a phenomenon. Fun to be part of, and interesting to walk around and take notes. A giant festive block party!!

I think that would depend on how you define tailgating. There are lots of 19th century accounts of large groups of people bringing organized meals to everything from political speeches and church services to public hangings.

I suppose that if you define tailgating as something related to cars and sports, than the tradition could be traced to some Ivy League School or another. Many fine automobiles (and some less fine if you go far enough back in auto history) came with picnic gear as one of the options available to active motorists in the early twentieth century. I know that Harvard and some of the other Ivy League schools have football traditions that go back past the history of American automobiling and also that the fans have strong traditions of dining before the game on site with some pretty elaborate picnics, so it would make sense that it comes from the Ivy League.

But of course, that is all conjecture and now I am off to Google to find out the facts.

[Jason Perlow]

As football season is coming to an end, with the NFL playioffs upon us and the Superbowl coming, I'd like to bring up the subject ot Tailgate Parties.

Who here is the most hardcore tailgater? What's the most ambitious tailgate you've ever done or attended? What are your favorite tailgate dishes? How many tailgates did you attend this past football season?

[slkinsey]

I've grilled brats outside Lambeau Field in subzero windchill. Had to dress like this:

[Jason Perlow]

Yeah, I've heard that Packers fans are the most insane because of the freezing cold temperatures out there. They'll tailgate in the conditions that will make arctic explorers go running for their insulated igloos.

Although I am partial to Giants fans for their sheer machoness and outrageousness, though.

[Jason Perlow]

Here's a site with lots of Tailgating recipes on it:

http://www.tailgating.com/Recipes.htm

[NeroW]

Dude, that is an awesome picture. Thanks for posting it.

[Mayhaw Man]

That tailgating guy is from New Orleans. Some of you may remember the New Orleans School of Cooking that used to be in Jax Brewery (they did half day classes on cooking a single dish -gumbo, ettouffee, etc.). It was run by Joe Cahn and his wife. He somehow ended up with a gig traveling by motorhome and cooking at tall of the NFL games (Miller or somebody, I can't exactly remember who). He travels all of the time now. Really nice guy.

I am certainly no expert, and no real big fan of LSU football, but the Tiger tailgating scene is pretty amazing. Even other schools in the SEC give them extra room when the Tigers are coming to town. A walk through the parking lot at game time can be pretty good in the food department. Every kind of foodstuff imaginable.

[Jason Perlow]

That tailgating guy is from New Orleans. Some of you may remember the New Orleans School of Cooking that used to be in Jax Brewery (they did half day classes on cooking a single dish -gumbo, ettouffee, etc.). It was run by Joe Cahn and his wife. He somehow ended up with a gig traveling by motorhome and cooking at tall of the NFL games (Miller or somebody, I can't exactly remember who). He travels all of the time now. Really nice guy.

I was under the impression he still ran it, it still has a website:

http://www.thelouisianageneralstore.com

However I notice the "cooking school" part was last updated in 2002.

Rachel and I still use his "Joe's Stuff" cajun/creole spice mix, though.

[hillvalley]

If you are ever in the neighborhood on a fall afternoon it would be well worth your trouble to go see this amazing spectacle.

Do people go just for the food? I would walk around in the cold for the food.

Although maybe not this weekend.

[Mayhaw Man]

Just for the food. The game is has become merely the reason to gather. During the game, grillmasters, boilermen, and cooks of all sorts stay out to prepare the after game feast (many of them also take a long nap to recover from the pre game revelry). I tried to find some decent pictures, but don't seem to be able to fid what I am looking for.

The beauty of it is that everybody shares (really). You will end up with more food than you really wanted and if you have a cooking set up-the trading back and forth among chefs is pretty unlimited.

It is also considerably warmer here most of the time on fall afternoons (Oct. can often be in the high 70's low 80's), so that probably contributes to the length that people are willing to go to impress thier friends and fellow tailgaters with a good meal.

[QuinaQuen]

Yeah, we're still trying to get back into the habit. Also, Southeast Texas BBQ is too time-consuming to do in a tailgate setting, so we're still searching for the perfect way to cook up Toro.

But the climate? All I can say to those in traditional football cities is, "HaHa!"

[Ellen Shapiro]

I've grilled brats outside Lambeau Field in subzero windchill. Had to dress like this:

Um, no one felt compelled to comment on this stunning model? The brat-grilling uniform must be a regional thing.

[slkinsey]

It's not necessarily a brat-grilling uniform. Ordinarily the proper attire includes bare arms so you can burn off all your arm hair. This is more of a "-20 degree wind chill" kind of uniform. The camouflage pattern is very important for those times when you want to conceal yourself among a large group of hunters... especially if those hunters are trying to steal your brats.

The model, I agree, is quite stunning.

[Smithy]

*bump*

I'm sitting in front of our TV, trying to make sense of the arcane rules of American football and watching the Packers slaughter the Vikings. (Oh, the things we do for love.) This particular game began a little before 7:30 P.M. Central time: in the dark, in the rain. My thoughts turned to food, which might be the only redeeming feature of this game. "Would there still be a tailgate party?" I asked my darling. "Oh yes," he said, "possibly a little curtailed by the rain, but basically they'd have started the game earlier and they'd be more drunk than if the game had started in the afternoon."

Any fans of spectator sports out there? Do you have tailgate parties? What are your favorite menus? Favorite memories of past parties?

[Tri2Cook]

I'm a fan of football. Both NCAA and NFL with my preference leaning towards the NCAA college games. But, due to my current location, actually attending games isn't an option, thus eliminating actual tailgating. Nobody else at my house and very few other people I know are really interested in it so a tailgating-themed party isn't worth the trouble either. I'm tailgate partying it solo tomorrow though. Doing up a Cajun shrimp boil for the Alabama vs. Ole Miss game that will linger through whatever games I decide to watch after that one. My preference is to stick with things that don't require a lot of constant attention or a lot of fuss (because my primary focus is the football and I don't want to spend half the game in the kitchen). Seafood boils, chili, carnitas, jambalaya and things of that nature. I do a cheater kalua pork by rubbing down pork butt with smoked salt, wrapping it in banana leaves and cooking in a slow cooker. This season I'm considering cutting the pork butt into slabs, rubbing them with the salt, individually wrapping them in the banana leaf and cooking them sous vide at 160 F for ~24 hours just to see how that turns out.