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5A Wednesday, June 5, 2013 – Daily News County Fare & tasty fresh Making your grill shine this summer By W. Wayt Gibbs Associated Press Compared to other basic cooking techniques, grilling is hard: the temperatures are high, timing is crucial and slight differences in the thickness or wetness of the food can dramatically affect how quickly it cooks. Bad design choices by equipment makers — kettleshaped grills with black interiors, for example — make it harder still. But if you're willing to do some simple arithmetic or break out a roll of foil, you can reduce the guesswork and get better performance from your grill. Similar tricks work for broiling; after all, a broiler is basically just an inverted grill. Every grill has a sweet spot where the heat is even. You know you're cooking in the sweet spot when all of the food browns at about the same pace. In most situations, the bigger the sweet spot, the better. One notable exception is when you need to reserve part of the grill for cooking some ingredients more slowly or keeping previously cooked food warm. If you find yourself continually swapping food from the center of your grill with pieces at the periphery, that's a sure sign that your sweet spot is too small. You can get an intuitive feel for where the edge of the sweet spot lies by looking at the heat from the food's point of view. I mean that literally: imagine you are a hotdog lying facedown on the grill. If the coals or the gas flames don't fill your entire field of view, then you aren't receiving as much radiant heat as your fellow wiener who is dead-center over the heat source. If the falloff in the intensity of the heat is greater than about 10 percent, you're outside the sweet spot. You can use the table below to estimate the size of the sweet spot on your own grill. The 26-inch-wide gas grill on my deck has four burners with heat-dispersing caps that span about 23 inches. The food sits only three inches above the burner caps, so when all four burners are going, the sweet spot includes the middle 16 inches of the grill. But if I use only the two central burners, which are 10 inches from edge to edge, the sweet spot shrinks to a measly 5.4 inches, too small to cook two chicken breasts side by side. I can use this to my advantage, however, if I have a big piece of food that is thick in the middle and thinner at the ends, such as a long salmon fillet. By laying the fish crosswise over the two burners, I can cook the fat belly until it is done without terribly overcooking the slimmer head and tail of the fillet. Sweet spots are narrowest on small grills, such as little braziers, kettles, hibachis, and the fixed grilling boxes at a public parks. If the sweet spot on your grill is too confining for all the food you have to cook, you can enlarge it in several ways. If the grill height is adjustable, lower it. Bringing the food a couple inches closer to the heat can easily expand the sweet spot by 2 to 3 inches. The effect on the intensity of the heat is less than you might expect: typically no more than about a 15 percent increase. If your grill is boxy in shape, line the sides with foil, shiny side out. Your goal is to create a hall of mirrors in which the heat rays bounce off the foil until they hit the food. A hotdog at the edge of the grill then sees not only those coals that are in its line of sight, but also reflections of the coals in the foil-lined side of the grill. The foil trick unfortunately doesn't work well on kettle grills because their rounded shape tends to bounce the radiant heat back toward the center instead of out to the edges. But if you can find a piece of shiny sheet metal about 4 inches wide and 56 inches long, you can bend the metal into a reflective circular ring and build the coal bed inside of it. All food within the circumference of the ring should then cook pretty evenly. Jury-rigging a grill in this way wouldn't be necessary if grills came shiny on the inside and we could keep them that way. But, presumably because nobody likes to clean the guts of a grill, the interiors of most grills are painted black, the worst possible color for a large sweet spot. A black metal surface doesn't reflect many infrared heat rays; instead it soaks them up, gets really hot, then re-emits the heat in random directions. Someday, some clever inventor will come up with a self-cleaning grill that has a mirror finish inside, and the sweet-spot problem will simply vanish. HOW BIG IS YOUR SWEET SPOT? For grills, measure the width of the coals or gas burners (including any burner caps that disperse the heat). Then measure the distance from the top of the coals or burners to the upper surface of the grill grate. Find the appropriate row in the table to estimate the size of the sweet spot, centered over the heat source. This table assumes a nonreflective grill. To calculate the sweet spot of an electric broiler — which is the ideal vertical distance between the top of the food and the broiler element — measure the distance between the rods of the heating element. Multiply that measurement by 0.44, then add 0.2 inches to the product. For example, if the rods are 2.4 inches apart, the sweet spot is 1.25 inches from the element to the top of the food. Taste-Off: The best green juices thick, Army-green juice. Besides being too sweet, the veggie-juice wannabe has a slightly slimy consistency, due to banana, and a strange, tinny aftertaste. 140 calories, 50 percent vitamin A, 40 percent vitamin C and 25 percent B12. A 15.2ounce bottle is $3.49 at Sprouts Market. (1 1⁄2 stars) Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness If you're wishing for a glass of ultra-sweet, healthy-looking juice, this bogus green is a great pick. It's the color of overcooked veggies, but the top four ingredients are fruit. It tastes like a smoothie and has the grit of pear juice. 140 calories, 70 percent RDA vitamin A, 110 percent vitamin C and 25 percent vitamin B6. A 12ounce bottle is $2.69 at Sprouts Market. (1 1⁄2 stars) Evolution Fresh Sweet Greens and Lemon When I bought this juice at my local Starbucks, the cashier gave me a quizzical look and said, "Are you sure?" I didn't understand until I cracked open the bottle and took a swig. It's green, raw, cold-pressed and sweet enough, but it has the unpleasant aftertaste of dirty sprouts. 40 calories, 17 percent RDA potassium, 6 percent vitamin C and 4 percent calcium. A 15.2ounce bottle is $5.95 at Starbucks. (1⁄2 a star) Reviews are based on product samples purchased by this newspaper or provided by manufacturers. By Jolene Thym Contra Costa Times Orange juice may rule at the breakfast table, but many people are trading in their OJ for grassy green juices pressed from nutrient-rich veggies. Thanks to the raw food and juice-cleanse trends, these green drinks, packed with antioxidants, phytochemicals, minerals and vitamins, have become one of the hottest new libations. They typically include several servings of fresh green vegetables and fruit in a single 8 ounce serving, so it's not surprising that these fresh-pressed produce concoctions are expensive, with prices ranging from $3 to $11 per bottle. But taste a dozen side-by-side, and it's easy to understand why they've caught on -- and why some have developed an almost cult-like following. Most supermarket brands tend to be sweet, with more fruit than vegetables, and added ingredients to make them shelf-stable. Their color stems from vegetables or veggie powder. Far more interesting are the small batch, coldpressed fresh juices made in a range of flavors. These are highly perishable, but some are so tasty, they're almost cocktail-worthy. This taste-off puts the focus on flavor and nutrition. The top three nutrients for each juice are listed, but antioxidants and chlorophyll, for example, cannot be quantified on a label. BluePrint Kale University Think of this as the best salad ever. Cucumbers, parsley, kale and apple tossed with fresh ginger and lemon make for a lively, appealing juice. It's barely sweet, with a nice gingery after-bite. An 8-ounce serving has 55 calories, 35 percent of the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C, 20 percent vitamin A, 10 percent magnesium. A 16-ounce bottle is $9 at select Whole Foods; www.blueprintjuice.com. (4 stars) Project: Juice EZ-Green Plus Cucumbers, greens and green apples make this light, minimally sweet juice perfect for green newbies. It looks like a garden in a tumbler, but if you close your eyes, it could almost pass for unfiltered apple juice -but tastier. 70 calories, 120 percent RDA vitamin A, 65 percent vitamin C and 8 percent calcium. A 16ounce bottle is $9.25 at the San Francisco shop; $13 to $15 for East and South Bay delivery; www.projectjuice.com. (3 1⁄2 stars) Suja Green Supreme Apple Sit on your freshly mown grass with an apple - or sip a glass of this tasty, forest-green juice. Unlike the company's more savory juices, which are heavy on the celery, this is grass in a glass with a nice, sweet finish. 55 calories, 25 percent RDA vitamin C, 15 percent calcium and 10 percent vitamin A. A 16-ounce bottle is $8.99 at Whole Foods. (3 1⁄2 stars) Project: Juice EZ Green If you're in the mood for a mojito, pour a glass of this super minty, lime green juice. It's slightly sweet and packed with mint and lemon flavors. If this were a pageant, this juice would win "best personality." 70 calories, 120 percent RDA vitamin A, 65 percent vitamin C and 8 percent calcium. A 16-ounce bottle is $9.25 in San Francisco, $13 to $15 delivered to the East Bay and Peninsula. (3 stars) Francisco, $13 to $15 delivered. (2 1⁄2 stars) Trader Joe's Very Green This tasty green concoction looks like a glass of pureed grass, but it tastes like a tropical cocktail. It includes banana, kiwi, mango and pineapple juices, plus a sprinkling of dried greens. 130 calories, 60 percent RDA vitamin A, 25 percent vitamin C and 15 percent vitamin B6. A 12ounce bottle is $2.99. (2 1⁄2 stars) Odwalla Original Superfood Lots of fruit mixed with wheat and barley grasses, spirulina and Jerusalem artichokes make this a decent pick for those who want to drink green, but can't quite stomach veggies in a glass. 127 calories, 20 percent RDA vitamin C, 16 percent vitamin A, 5 percent manganese. A 12ounce bottle is $2.99 at Raley's. (2 stars). Naked Green Machine You won't find a single hint of vegetables in this Suja Apple Cucumber Glow This may be too bitter for beginners, but if you like munching super-green celery, it's great. It starts sweet and refreshing with apple and peppermint, and ends with a bright, grassy finish. (Note: If you're a celery devotee, Suja's Twelve Essentials is even more celery-forward.) 80 calories, 15 percent RDA vitamin C, 6 percent calcium and 4 percent vitamin A. A 16-ounce bottle is $8.99 at Whole Foods. (3 stars) Dr. Green Plus The first sip seems much too salty, but as the bounty of salad ingredients permeates your palate, it makes sense. This may be a tough sell for those who love sweet juices, but it's just right for all the tomato-juice lovers out there -- and it would make a great Bloody Mary. 45 calories, 120 percent RDA vitamin A, 70 percent vitamin C and 9 percent calcium. A 16ounce bottle is $9.50 in San WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS WE FEATURE BLACK CANYON ANGUS BEEF 8049 Hwy 99E, Los Molinos, CA "Your Family Supermarket" NO CARDS REQUIRED FOR EVERYDAY LOW PRICING OR SALE ITEMS We appreciate your business - and we show it! HOURS: 7AM - 9 PM DAILY CUSTOM CUT MEATS AT NO EXTRA CHARGE Prices good June 5 thru June 11, 2013 Pork Spareribs Boneless Meaty, Beef Brisket USDA Choice Boneless, Beef Spareribs Fresh Beef Chuck Roast small size 384-1563 Meat Specials We Accept EBT Split Fryer Breasts 199 $ 149 499 $ 299 $ lb. 179 $ lb. lb. $ lb. lb. Produce Specials Sweet, Yellow Peaches, White Peaches, or Apricots Crisp, Yellow or Italian Squash Juicy, California Cantaloupes Crisp Romaine Salad 12 oz Bag 199 $ Fresh, Fresh Green Beans 149 $ lb. lb. 300 99¢ $ 2 for lb. 400 $ 2 for Grocery Specials Bar-S Bacon Fritos or 12 oz. 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