Yes, when you try it I think you'll like it. Salmon doesn't have a great flavor of it's own, at least to my taste, but maybe that's because I grew up in a salmon fishing town and had plenty of it over the years that was just chopped into steaks and thrown in the oven until overdone (my mom didn't know how to cook seafood - she could make good southern fried chicken and could do wonderful things with just about any part of a pig, but bless her heart couldn't cook a fish to save her life). I like salmon, like most of my fish, spiced up, hence the pepper in the poached I described, and the butter probably helps too. I really like it smoked.
Beer adds an interesting flavor to a variety of foods, and also makes it more fun to cook. Another of my favorite grill recipes is something called three beer chicken, which actually contains no beer itself, you just drink three beers while cooking it. I suppose I come off like a drunk but really I don't pound 'em down all that much. I'm in the last two days of a four day weekend to sort of decompress from an incredibly busy time at work (and catch up on household chores & such) and I have had one beer since Friday.
One of the charcoal grills I'm looking at is a fairly large sized unit, sort of a split barrel shape with porcelain enameled racks for the briquets and the food, not really as large, and built out of heavier gauge metal than a barrel. It is on a heavy duty cart and has a variety of vents and dampers that can be adjusted to vary the cooking temperature and the amount of smoke retained in the unit. It also has a heat duct going from the main firebox area over to a rectangular box on the side with adjustable racks, which can be used as a sort of warming oven or maybe as a smoker.
I used to have a real nice personal sized charcoal grill and I really enjoyed cooking on it, but when I got married the wife got me a gas grill she figured would be better for our larger, blended gang. I always thought the gas grill was more of a chore to use (mostly a struggle to avoid flareups) than the charcoal, but kept at it. After the first gas grill wore out she got me a bit nicer one (but still in the sub $200.00 price range, because our budget is what it is), but I still think the charcoal cooks better. For that kind of money you can get an awesome charcoal grill, so when it's time to replace it, I think that's the way I'm going to go.
I hear some localities are regulating or banning use of charcoal briquets supposedly due to air pollution, but that probably won't happen here in my lifetime. The Kingsford plant is just across town, and the trucking company that hauls for them is next door to where I work. They have to pay for and keep anything that they damage so they split them with our shop just to be neighborly. There is almost always a pallet of perfectly good Kingsford briquets in my warehouse, with maybe one or two torn bags, all free for the taking.
thank you Dave in Eugene! I will try your recipe one of these weekends (don't do any real cooking during the week).
Three beer chicken, eh? Wasn't there a chef on TV once upon a time that sipped wine or something while cooking, and didn't he get tipsy? Anyway. One Thanksgiving a co-worker deepfried a turkey that had been basted (or marinated?) in beer. It was delicious.
The only alcohol we keep on hand is wine, I like Franzia burgundy or Carlo Rossi burgundy. A dear friend once told me to never acquire a taste for expensive wine because it ruins one's ability to bear the flavor of cheap wine! She'd be proud of me for sticking with the cheap stuff.
The barrel-shaped charcoal grill I am familiar with has cast iron racks. And it's $119 plus $20 to assemble, & Lowe's sells it year round I think. We are in a small town in the midwest where folks still burn their leaves in the fall, so I don't see charcoal grilling being banned here anytime soon.
Thanks for the recipe and helpful info!