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Some Thrilling Grilling Trivia

Rick Bonino Food Editor

Not to put any pressure on you or anything, but in the words of Bush’s Baked Beans, “This is it, baby — the century’s last barbecue season!”

So what’s in the works for Y2Q? According to a national online survey by Bush’s:

* Americans attend an average of one barbecue bash each week.

* Almost one in three people polled prefers steaks at a cookout, compared to 16 percent who favor hamburgers and a mere 4 percent for hot dogs.

* Overall, Whoopi Goldberg was the celebrity survey participants would most like to have at their barbecue (23 percent). But Cameron Diaz came in tops among men (21 percent), while George Clooney was the winner with women (29 percent). Guess there’s something about Georgie.

Bush league

Speaking of Bush’s, there’s one celebrity who might actually come to your cookout: Jay Bush, the company spokesman who appears in those ads with his dog, talking about the secret family recipe.

Just write in 50 words or less why you want Bush at your barbecue and send along with your name, address, phone number and age (optional) to Bush’s Barbecue, P.O. Box 81238, Chicago, IL 60681-0238. Entry deadline is July 23. The winner gets a barbecue with Bush for up to 20 people, a gas grill and a year’s supply of baked beans.

And depending on how many mint juleps you slip Jay, maybe you’ll get that recipe, too.

Fire departments

Whatever’s going on your grill, there are resources out there to help you cook it right:

* Three pork grilling recipe brochures are available for free by sending a label with your name and address to Grilling, NPPC, P.O. Box 10383, Des Moines, IA 50306, or via www.nppc.org.

* Shady Brook Farms’ toll-free Dial-A-Chef hotline (888-723-4468) offers recorded turkey grilling recipes from famous chefs, along with advice about matching beers (also available at www.dialachef.com).

* A.1. Steak Sauce also has a toll-free hotline for steak grilling tips (888-217-8325), with a free recipe brochure.

Matter of degrees

If you’re barbecuing beef, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association reminds you to cook it to a safe internal temperature: 160 degrees for ground beef, 145 degrees for steak.

And a company called TruCook (1-888-568-2433) has made it easier to measure by coming out with the ThermoFork, a combination grilling fork/meat thermometer — giving new meaning to the phrase “stick a fork in it and see if it’s done.”