Delivering both heat and taste, wood smoke contains more than a thousand flavor-producing compounds. From wood-grilled bruschetta with fire-blistered tomatoes to swordfish with raisin chimichurri and magisterial sear and slide beef tomahawks, today’s show brings you the primal campfire pleasure of grilling over a wood fire.

Tomato & ricotta bruschetta, swordfish steaks, beef tomahawks with béarnaise butter.

Brisket is simultaneously the easiest and hardest meat to barbecue. Today’s show is all about brisket, complete with failproof methods for smoking it right every time. From not so traditional Texas barbecue and a distinctive bacon-smoked brisket flat to an electrifying Vietnamese brisket salad. You’ll even learn how to make breakfast-worthy Tex-Mex brisket tacos.

Texas barbecue, bacon-smoked flat, Vietnamese brisket salad, Tex-Mex tacos.

Steinhatchee, Florida, with seafood-rich grilling of the Gulf Coast. Blackened redfish that we’ll prepare “on the half shell”, to the Florida shrimp boil, deconstructed and flame-charred on the grill. And, yes, there will be oysters and clams—invigorated by the sweet scent of wood smoke. Explore one of the most colorful coastal regions in North America.

Florida Oysters & clams, Jim’s redfish on the half shell, grill-top shrimp boil.

Today, we’re grilling green with vegetables we love like asparagus, corn, and mushrooms. Celebrate meatless grilling in all its verdant glory. From a new egg salad with grilled fresh hearts of palm, to a squash, black bean, and queso fresco pizza you grill directly over the fire. And grilled cheese with portobello mushrooms served in a swirl of blazing cognac.

New Egg Salad, Squash & black bean pizza, Cognac flambéed grilled cheese.

How about upping your grill game with steaks you may not be familiar with, such as secreto or spinalis dorsi? Secreto is a hyper-flavorful steak cut from a hog’s belly with a grilled vegetable sauce, romesco. Spinalis dorsi the most delectable part of a rib roast reborn as a steak, and grilled with bourbon. And grill a brisket steak fragrant with sizzling shallot sage butter.

Secreto and Romesco sauce, Drunken Spinalis, Brisket steaks w/shallot sage butter.

Looking back to when our ancestors grilled in the fireplace, on stones around the campfire and directly on the embers, Primal Grilling will make you a barbecue rock star. Try ember-grilled bread roasted vegetable salad, chicken hanging in midair over a smoky fire, and amaretti-stuffed pears grilled on primordial slabs of salt, grilling techniques as old as humankind itself.

Caveman flatbread, w/vegetable salad, wood hearth chickens, grilled pears with amaretti.

In today’s show, Texas barbecue meets Mexican spice as we explore how American barbecue techniques can enhance three classic Mexican dishes: snapper in pipian in a grilled vegetable and pumpkin seed sauce, pork shoulder pibil smoke-roasted in banana leaves, and a Project Fire first, a dessert quesadilla lavished with bananas and dulce de leche.

Whole Grilled Snapper in Pipian Sauce, Cochinita Pibil, Dessert Quesadillas.

Everyone knows that a good barbecue makes the perfect prelude to the game. In this show, we explore how my home state of Florida reimagines three tailgate classics. Get ready for pork shooters stuffed with shrimp, cheese and sausage, wings blasted with fire water, and smoky hamburgers like you’ve never experienced. The secret? Lace them with chopped barbecued brisket.

Pork “Shooters,” Miami Wings, Brisket Burgers.

The pork shoulder, aka Boston butt, gives us Carolina pulled pork. The majestic beef shoulder (yes, there is such a cut) becomes a Texas barbecued beef clod. As for lamb shoulder, Moroccans cook it in a fire-heated underground clay oven to make their legendary mechoui. This show explores the richest, meatiest, most flavorful cut you find in the meat department: the shoulder.

3-2-1 Pork Shoulder, Moroccan Lamb Shoulder, Spit-Roasted Beef Shoulder Clod.

Chino-Latino originated with Chinese laborers who immigrated to Cuba, Trinidad, and elsewhere in the Caribbean to work the plantations. They developed a unique mashup of Asian and West Indian cooking—the subject of today’s show. Get ready for tangerine teriyaki chicken, butter rum grilled plantains, smoky baby back ribs with guava barbecue sauce, and Korean brisket tacos.

Tangerine Teriyaki Chicken, Ribs with Guava Sauce, Brisket Tacos with Chili Jam.

In Miami, our food culture is firmly anchored in Latin America and the West Indies. Our Miami Spice menu begins with a Project Fire first: the grilled mojito cocktail. Next comes Florida lobster grilled with rum butter baste and mango salsa, then plate-burying island spice beef plate ribs. Our grand finale? Turkey adobo with garlicky mojo de ajo.

Grilled Lime Mojitos, Grilled Florida Lobster, Bajan Beef Plate Ribs, Turkey Adobo.

Steak. It offers an irrefutable argument for simplicity, but it can also be the perfect foil for all the rubs, marinades, butters, and sauces you can throw at it. It’s easy to grill, but takes a lifetime to perfect. Let’s take a look back on how steak has evolved through three iconic TV series: Primal Grill, Project Smoke, and Project Fire.

A look back on how preparing steak evolved through Steven's popular cooking series.