There are some dishes that a good outdoor cookout just can’t do without. What’s a piece of barbecued chicken without a scoop of coleslaw? A burger without some baked beans? A picnic with no potato salad?

Here’s a take on some of these BBQ standards--what it takes to turn out the classic version of each dish plus a handful of artful variations if you’re in the mood to innovate and your guests have adventuresome palates.

Coleslaw

Coleslaw can be any salad made with raw cabbage. The term derives from the Dutch word koolsla, “cabbage salad” (kool = cabbage; sla = salade = salad). Basic coleslaw usually contains shredded carrots and minced onion along with finely sliced cabbage and is dressed with a mayonnaise-based dressing.

Here’s the standard recipe:

Make a dressing by mixing together

• ½ to 1 cup of mayonnaise (low fat mayo works just fine), fine)
• 1 tablespoon of mustard, and mustard
• 1 tablespoon of sugar or other sweetener (such as Splenda).Splenda)

Add milk (canned milk, cream, whatever) to achieve the proper consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Note: Ingredients are approximate--addapproximate -- add more or less sweetener, mustard, etc. to get a taste you like.

Mix the dressing with a slaw made from one shredded medium-sized head of green cabbage, two peeled and shredded carrots, one finely minced sweet onion, and an apple that you have peeled, cored, and chopped. Refrigerate until cold, then serve.

Carolina Coleslaw

Asian-style Slaws
To make a slaw with an Asian flair, shred a large head of Chinese or Napa cabbage and a small head of red cabbage. Mix with one small raw jicama that you have “julienned” (cut into thin strips about the same dimensions as a kitchen matchstick). You want approximately equal proportions of Chinese cabbage, red cabbage, and jicama.

(FYI, jicama is also known as “yam bean” or “Mexican turnip” and is a large tuberous root, like a turnip or a potato, with a mild, sweet taste, grown these days mainly in Texas but available in supermarkets nationwide.)

Make a dressing for these veggies from from:

• ½ to 1 cup of mild vinegar (a rice wine vinegar works well, but any mild vinegar will do), a halfdo)
• ½ cup of olive or other vegetable oil, oil
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of sesame oil if you happen to have any, and any
• ¼ to ½ cup soy sauce (to taste). taste)

Also add a slosh or two of your favorite hot sauce if you like. Mix the dressing and slaw veggies together in a large bowl and let it all sit in the fridge, covered, overnight.

Here’s another Asian-style slaw that’s a snap to prepare and a real palate-pleaser. In a large mixing bowl, and in the order given, layer in (1) thein:

1. The noodles from two boxes of beef-flavored ramen noodles, (2) onenoodles
2. One bag of three-colored slaw mix (available in the vegetable case of your local supermarket--justsupermarket -- just a mixture of green and purple cabbage and shredded carrots), (3) fivecarrots)
3. Five sliced green onions, green parts and all, (4) oneall
4. One cup of sunflower kernels, and (5) kernels
5. ¼ cup of slivered almonds.

Make a dressing from from:

• 1 cup of oil, oil
• ½ cup of white vinegar, vinegar
• ½ cup of sugar or Splenda, and theSplenda
• The seasoning mix from the Ramen noodles. noodles

Pour the dressing over the layered slaw. Do NOT stir. Just cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. About 15 minutes before serving, stir the slaw well. You’ll be surprised how much people like this dish.

Potato Salad

Potato salad can be made from boiled, roasted, or even fried potatoes, dressed with any sort of salad dressing you wish, gussied up with onions, boiled eggs, pickle relish, or chopped olives, and served hot or cold.

Basic American potato salad is made from sliced or cubed potatoes that have been peeled and boiled until tender, then sprinkled with a little sugar and vinegar and moistened with a mayonnaise and mustard dressing.

Chopped onion, salt and pepper, celery seed, pickle relish, and chopped or sliced boiled eggs are usually added and the salad is always served cold. As with coleslaw, quantities are approximate--increaseapproximate -- increase or decrease amounts according to your taste.

An excellent alternative to the standard fare is a potato salad made the day before and served at room temperature. Slice into quarter-inch thicknesses a quantity of clean potatoes (pared or unpared) and boil the slices in salted water until just tender.

Do not overcook! If the potato slices disintegrate when you stick them with a toothpick, they’re overcooked and your salad will be a disaster.

Large, unpeeled red potatoes give this dish a nice colorful touch but you can use any potatoes you want. Slice a roughly equal quantity of sweet white onions (Vidalia, if you can get them) into 1/4-inch thicknesses and separate the slices into rings.

Place a layer of cooked potatoes in the bottom of a large dish, then place a layer of onion rings over the top of the potatoes. SprinkleNext, sprinkle a good handful of chopped fresh herbs over the top (parsley, mint, basil, chives, thyme, oregano, whatever you have).

Season liberally with salt and pepper, then drizzle a mild red wine vinegar and olive oil over everything. Put down a second layer of potatoes, onions, chopped herbs, salt, pepper, vinegar and oil, then a third, continuing until the potatoes are gone. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit onin the counterrefrigerator overnight.

Baked Beans

You can make baked beans from scratch but frankly, the results are not much better than what you get starting with canned beans. So start with a couple large cans of your favorite pork and beans. Drain and dump them into a lightly greased casserole dish.

Add a large chopped sweet onion and, if you like, several crushed cloves of garlic. Stir in ketchup, mustard, and molasses (or other sweetener: brown sugar, pancake syrup, honey) to taste.

Don’t fuss with the quantities--you’requantities -- you’re just making a batch of baked beans! If you like your beans with a little kick, add a chopped jalapeno pepper or two or a couple of sloshes of hot sauce. Stir everything together in the casserole dish then lay slices of good bacon across the top to cover.

Bake in a 350-degree oven, uncovered, for an hour or so, until the bacon is cooked and the beans have turned dark brown. These can be prepared well ahead of time and allowed to cool to room temperature before serving.

Deviled Eggs

To turn boiled eggs into basic deviled eggs, slice any quantity of hard-boiled eggs lengthwise and remove the cooked yolks, being careful not to tear the whites in the process.

(To hard-boil an egg, get a large pot of water boiling furiously, gently slip your eggs into the boiling water, and let them cook for ten minutes. Remove from the heat and cool the eggs under running cold water.)

Put the yolks in a mixing bowl and macerate them with a fork, then moisten the yolks with mayonnaise or Miracle Whip salad dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper, a dash of white vinegar, some mustard, and, if you wish, a slosh of hot sauce. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the hollowed-out whites and sprinkle paprika lightly over the tops. Refrigerate and serve cold.

Basically, a deviled egg needs something to moisten the cooked yolks, something to provide flavor, and something for a garnish. The standard moistener is mayonnaise, but sour cream, plain yogurt, soft butter, pickle juice, lemon juice, and many other products work just as well.

For flavorings, instead of the usual mustard and vinegar, you cantry use withusing ketchup,one hot-- sauce,or Worcestershireany sauce,combination! anchovy-- paste,of choppedthe sardines,following:

• Ketchup
• Hot caviar,sauce
• Worcestershire gratedsauce
• Anchovy cheese,paste
• Chopped choppedsardines
• Caviar
• Grated olives,cheese
• Chopped choppedolives
• Chopped smoked salmon (a favorite!), fresh dill, curryfavorite!) powder,
• Fresh chutney,dill
• Curry finelypowder
• Chutney
• Finely minced ham, choppedham
• Chopped cooked bacon, pickled ginger, creambacon
• Pickled cheese,ginger
• Cream choppedcheese
• Chopped herbs of various sorts, capers, horseradish,sorts
• Capers, choppedhorseradish
• Chopped sea food, minced onion, mincedfood
• Minced radish,onion
• Minced finelyradish
• Finely minced sweet peppers, chopped mushrooms, orpeppers
• Chopped finelymushrooms
• Finely minced cooked asparagus tips. tips

Paprika is the standard garnish but caviar, minced herbs, tiny caper berries, parsley, chives, fresh dill, finely chopped green onions, or very finely chopped veggies work, too.

Baked Onions

GoesThese savory bulbs go well with any grilled meat. Use sweet onions,onions -- Vidalias if you can find them (although plain yellow onions work just fine). Wrap the onions, skin and all, in one layer of aluminum foil and toss ’em on the grill about 20 or 30 minutes before the meat will be done.

Cook until tender, unwrap, peel away the skin, and serve with a generous pat of butter and a little salt. You can roast onions the same way in a bed of coals.

An alternative version: Peel the papery skin off a bunch of onions, cut a slice off each end, and use an apple corer to remove the center core of the whole peeled onion. Arrange the onions in a greased baking dish (or in a disposal aluminum baking dish of you want to cook this dish on the grill).

Stuff each core with a big wad of better and sprinkle very liberally with beef bouillon powder, then cook on the grill or in the oven until the onions are tender. Delightful!

See also:

• Beer Can Chicken
• Bratwurst
• Charcoal-Roasted Ham
• Charcoal-Roasted Turkey
• Fish & Seafood
• Grilled Vegetables
• Perfect BBQ Chicken
• Pork Ribs
• Pretty Good Brisket
• The Perfect Burger
• The Perfect Steak