Tag Archives: grills

Grilling Primer: Basic Cooking Methods

21 Jun

Cook It Up!

In this final installment of the Grilling Primer, I’ll cover basic methods of cooking on a grill.  What you really need to know about your heat source is where it’s located and how hot it is.  In other words, direct vs. indirect cooking.  First let’s discuss temperature or how hot the fire is.

Many cookbooks give pretty vague instructions regarding temperature when it comes to grilling (of course, not the books that I write!).  Words like hot, medium-hot, etc. are most often used in books on outdoor cooking referring to the temperature at the grate.  Sometimes you may get actual temperatures, or perhaps you come across the “hand method”.  The hand-method refers to the length of time you can hold your hand an inch or two above the cooking grate (count one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, etc.).  Here is a comparison of the three methods:

Heat Level Temperature Hand Method
Hot 450° F to 500°F 2 seconds or less
Medium-Hot 400° F to 450°F 3 to 4 seconds
Medium 350° F to 400°F 4 to 5 seconds
Medium-Low 300° F to 350°F 6 to 8 seconds
Low Below 300° F More than 10 seconds

Side Note: using  this chart, you can now convert your outdoor cooking recipes to indoor cooking if for some reason you cannot cook outdoors.  Think grill pan or broiler. Boiler you say? Why yes, think of your broiler as an upside down grill!

This leads us to the next question – where does the heat come from?

Direct Heat Cooking
Direct heat cooking is pretty much Grilling 101.  You have heat, a grate over the heat, and food on the grate above the heat.  Usually the grill is uncovered.  This method is great for steaks, cut-up chicken, burgers, hot dogs, fish, vegetables – you get the idea. Basic backyard grilling — WOO HOO!

Indirect Heat Cooking
This method of cooking opens up a world you may have yet discover when cooking outdoors.  When cooking on a grill with indirect heat, the heat source, be it gas or charcoal, is off to the side and not directly under the food.  When you do this and close the grill cover, you are in a sense creating an oven.  This allows for longer and slower cooking. Meats, such as roasts, benefit greatly with this type of cooking.  They are allowed to cook through before the outside turns to cinder.  Additionally, indirect cooking allows you to bake on your grill. Did someone say grilled cookies?

To accomplish indirect cooking with a gas grill is fairly simple; light the grill leaving one burner turned off.  Put the food on the grate above the unlit burner.  Controlling temperature is a matter of turning the knobs to the desired level of heat.

For a charcoal grill, it is almost just as simple.  After you have lit your charcoal, instead of spreading the coals out in a single layer, divide them in half and pile on opposite sides of the grill (you will want about 20 to 25 briquettes in each pile).  If you love accessories (and I know you do if you love to grill), get yourself some charcoal baskets. Place a large drip pan (a foil baking pan) in the center of the two piles of coals, and put the cooking grate in place.  You are going to cook your food in the center of the grate over the drip pan.  Temperature control is handled by opening and closing the vents on the grill… the more oxygen that the coals get, the hotter they will burn.

The tricky part about indirect cooking on a charcoal grill is adding more fuel.  If you are going to be cooking something longer than 50 to 60 minutes, you’ll need to add more smoldering coals.  As I mentioned in part 2, Fuel & Fire, the best way to accomplish this is with a chimney starter.  The part of this that gets tricky is getting the lit charcoal onto the piles of dying charcoal. The pain-in-the-ass way to this is to remove the food and the grate then add to the piles of charcoal. That’s okay once in awhile.  The easiest way to do this is with a hinged grate to let you access the coals. If you use a kettle grill, Weber makes just this type of grate.

And there you have it!  You are now armed with the basic knowledge to get you cooking outdoors.  Don’t be intimidated by outdoor cooking.  After all, what other type of cooking requires you to have something delicious to drink while you cook?

Happy Grilling!

If you have enjoyed this Grilling Primer, please leave a comment and pass it on to a friend. Thanks!

Grilling Primer: The Grill

31 May

One of the wonderful things about living in Southern California is the ability to grill outdoors year-round. However, since Memorial Day is the start of grilling season in the rest of the country, I thought I would kick off the season with a four-part primer on grilling: The Grill, Fuel & Fire, Cool Tools, and Cooking Methods.

The good news is you don’t need a fancy stainless steel gas grill that launches rockets.  I have developed and written over 500 grilling recipes and all were cooked on a single-burner portable gas grill (I love my Weber-Q!) or a kettle-style charcoal grill (a 22.5-inch Weber kettle) on my apartment balcony. (insert cheesy grilling demo pic)

Choosing a Grill
What you need to know: It needs to get hot!  That said, there are essentially two types of grills: gas and charcoal; and like anything, they both have pros and cons and as I stated, I have both and use each for different cooking methods.

Gas
Gas grills are definitely the most convenient… you turn on the gas, light it, select your temperature, and start cooking. They come as simple as having a single heating element to having three or more separate burners so you can have controlled heat zones while you cook. There are, of course, a lot of bells and whistles available with gas grills including side burners and rotisseries. It is also much easier to control and adjust the temperature when cooking with gas – just turn the knob.

Gas grills are usually large, and for the most part stationary, although some manufacturers are starting to introduce efficient portable models. When buying a gas grill the most important thing to remember is to buy the grill you can afford that will get the hottest. A general rule to remember is that the amount of BTUs (British Thermal Units) a grill should have is about 100 BTUs per square inch (95- to 115-BTUs).  In other words, if your grill has 350 square inches of cooking surface, it should be putting out at least 35,000 BTUs.  If it doesn’t get hot enough, you won’t achieve that wonderful sear on your food that is the hallmark of great grilled food.

Charcoal
Some would argue that charcoal grilling is grilling at it most primal level and the only way to grill. Technologically speaking, they are pretty much the same as they were 30 years ago. However, covered charcoal grills can be even more versatile than some gas grills. Look for the grill that has the largest cooking surface that you safely have room for (don’t squeeze it onto the balcony of your apartment like I have).

Before buying a charcoal grill, know what kind of cooking you want to do. Do you just want to cook a couple steaks and chicken breasts once in a while? Will you want to cook a whole chicken over indirect heat? Smoke ribs? If you want to cook a beer can chicken, you need a grill with a cover tall enough for the chicken to stand on the can.

There are basically three different varieties to choose from beyond a few bricks and a wire grate.

Hibachis are small, coverless grills that are ideal if you want to cook a couple of skewers or maybe a couple of steaks for you and a friend. They are usually made of cast-iron and have one to three adjustable grates.

Braziers are the charcoal grill that we all grew up with. Basically a pan for the charcoal with a grilling grate set up on wobbly aluminum legs that could collapse at anytime. Now that that you have the picture, there are sturdier models out there and many have features such as adjustable grates for temperature control. Braziers are usually, light-weight, portable, and come in many shapes and sizes.

Kettles are usually larger, and therefore, not so portable grills with dome-shaped covers. Because of there unique shape they are the most efficient of the charcoal grills when covered. The domed cover helps to circulate and concentrate the heat allowing food to cook more quickly when the grill is covered.  A kettle grill will allow for the most cooking and smoking methods.

Now that you’re set up with the information you need to purchase your new grill, in the next installment we’ll cover Fuel & Fire.

Happy grilling!

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