Consolidated "Grilling" thread
 

For those of you who are backyard barbecuers, share your expertise here:

I'll go first: Scrape the grates as soon as you're done cooking, while it's still hot.

Marinade!!!

Simply putting some chicken in a ziplock bag full of italian dressing for a couple hours before grilling will work wonders.

If using charcoal, make sure you wait till the stuff is burned down pretty good. Don't want flame-ups.

Fish is best done in aluminum foil. It cooks better (more circulated heat) and there is *some* evidence to suggest that fish cooked on the grill directly results in carcinogens.

Preheat. Get that grill really, really hot before you put anything on it to sear.

A quick side dish I quite enjoy is called the "hobo pack." You cut up zucchini and squash into slices, salt and pepper, and then put in aluminum foil and grill for about 30 minutes. Delicious!

If doing burgers, it is best to think thick. They lose some girth when they cook and you don't want to end up with little White Castle BS burgers.

Make good use of that cover! It keeps the inside of the grill much hotter and you'll get a furter convection this way. I grill nearly everything covered.

One common mistake is that you need a ton of charcoal: not true! You make a small pyramid and let that sucker burn. You don't need to use the whole bag with each bbq, particularly if you use the cover like you're supposed to.

Clean it!!!

Clean your charcoal barbecue after each use, once the grill has cooled down - a wire brush and warm soapy water is all that is needed - little and often is secret. Your gas barbecue can be cleaned by simply burning off the grill for 10 minutes.

Remove meat and poultry from the fridge an hour before cooking and leave covered in a cool kitchen or garage until required. This will help bring the food back to an ambient temperature, and will result in a more succulent cooked result rather than a charred, dried offering!

Prepare dressings for salads and marinades for the barbecue in advance to be one step ahead of yourself – and the changeable weather! Do as much preparation ahead of time as possible.

Tools:

It is best to skin the cat and cut into quarters before grilling.

Remove your steak 15-20 minutes form the fridge before cooking
Use bricks covered in foil to press down chicken, makes it crispy
Brine
Make your own rub and BBQ sauce
Grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream are absolutely wonderful
Tenderize your meat, don't pound it until it looks like a slice of ham
Steak should not be eaten with "steak sauce"
Don't overcook steak
After cooking steak, cover them in aluminum foil and let them rest for 10 minutes, the juices need to redistribute

Never use a fork when cooking steak, as you will pierce it and the juices will escape

Don't use the lean meat, you want some fat in it, otherwise you will have very dry burgers

Here are mine:
-Clean the grill.
-Always begin with cooking brats. They make a good snack for the cook and provided lubrication for the rest of the food to be grilled. When brats are done, drop them into a bath of beer on the side burner to simmer.

For burgers:
-Use ground chuck. I know that there is more fat but that equals flavour on the grill.

-Make a 4-5 oz. patty. Crimp an edge rim (ala a pie crust) onto one side of the patty (this prevents the patty from shrinking on the grill)

-1. Set it on the grill, crimped edge up. 2. Leave it. 3. Close the lid and come back in four minutes. Flip, repeat steps #2 & #3.

For flank steak:
Marinade in bourbon and ginger. Slice vertically. While slicing cuts like flank steak and skirt steak, it is tempting to cut on the bias. It looks nice but cutting straight up and down leaves a less chewy piece of meat.

Form your burgers so they are thicker at the edges and (slightly) thinner in the middle. (Such as 1/2 inch at the edge and 1/3 inch in the middle.) The edge will shrink, and they will be even when cooked!

Also only flip your burgers once! (Otherwise they dry out.) And don't "flatten" them with the spatula while grilling. (You'll lose the juices/flavor.)

That is excellent advice. I can't stand when my wife brings home 95% lean ground beef for burgers. Even 90%.

85% is a happy medium... enough fat for flavor and moist burgers, but not so much that flare ups are a major problem.

Four minutes/side? You sure you're not getting mixed up with a thick steak, medium rare?

Wish I could cook a burger in eight minutes.

Grind your own meat for burgers

Buy quality meat (read prime or dry aged to the tune of 25-28 days) this makes all the difference in the world. Even those of you who like things *gasp* well done. These steaks will still be tender.

Buy a grill with a real searing unit (I just ordered mine!) for a very high heat to lock in jucies



I've also been smoking a ton of stuff on the grill lately (whole turkey, pork, chicken. Going to do ribs this weekend). The key to this is the dry rub, wood chips and using indirect heat.

Make tomorrow's meal today - use the covered BBQ as an oven , then with the coals still hot, do your grilling. This also helps to avoid raising the temperature in the kitchen, since you will not be using the oven.

I really don't understand the foil-pack method for grilling fish or vegs. Why bother? Just cook it in the oven or on the cooktop.

I love grilled fish (granted, it can be sticky!) and grilled veg (directly on the grates - especially eggplant/aubergine or squash/courgettes or asparagus).

I guess I don't understand the 'searing unit' concept. Is it electric? How is it different than my method - heat the grill on high to burn off excess 'stuff', clean/scrape, then throw the meat on for a good sear, then turn the heat down for final cooking?

I guess I could also just heat up my cast iron skillet, sear the meat, then throw it on the grill.

Please explain. :confused:

Triple-wrap one to six shucked corn-on-the-cob ears in aluminum foil with an ice cube or two.

Grill at the same time as the meat, turning the package ever few minutes.

If the meat for hamburgers on the grill is not as perfect as you wish, try "fake filets": make fairly thick hamburger-ish patties and wrap with a good slice of bacon or two; toothpick to hold together.

With less than perfect ground beef, I also usually put in a couple of tablespoons of fine seasoned bread crumbs per two pounds of meat to help things cohere.

Of course, if you run out of room on the grill for that fish, try THIS variation..... ;)

(I first read about this technique in Sunset Magazine in the 1970s, although IIRC they did a whole fish, not just fillets).

Get a nice thick fish steak -- halibut, ono, 'ahi, or even salmon.

Put on cedar plank (soak the cedar plank in water first) after spraying plank with a non-stick vegetable spray.

Baste fish with soy sauce and fresh minced ginger and garlic.

Put plank-with-fish-on-it on the grill. Baste a few more times. Cook til done :)

If you had been planning to slow-smoke your pork ribs 12-18 hours using charcoal and mesquite/hickory/apple wood, but find you only have 6-10 hours, boil the rib slabs first for about 3 minutes. This will reduce the final product's tenderness somewhat, but slightly-less-tender smoked ribs are better than no smoked ribs at all.

Two words: Brick Chicken.

1) marinate boneless chicken breast

2) preheat grill

3) put brick on top of chicken while cooking (wimps (like me) will cover brick w/aluminum foil)

4) 5 - 7 minutes each side (YMMV based on grill temp)

5) Juiciest chix you ever had

If you want to smoke meats, there is no need for a smoker. A Weber Kettle style grill works just fine (and uses less charcoal).

Make a small charcoal fire on one side of the grill. Add a few chunks of soked hickory/mesquite/apple wood. Place meat (pork/beef ribs, Italian sausage, pork loin, whole chickens, chicken leg quarters, whatever) on grill everywhere but over the the fire. Put a disposable aluminum drip pan under the meat with some wine, onion skins, and garlic skins in it. Turn the meat often, add wood chips and charcoal as necessary. If you want wet-style or KC style, begin basting meat with a good barbecue sauce to which you've added corn oil (or make your own) about halfway through the cooking process. If you want "dry style" make sure your smoking temperature is low and the your drip pan never dry, and put another pan of wine/skins/water directly over the fire.

Get a digital probe thermometer. An awesome tool to not over cook chicken or pork. Just grill until you reach the proper internal temperature. ^

(Alton Brown first turned me on to these)

Bacon cooked over charcoal is incredibly good.

Do not grill naked. :eek:

Grilled fish is yummy, done in foil its steamed not grilled. It cooks very fast. Salmon is my favorite.

You only need an many briquets as it takes to make a single layer over your briquet grate. Pile and light, spread before cooking.

I like to bake potatos on the grill, put them in then add the rest of your meal later so everything finishs together. They are perfect.

I've smoked cheese in my Weber Smokey Joe using indirect heat and hickory chips. Both Cheddar and Mozarella.

Try not to use too many wood chips or mesquite blocks when grilling, some neighbors don't like smoke going in their windows. They get very upset. That whole second hand smoke thing.

My grill has a searing unit, it's an infrared unit that heats it beyond of that the regular burner of what the burners can

http://www.lynxprofessionalgrills.com/prosear.php

Makes a nice crust sealing in all the juices :cool:

A great marinade
 

This marinade is the closest I've come to the teriyaki sirloins that were popular when I was growing up (late 70's, early 80's). Some pointers:

• The recipe as-is makes a lot so you can halve the portions;
• Set some marinade aside BEFORE putting the meat in so you can dip later;and
• The longer you marinade, the better. I try for 24 hours at least.

Enjoy:

3.5 C. Pineapple Juice
1 C. Soy Sauce
1 C. Dry Sherry
1/2 C. Red Wine Vinegar
3/4 C. Sugar
2 tsp. Garlic, minced fine

Don't be afraid to grill fruit. Pineapple and peaches are just a few that we enjoy at our house.

I hope don't cover your steaks! What a waste of a good piece of meat!!

What most people don't realize is that 90-95% lean is just a bill of goods. Most of the fat in less-lean grinds will escape upon cooking anyway.