Summer is well underway now and if you haven’t dusted off your outdoor grill yet, you are missing out on a very flavourful lifestyle.
In honour of the kings and queens of the backyard barbecue, the ones that struggle with it, and everyone in between, I give you my Top 10 Barbecuing Tips.
• Charcoal – This is my number one tip. Cooking with this natural fuel of carbonized wood adds such a depth of flavour to everything from burgers to desserts. I am not talking manufactured square-shaped “briquettes” here; I am talking about lump charcoal: chunks of wood that have been heated with very little to no oxygen, so they naturally carbonize.
• Internal meat thermometer – Use one. This is the only way to accurately prevent overcooking or undercooking any piece of meat.
• Sauces are not marinades. If you slather on BBQ sauce before your meat is cooked, the high sugar content in these sauces will burn. Sauces are meant to be glazes at the end of the cooking process. When your food is about a minute or two from being done, spread some sauce on, close the lid, and let it glaze onto your food.
• Never clean your grill – Now when I say “grill” I am talking about your cooking grate/grid. The worst thing you can do is take your grid to the sink and scrub it down with soapy water. All you need to do is take a grill brush to it when it is hot after the preheating of your grill to knock off any food residue from your previous grilling escapade. This will help to keep your grid seasoned and non-stick.
• Always preheat - Ensuring your grill is extremely hot will not only burn off any residual food bits from your last cookout, it will also guarantee crust formation (and grill lines) on your food.
• Oil the meat - Oiling the meat in advance will not only help to enhance the crusting process (and the resulting increase in flavour), it will also assist in creating a non-stick environment. I always oil the meat before seasoning with salt and pepper just prior to going onto a hot preheated grill. If you are fully coating with a dry rub however, oiling won’t be necessary and the dry rub will help prevent sticking.
• Oil the grates/grids – This tip is more for delicate pieces of meat or fish. In combination of oiling the meat, this will also help in flavor creation and ease of release. This should be done with an oil that has a high smoke point. This is not an application for your extra virgin olive oil. Grapeseed oil would be perfect, but a canola or vegetable oil will work fine. Oiling the grates/grids however should be done once they have been preheated.
• Leave it alone – Once the meat has been placed on the grill, the worst thing you could do is to prematurely break that contact of meat with grill. Even with following the above rules religiously, the meat will stick … at first. Leaving it alone allows it to create a crust (grill marks) and thus helping to release it from the cooking surface.
Have fun and enjoy the outdoors.
Chef Dez is a chef, writer and host. Visit him at www.chefdez.com