Archive for June, 2009

The Basics Of Grilling

Let us take a quick look at some of the basics of grilling that any person hoping to become a grill master should be acquainted with. We will discuss each one of these in detail in forthcoming sections but for now, would like to give a brief overview of why knowing each one of these is so important in mastering the art of grilling.

1. Know the Equipment – You may think that buying grilling equipment would be a simple enough decision. However, when you walk into a store, you will find that there is an amazing variety of grills in the market today to suit the need of every person. From small grills designed for apartments to big covered cookers that can cater to large groups, year long, you can find every type of grill in the store. You will therefore need to understand your requirements thoroughly before you step into the store so that you can buy a grill that is right for you and your grilling needs.

2. Know the Techniques – Most recipes will tell you which ingredients to use and how best to use them to make a great meal. Not many will tell you how to get them right on a grill. To grill anything just right, you need to get the combination of time, temperature and taste right too. You need to know the right way of starting a fire, regulating it well and then grilling food to just the right extent. Grilling is not the only technique; many prefer barbecuing or even smoking to bring out the real taste of meat.

3. Know the Ingredients and Flavors – Recipes can tell you in what measures you use different ingredients and what courses go well together. Some try to educate you on why a certain combination works well and which ingredients add a special flavor to your meal. Only when you know and understand the role that each ingredient plays, the special flavors that each one brings and how they all work together to create a unique dish, will you be able to work magic with your grilling.
Of course, as you keep working on your grilling techniques and learn new tips and techniques, you will get better at it and more confident of your own skills. In the last section of this ebook, we provide 101 tips to help you with your grilling and outdoor cooking.

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Lighting a Gas Grill

Here are the basic steps for lighting a gas grill:

1. Even while working with gas grills, make sure that the grill is in an open, well-ventilated place. It is dangerous to attempt grilling in places like garages or sheds. Make sure that the grill is kept away from the house and also that there are no low hanging tree branches nearby.
2. Since gas grills work on gas, you have to have a full tank before every meal. This will save you considerable embarrassment and some last minute running around, in case you run out of gas just when you are in the middle of your party and have a half-cooked steak on the grill.
3. With gas grills, it is important to check that there are no gas leaks. The best way to check this is to light the grill and then turn the knob all the way to high to see how high the flame reaches. If the flame reaches a good height, you can be fairly certain that the main parts of the gas grill Ð the gas tank, the regulators as well as the grill fittings are in good working order. On the other hand, a low flame usually means less gas in the tank or a leakage.  If you notice a low flame, then refer to the manual that came with the equipment. It should give some simple instructions for you to follow, like tightening the fittings to fix the leak.
4. Starting the fire in a gas grill is fairly simple Ð just turn on a switch or turn a dial and the flame is turned on. Some older models may require you to turn the gas on first and then start a fire by lighting a match or by using a lighter. Either way, it is a lot easier to start a fire in a gas grill than in a charcoal one.
5. Once the fire is started, it is recommended that the flame be turned to high and the grill covered. This is known as preheating and allows better and more even cooking of the food.
6. To make things even more convenient, some modern grills come with built-in temperature gauges that indicate when the grill is ready for cooking. Even if your grill does not have a temperature gauge, lighting a fire and leaving your grill covered for about ten minutes should get it ready for cooking.

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Kinds of Grilling Equipment

To know which equipment best fits your needs; let us take a quick overview of the different kinds of equipment in the market today and what requirements they best satisfy.

• If you are just an occasional griller and have a very select group of people to cater to, chances are you will also be cooking smaller portions and smaller cuts of meat. Small picnic grills or hibachis, which are small, fairly portable charcoal grills, may be ideal for you. 

• If you intend to host a larger group of people and have year-round grilling, with a preference for larger cuts of meat, then you may be better off going in for a large covered grill.

There are two types of covered grills – the covered charcoal cookers and the gas grills. 

(a) Covered Charcoal Cookers: These cookers have now become a very familiar sight in almost every household. Portable and extremely versatile, these covered cookers are perfect for both city balconies as well as in country porches. These kettle-shaped cookers allow you to cook your food the way you want it, in practically any season of the year. You can just as easily smoke, steam, roast or even cook entire meals using these cookers. The temperature of the grill can be regulated through controls present on the lid as well as in the base. You can also regulate the heat by closing or opening the lid.  When the grill is kept covered, the inner sides of the cooker reflect the heat evenly. This not only helps cook the food evenly, it also helps in keeping the food moist. When the lid is lifted off the cooker, added air circulation makes the charcoal burn more fiercely and they become hotter. 

(b) Gas Grills: Though charcoal grills were very popular and are still commonly found in many households, gas grills are fast overtaking them in popularity. With a gas grill, you can perform almost all the cooking functions that you can with a charcoal cooker but with far greater ease and convenience. Starting or regulating a fire in a charcoal cooker is never easy. Gas grills involve a very easy start, temperatures can be regulated far more accurately and food is cooked more evenly. Further, you can use gas grills almost all year round. They are also much easier to maintain and less messy to clean up.

Gas grills use a bed of ceramic coals or lava rock to get the cooking power – no charcoal is used. When meat is placed on the grills, fat from the meat will slowly drip on these ceramic coals or lava rock. The burning fat creates smoke that gives the cooked meat a smoky flavor. Many prefer a smokier flavor for their food and use hickory chips or fruitwood chips in their grills for that purpose.

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How to Use Marinades, Rubs, and Sauces

Using a combination of wine, herbs and wood to provide grilled food a smoky taste is a great way of enhancing their taste. Another aspect that plays an equally important role in giving grilled food a very distinctive taste is what kind of rubs or marinades, dipping sauces and basting liquids you use for your food. A proper selection of these will turn good grilled food into great food. In fact, grilling is a fairly easy and a great way of cooking food. What makes them so special are the distinctive and exciting tastes that they acquire because of added flavors.

• Both rubs and marinades add flavor to the food by allowing the food to soak in the flavors for some time.

Rubs are typically applied onto the food, which is then placed in the refrigerator for many hours so that the food can acquire a strong flavor. Most of the time, the rubs seal in the juice of the food and form a crust over the food, which in itself is very delicious. 

One can use dry rubs which are just combinations of various seasonings like paprika, black or white pepper and garlic powder. Depending on your taste preferences, you could add mustard powder or ground red pepper or even some brown sugar to the rub. Some of the herbs that we had mentioned earlier, like oregano, thyme, basil, can also be crushed and added to the rub to give the food a direct taste of these herbs.

Another alternative is to use paste rubs. These are essentially dry rubs that are made into a paste by adding some amount of wet ingredients. You could add olive oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, even crushed garlic to bind together the dry seasonings.

Marinades too are used for adding flavor but unlike rubs, these are used to moisten the surface of the meats. This added moisture prevents the meat from drying out while being grilled and helps it to stay nice and juicy.

Marinades are basically of two types – flavoring marinades and tenderizing marinades. As the name suggests flavoring marinades perform the function of giving an added flavor to meat, especially tender meat like fish, boneless poultry meat and even vegetables. These require marinating for a very short while – anywhere from fifteen minutes to about two hours should be sufficient. However, tenderizing marinades are used to tenderize meat. These contain special acidic ingredients that act as the tenderizing agents, like vinegar, yogurt, lime or lemon juice, tomatoes, even wines. Fruits like papaya, figs, kiwi and pineapple are other interesting tenderizing ingredients. These ingredients can be mixed with some oil, herbs and seasonings for a perfect aromatic blend of marinade. Lamb meat, beef, pork and even poultry meat with bony pieces need to be marinated for at least a few hours together, if not overnight, for the meat to become tender and to soak in the flavors.

While preparing the marinade, do not use aluminum pans or containers since they can have harmful chemical reactions with the acidic ingredients. Instead use ceramic, glass or even stainless steel pans. Another good choice to store the marinating foods is plastic, resealable food storage bags.

Whether you need to marinate the food for fifteen minutes or overnight, make sure they are turned occasionally so that the flavor spreads evenly throughout the food.

• While rubs and marinades are typically applied to foods before they are being grilled, basting is used as the food is getting grilled and dipping sauces are served as accompaniments along with the grilled food. These are excellent ways to add extra flavor to the food and give it a special zing. 

One can prepare exclusive basting or dipping sauces to go with different kinds of food. However, if you are short on time, you can just put aside some of the marinade before you add the meat and use this as a base to make a dipping sauce or basting. Another quick alternative is to use the marinade that has been drained from the meat as a basting sauce to be applied on the meat as it gets grilled. The only safety precaution be to taken here is that the meat should cook for at least five minutes after application of basting sauce prepared from the drained marinade. Similarly, while preparing dipping sauce from this marinade, bring it to a full boil and only then use it to prepare the sauce. This way any bacteria contained in the raw meat and that might have made their way into the marinade will be killed and there is no danger of contamination.


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Selecting A Grill

The most basic equipment you will need to get started is the grill. Contrary to what most people expect, selecting a grill is as not as simple as walking into a store and picking up something that the salesperson persuades you to buy. A fancy looking or pricey grill does not necessarily mean that it is the most efficient one and may end up not meeting your purpose or fitting in your space.

Before you start looking at and evaluating the various grilling equipment in the market, it is very essential that you carry out some research on your requirements first.

There is an amazing array of grilling equipment and accessories in the market today ranging from fairly cheap hibachis to thousands of dollars worth three-tiered gas grills. Instead of looking for fancy and thus pricey grilling equipment and accessories you should probably spend more time in researching what your needs and constraints are. Some of the most important considerations for you to bear in mind would be as follows:

• The very first issue you will have to examine and examine carefully is where you intend to carry out your grilling. What kind of space do you have available? If you live in the suburbs of a city, you may have access to a big lawn or even a backyard where you could carry out your grilling. In which case, you could look at some of the bigger grilling equipment. On the other hand, if you live in an apartment on the twenty-first floor of a high-rise building and the only space available to you for grilling is the two feet by two feet fire escape, then your decision has been made for you. You most certainly need to get the smallest equipment possible.

• Next, you have to realistically assess how often you intend to grill. You may be very excited at the idea of holding regular barbecue parties in your swanky new apartment but you have to consider if you will really have the time and energy to hold major parties so regularly. If you are sure you will be able to hold a special ‘Barbecue Friday’ every weekend, go ahead and invest in  fancy grilling equipment. If you believe that you will probably end up doing it only occasionally, say on the Fourth of July, then you should look for something cheaper.

• You may start with the intention of inviting all your friends and family to your special barbecue parties. However, you will eventually find that even after all the time and money spent in trying to get it perfect, the meat was undone, the vegetables over cooked and you ended up burning your favorite wicker chair. Again, be realistic about the number of people you think you can handle and whose company will make the experience memorable. If this number is really small, go in for smaller grilling equipment. If you sincerely feel that you would much rather have larger crowds than risk leaving anyone out, you should go in for larger grilling equipment.

• If you would like to invite a large group of friends to your grilling parties, then obviously you will need to be cooking larger portions of food on your grill which in turn means equipment with a large grill area. However, if your parties are small and more of the burger and hot dog kind, then standard sized grilling equipment should suffice.

• If you plan on holding frequent barbecue parties, you will be making substantial use of your grilling equipment. It then makes a lot of sense to have some additional workstations or shelves preferably on the grilling equipment. This may add to the total cost of the equipment but there is no denying the utility of having quickly accessible places that can hold various utensils, seasonings and even the meat.

• Finally, the kind of equipment you will be buying depends a lot on what your taste preferences are. Some feel very strongly about their grilled food having an authentic smoky taste, which most charcoal grilled food will have. Others feel equally strong about not having such a strong smoky smell and instead prefer the subtle flavor that gas grills provide. Though the final decision will be yours, it should be mentioned that even if you choose a gas grill, you could always provide your recipes with that smoky accent by using a combination of wood chips and herbs.

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