Ah, the smells of backyard barbeque and the sight of wafts of smoke lazily rising into the air. There is a cooling breeze in the air and you are armed with your favorite spatula. As your stomach gurgles and growls, your anticipation builds. Grilling food correctly just takes a little know-how and a lot of practice.
Organize, Organize, Organize
Before you start your grill, get all of your barbequing utensils, basting sauces and serving dishes ready and in place. The worst thing in the world is to realize that you need to flip your steaks and your tongs are still hidden away in some mystery drawer in the kitchen.
Think Green
There is an age-old argument between those who prefer gas or propane barbeques and those who prefer charcoal. One of the advantages of gas or propane grills over charcoal grills is that gas and propane definitely burn much cleaner than charcoal.
However, if charcoal is your preference because of the taste that burning charcoal adds to your food, you can still help minimize the impact of your barbeque on the environment. Use a chimney to light your barbeque rather than using lighter fluid or self-lighting charcoal. In addition to helping the environment a tad, your food will never taste or smell like lighter fluid again. You might also look for briquettes that are made without additives and chemicals.
Prep the Grill
When your coals are hot, place the grill on your barbeque and let the grill "cook" for a while. Then brush the grill down with a stiff brush. This can actually help improve your grill's air circulation. Besides, all of those nasty, burned bits of food left over on the grill may make the food that you are barbequing taste less than optimal.
After the grill is clean and hot, baste it with vegetable oil and then start barbequing.
Controlling Heat and Flare-Ups
If your barbeque is running too hot, you can use vents to turn down the heat or place the cover over the grill. Fire needs oxygen to grow and stay hot. If you reduce the amount of oxygen available, your grill will cool.
You can also sprinkle water over the coals. Be careful, though, as some ashes may rise and hit your food if you dump too much water on the coals.
What causes flare-ups? Melting fat causes these flames. Therefore, if you are cooking meats such as chicken with the skin on, move and turn the pieces every few minutes to help prevent flare-ups. If you do have a flare-up, remove the pieces over the flare and put them on a cooler part of the grill. You can use a squirt bottle of water to kill the flame.
Turn Your Barbeque into a Smoker
The key to smoking food is to cook the food slowly using indirect heat. While you may get better results cooking your food in a smoker, you can create some of the conditions of a smoker on your barbeque. You have two methods of getting smoked foods out of your barbeque.
The easy way is to prepare your coals, throw a few extra on top, and push everything to one side of the barbeque. Throw your food on the other side of the grill as far away from the heat as possible. Close the vents, put on the cover and monitor the heat. You can make the fire hotter by opening vents and cooler by closing vents.
The more complex way is to place a pan that is about half full of water on the bottom grill. The pan should be slightly larger than the meat that you are going to be cooking. Arrange charcoal around the pan in two layers. Fire it up. When the coals are ready, place your meat on the top rack over the pan and put on the grill's lid. You will probably have to add extra charcoal to the coals as they cool.
Eat Your Vegetables
Why not barbeque your vegetables? You can barbeque vegetables a couple of different ways. First, you can brush them with olive oil and grill them directly over the fire. Another option is to wrap them in foil with a little butter or olive oil and seasonings. Place them away from the heat and leave the foil open a little so that the veggies can absorb some of the barbeque flavors.
Just because you had a few pieces of burned food the last time that you barbequed, it doesn't mean that you will have the same problem today. When you come down to it, barbequing is an art that will improve every time you break out your grill.
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