Summer is the season most of us do our grilling, and it is also the season most grills get neglected between cooks. These ten habits keep the food good and the grill in shape from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving.
1. Start clean every time
Last night’s salmon should not flavour tonight’s chicken. Turn the grill up to its highest setting (about 500 °F / 260 °C), then brush the grates while they are hot. Use a brush that does not shed wire bristles, and glance at the grate before the food goes on.
2. Keep a cool side ready
Flare-ups char food and scorch drippings onto the bars. Move the food to the cool side and close the lid until the flame settles.
3. Trim, but not too much
A little fat is flavour and moisture; a lot of fat is a flare-up. Trim the thick edge off steaks and chops and leave the marbling alone.
4. Oil the food, not the grate
A light coat of oil on the meat or vegetables prevents sticking better than oil poured on hot bars, which mostly burns off and smokes.
5. Cook by temperature, not by time
Wind, thickness, and how cold the meat started all change the cook time. A thermometer does not care. Pull chicken at 74°C (165°F), pork and beef roasts a few degrees under your target, because they keep cooking off the heat.
6. Finish thick cuts on indirect heat
Bone-in chicken, thick pork chops, and ribs get their colour over the flame and finish on the cool side of the grill with the lid down. No black crust, no raw centre.
7. Use the lid
Lid down turns a grill into an oven and keeps the heat even. Lid up is for quick, thin things and for watching flare-ups.
8. Let it rest
Five minutes for chops and steaks, ten or more for a roast, loosely covered. The juice stays in the meat instead of on the cutting board.
9. Keep raw and cooked apart
A second plate and a second set of tongs for cooked food is the simplest food-safety rule at a barbecue, and the most often skipped.
10. Two minutes of cleanup while it is still hot
After the food comes off, turn the grill up to its highest setting (about 500 °F / 260 °C), then brush the grates while they are hot. Close the lid and turn off the gas. The next cook starts on a clean grate.