The most important part of barbecuing is maintaining a consistent temperature in your apparatus. It takes quite a bit of practice and experience to understand, not only how to build your fire, but also how your personal grill treats different meats. Whether using the direct or indirect method, the other major components of the grill that will affect your timing are the fuel source, the grilling surface, the depth of the heat source and its ventilation.
Whether your grill's fuel source is charcoal driven or uses natural or propane gas, it operates pretty much the same way. Think of it as a combination of your kitchen stove and your oven…only with less control over the heat.
Whatever kind of grill you have, charcoal or gas, there should be enough room on the cooking surface to have two distinct cooking areas. Using the area directly over the heat source is referred to as the direct heat method. Think of it as your cook-top or broiler. Using the area near the heat source but not over it is referred to as the indirect heat method. Think of this like your oven, presuming that the lid is down to capture and retain the heat.
My personal preference is a charcoal heat source. (At least, that’s until it’s declared a major pollutant by the health freaks in California who only eat raw carrots and oat bran.) I guess it stems from many years ago when propane grills were convenient, but didn’t use porcelain briquettes like today, so it was like cooking over an open flame and the food always tasted slightly gas-tinged, instead of smoked.
I think grill manufacturers do a much better job today, and in taste tests, almost nobody can tell the difference between charcoal and gas cooking anymore, so if I were starting over, I might choose the convenience of natural gas.
Yes, I said natural gas…not propane. You can run a gas line to your BBQ and put a regulator on it, available at any good BBQ or hardware store. There’s nothing convenient about running out of propane half way through your Thanksgiving turkey!
Why’s the cooking surface important? You’ll know when you use it, but I prefer a cast iron surface. It’s a thicker, solid surface, which distributes the heat more evenly and is easier to clean.
Why’s the depth important? The ability to adjust the distance from heat to food gives you the most control over the heat source that you use. Coals have a burning lifespan, usually about an hour, so if you’re still grilling as that span starts to lapse, you need to either add coals or move the heat source closer to the food. Sometimes you need that if you’ve been more attentive to your guests and waited too long to put the meat on the grill…not that I’ve ever done that, of course!
Once you understand what the variables are with your cooking apparatus, like sheets on a sailboat, what they do, how they work and how they affect your outcome, you can learn to control the smoke-belching beast and the neighbors can finally take the Fire Department off of speed dial.
Quick note on tools: If you use charcoal, particularly, you’ll want all of the following (Think birthdays, Christmas and Valentine's Day... You'll find a lot of this to the right under "Stuff You Might Need")
- gloves, if you value the skin on your knuckles,
- a charcoal chimney starter
- several sets of tongs, long and medium,
- a solid single piece scraper (a 4” wide solid tape knife works much better than the one on the back of the brush),
- a long handled, heavy bristle brush for cleaning the grilling surface,
- some sort of timing device besides the clock in your head,
- a couple of good knives, a long one for carving and a short one for things with bones in them, like ribs
- a meat thermometer
- a cutting board with a blood groove, to catch the drippings.
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