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So i never had anyone teach my how to grill or BBQ food, no one ever wanted me to. Summer is coming and well i want to learn to do it better.
My family tends to be the type that when BBQ comes up, its froze burgers and hotdogs, and their idea of "Done" is both being completely black and charred on the outside(I do like hotdogs like that sometimes though lol.
So, I looked on advice on grilling online and while it came up its all just fluff and stuff like that. So I thought i would talk to people with experience on the subject, and since Dakka is full of old men, I figured....why not?
If i want to get good and doing steak, burgers, hot dogs sausages and other stuff, where do I start?

Youtube. Barbecue Pit Boys.

You’re welcome

Gas? traditional? I don't do gas.

Try to avoid cooking on flames, get a BBQ with a lid so you can keep the heat all around the food.

Look into sauces and spices with lots of flavour.

My own experiences cooking on coals

1) First if the BBQ is very shallow or just a tray make sure you get "instant/quick" lighting BBQ coal. It comes in a large back and then inside that are smaller "one session bags" that you just pop in the tray and light the corner of the bag and away it goes. The very shallow trays need this otherwise you can build a fire up normally with regular coals but it can take forever get them going because they can't "breath" in oxygen so easily.

Deeper setups with air vents underneath and a grill you can pick either (instant lighting is often nice though to get things going).

Once the coals are white you're ready to go.

2) Defrost in the microwave before putting on the BBQ. Otherwise you're just creating a massive headache for yourself.

3) SLOW. I will repeat that word again SLOW - that's how (at least I) cook meats on a BBQ.
Those people who throw the meat down on the hottest point tend to end up eating charcoal (or worse charcoal outside with a nice pink uncooked middle).

Instead place the food on gently around the hottest area but not on it. You basically start from the outside and gradually work your way in so that the food is getting cooked but not seared and charred. Balancing it to your level of attentiveness.

4) Turn it. I'm always turning things. Burgers and sausages get turned and flipped regularly. This helps you even out the cooking rather than things sitting on grills and getting a black charred line where they touch the metal. It also means that you're able to react to shifts in the heat. Meat not even getting a bit of colour, move it closer to the heat; meat getting black in a few moments; move it away a bit.

5) Sometimes some bits will get done quicker, moving them to the outer area to finish off with a cooler seeping of heat and swapping them for something on the cooler edge of the heat works great.

6) Don't be afraid to adjust the coals (separate long metal tool to nudge them around). If your'e getting way too much head spread them out - not enough bunch them up.

7) I tend to have a plate nearby to place what I think is cooked onto it and then just stab it with a knife and open it up to have a look. A small hole into the middle of a sausage or burger then prise it open a bit and you can see if its done.

8) Burgers can drip a lot of fat (so can sausages). This can ignite and suddenly you could be dealing with lots of flame. Some pepole might like a bit of charred flame - but that comes at the END not the start. However the meat will drip its fat at the start. This varies a lot meat to meat and also if your fire was well into the ash grey white when cooking or if its still got some black showing.
If you get fires and flame problems then move burgers and offending items out from the hottest areas. A water squirter can be good to just give the coals (not meat) a quick spray to ease any flames to get things under control.


9) don't be afraid to bring a pan over. You can put a pan on a BBQ no problems, its just heat. Cook up some bacon, or some chopped mushrooms in butter etc... Though we tend to cheat and cook the onion (in lots of butter) in the microwave.

Overall my approach is to take your time and cook the meat well. There is no reason it shouldn't look as good as out of the oven.


Note I hate cooking things like chicken legs etc... as the ycan take forever. That said with chicken you do often get a safety net - the skin will burn (and can); but the meat underneath is at least protected. That said thicker meats will take longer so get them cooking sooner. If you're pressed for time cooking things like chicken legs in the oven for a bit an then finishing off on the BBQ is perfectly fine.

First off, are you talking gas or charcoal, quite a different prospect.

Couple of things which apply to both; one, make sure your meat is warm; get it out of the fridge an hour or so before you want to cook. And for god’s sake, defrost frozen meat thoroughly before cooking it. Second is you actually don’t really want flames. A little flare is fine, but if you leave meat sitting in flames it will get sooty and/or charred. Just a caress is all you need to get that “flame grilled” taste.

I’d also say, it’s not all about the meat. Blanche some corn cobs in boiling water and chuck ‘em on the grill to finish off. Skewer in some bell peppers and onions to add flavour. If you’re using charcoal, wrap some fish in foil with a little butter and herbs and chuck it in the embers for a few minutes. There’s a lot of stuff you can do to add variety and make it a real feast.

I prefer to grill on gas. You loose some of the flavor of wood/charcoal, but it’s more regular and friendly.

Learn where the hot spots are on the grill. If you are using coals, you can adjust them to even things out or create hot spots.

It’s important because things like chicken breasts are not uniform. You don’t want the thin end burning while the thick end is raw.

NEVER cut into the meat to test for doneness. Knife goes in, juice and flavor goes out the hole. Learn to tell doneness by how firm it is. There is a trick where you feel the meat of your thumb while touching your fingers. Depending on the finger, it gives you a rough gauge of how firm the meat you are grilling should be.

Rest the meat after taking it off the heat. You need time for the juices to redistibute. Cut it hot off the flame, again, everything ends up on the cutting board, not in your belly.

Your real friends are the ones who stand by you in the blazing heat while you work the grill. Reward them with the choice cuts. This is the way.

To pick up on Overread’s excellent summary, point 6) I actually have two sets of BBQ tools; a decent set for the food and a cheap set for manipulating the coals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The meat will keep cooking a bit whilst resting too, helps take care of any last under-done spots.

My experience deals almost exclusively with burgers, so a few points on those (adding on to what Overread said)

-Buying ground beef and making the patties yourself will allow you to mix in seasonings (I have found a mix of bbq sauce, worcestershire sauce, and cholula sauce works wonders).

-Creating an indent in the center of the patty (thinner in the middle and thicker around the edge) will help the end result as the meat 'contracts' towards the center during cooking.

-Start the bbq on high heat when you first put the burgers on then turn it down to low after a few minutes, let the drippings cause flame bursts. This will char the outmost skin of the patty which helps keep the juices in but allow for slower cooking of the middle.

-As tempting as it may be, avoid putting pressure on the burger to press out juices as that is the exact opposite you want. Unless someone wants more of a dry/low calorie burger in which case you get to enjoy making a fireball.

-Your cheek is rare, your chin is medium, the tip of your nose is well done. You can use the corner of a spatula to lightly press the patty to determine its texture without squeezing out juice.

In terms of gas vs charcoal, if you go gas you might as well be cooking inside. It adds nothing to the food from the grilling experience. Charcoal adds a flavor to grilling that you don't get anywhere else. To the point that they TRY to emulate it with things like liquid smoke. Wood or coal both add unique flavors.

So personally, don't go gas.

The rest of what others are saying is good advice. Also, don't be afraid to throw other things on the grill. Get some aluminum foil and fill it with broccoli or corn and butter and let that gak cook for a little bit on there. Mwah! Perfection.

One thing I forgot to mention for coal - it burns down. As you cook ever moment its burning away and losing mass and thus eventually it goes out. If you're always turning food and keeping an eye on it you'll start to see this as you will steadily be able to cook more and more over the core heat.

Keep in mind how many people you're feeding and how far along you are because if you want to add more coal you've got to add it before you need it. Add it to one side so that you've the other side to keep cooking with.

And don't expect to get it perfect. Chances are you'll either cook too little or too much - whilst it sounds wasteful a little too much the first times isn't too bad. Besides cold burger and sausage in the morning is always nice. Same for bacon, chicken and most of the meats. Provided you store them properly in the fridge at the end of the night they'll be fine to eat cold in the morning.

I like it when the meat drips and flares. Gives you that smoky flavour and helps keep the heat up. I like to start a wood teepee type fire in my BBQ first using waste wood from wherever. Then once that's going I chuck one of those instant lighting charcoal bags on top. That way the bag burns evenly and quickly rather than if you just light a corner. I also like the woodsmoke flavour.

If doing charcoal, stay away from lighter fluid or the instant charcoal. Get a $15 chimney starter. The coal goes in the top and newspaper in the bottom. The charcoal is ready when the coals are covered in ash.

Regardless of coal or gas, learn to use 2 zone cooking. On a gas grill leave one bank of burners off. In a charcoal grill, pile the coals on one side of the grill. Get an instant read digital thermometer, also.

You should check out amazingribs.com. I also recommend Steven Raichlen on PBS.

Easy beginner bbq trick is skewered meat + vegetables. Uniformly cut cubes of the meat give you a smaller problem to figure out how long to cook and how hot, and you can put (for example)
2 green peppers
couple cubed up cheap steaks of beef or breast of chicken (make them about 4 cm by 4cm sort of thing)
onion (or two) cut into similar sized slices (cut it into maybe fourths and then separate out the layers
couple ear of corn, cut into chunks about 4 cm long lengthwise.
larger cherry tomatoes or larger tomatoes cut down into similar size.

All you got to do now is put a veg, a meat, a veg, until each skewer is full, and put them on the grill. Your problem with evenly cooking one big piece of meat becomes many little problems -- but as each skewer reaches your ideal state of done-ness, you pull that skewer off and put int on the cooling plate. This is a good beginner tactic cause you never find yourself with a big steak cooked at one end and raw at the other and no easy way to fix it without finding JUST the right combination of hot and cold cooking areas.

Its also a pretty well balanced meal for a carnivore cookout with enough vegies in it (served over rice, perhaps splashed with a bit of soy sauce or such, beside a nice summer beer with lemon or lime juice in it, and you are eating in style.

Once you master this one -- then you easily go after bigger meat items and just fill the skewers with the vegetables. If you really feel like it, you could chop up sausages and put them in the skewers instead, I ain't judging!, point is,

1) ground meats represent a greater health and safety threat from trace bacterial contamination being mixed across greatly enhanced surface area. Thus hamburger or some kind of fresh sausage needs to cook more well done into the center for safety.
2)solid meats (like a steak) are much less likely to have that particular issue, so chop them up right before use, and you can cook only the outside, eating the inside rarer than hamburger in safety.
and
3) in my own experience really big cuts of meat become more of a problem in getting heat to the whole piece of meat (especially for a beginner) without crisping the outside to blackness.

So I am recommending cutting up a solid meat, skewering it, and then cooking it like that. Ork-en-man was right, when you are new to this, you will tend to over or undercook, but if you are using fresh and higher quality steak, the undercooked meat gets called "more rare" rather than "dangerous hamburger" ... while anything really overcooked is going to become black ash tasting why did I do this at all...

Also, now I want meat for dinner!

 Lance845 wrote:
In terms of gas vs charcoal, if you go gas you might as well be cooking inside. It adds nothing to the food from the grilling experience. Charcoal adds a flavor to grilling that you don't get anywhere else. To the point that they TRY to emulate it with things like liquid smoke. Wood or coal both add unique flavors.

So personally, don't go gas.

The rest of what others are saying is good advice. Also, don't be afraid to throw other things on the grill. Get some aluminum foil and fill it with broccoli or corn and butter and let that gak cook for a little bit on there. Mwah! Perfection.

This is false. Like, 100% false. Cooking over an open flame vs in a pan is far different. Further, your grill should accumulate added flavor from the cooking over time. If you aren't getting anything added from the grilling experience from gas, you are probably doing something wrong. Charcoal certainly does add more unique flavor to something, but to say there is no difference is incredibly misleading. Don't do that to a person, especially if they are learning how to grill for the first time. Both of the methods have their uses.

The big difference between Gas and Charcoal is the speed at which you cook. I love having a gas grill because I can pop outside, cook a burger or two real quick and be done. Amazing for grilling in the winter when I don't want to be outside messing with coals for extended periods of time. If you want to get specific tastes out of things, charcoal and wood are definitely the way to go. That is where you are going to get your really smokey flavors.

One of the absolute best grilling tools you can possibly get is a good instant read thermometer. Something from Thermoworks or the like. Take out the guesswork and cook to temperature, no more of that "cook until the juices run clear" or other similar rules that aren't truly accurate.

And if you don't already have a grill, then a Weber kettle will do just about anything you need it to do.

Hey, I stand by my cheek-chin-nose measurement!

Also gas grills. I have cooked in a pan, on gas, and on charcoal; none of them are the same.

Another thing I've found: burgers, because they have a good surface-to-volume ratio (ie, they're flat and thin) are good to figure out the hot spots on your barbeque, since unlike thicker, denser stuff like steak, they can be bbq-ed fairly hot without getting the burnt-outside-raw-inside thing.

Also, don't forget your roast potatoes if using charcoal! It's basically as simple as wrapping a potato in tinfoil and putting it directly on the coals to roast. Add garlic butter/cream cheese/whatever afterwards to taste.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
So i never had anyone teach my how to grill or BBQ food, no one ever wanted me to. Summer is coming and well i want to learn to do it better.
My family tends to be the type that when BBQ comes up, its froze burgers and hotdogs, and their idea of "Done" is both being completely black and charred on the outside(I do like hotdogs like that sometimes though lol.
So, I looked on advice on grilling online and while it came up its all just fluff and stuff like that. So I thought i would talk to people with experience on the subject, and since Dakka is full of old men, I figured....why not?
If i want to get good and doing steak, burgers, hot dogs sausages and other stuff, where do I start?

Just a note, grilling and barbequing are related, but separate. Grilling burger, steaks, fajitas, vegatables, etc. is its own art.

I maintain the best grilling is still with coals, but I remember when the best grilling was done with a stick so I am a bit of a traditionalist.

Barbequing involves taking brisket, roast or similar, and slow smoking for hours. Dad would soak hickory wood for 24 hours in water, bank the coals on two sides, and some of the wood on the other sides, then place a drip pan in the center. He would put the brisket over the pan, and slow roast it for about 12 hours. In texas we generally put fdry rubs on the meat first.

that sort of stuff isn't really the done thing over here. British barbeques tend to be snap decisions on sunny days, and consist of sausages, burgers and chicken legs stuck on a grill over some coal, an excuse to get drunk in the garden, and one of the rare occasions where the dad/husband cooks the meal. I regret not being able to spend longer at the LA rams tailgates when I was in California. some of the BBQs there looked amazing.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
that sort of stuff isn't really the done thing over here. British barbeques tend to be snap decisions on sunny days, and consist of sausages, burgers and chicken legs stuck on a grill over some coal, an excuse to get drunk in the garden, and one of the rare occasions where the dad/husband cooks the meal. I regret not being able to spend longer at the LA rams tailgates when I was in California. some of the BBQs there looked amazing.

Oh yea. Thats exactly it.

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
In terms of gas vs charcoal, if you go gas you might as well be cooking inside. It adds nothing to the food from the grilling experience. Charcoal adds a flavor to grilling that you don't get anywhere else. To the point that they TRY to emulate it with things like liquid smoke. Wood or coal both add unique flavors.

So personally, don't go gas.

The rest of what others are saying is good advice. Also, don't be afraid to throw other things on the grill. Get some aluminum foil and fill it with broccoli or corn and butter and let that gak cook for a little bit on there. Mwah! Perfection.

This is false. Like, 100% false. Cooking over an open flame vs in a pan is far different. Further, your grill should accumulate added flavor from the cooking over time. If you aren't getting anything added from the grilling experience from gas, you are probably doing something wrong. Charcoal certainly does add more unique flavor to something, but to say there is no difference is incredibly misleading. Don't do that to a person, especially if they are learning how to grill for the first time. Both of the methods have their uses.

The big difference between Gas and Charcoal is the speed at which you cook. I love having a gas grill because I can pop outside, cook a burger or two real quick and be done. Amazing for grilling in the winter when I don't want to be outside messing with coals for extended periods of time. If you want to get specific tastes out of things, charcoal and wood are definitely the way to go. That is where you are going to get your really smokey flavors.

Sorry I agree Lance. If you're not burning charcoal you might as well be inside. Nothing wrong with it, but it's true, you'll set your smoke alarm off if you do it inside you see. The flavor from a char grill and smoking the meat with a lid is unmatched and generally what you want if you're after the flavor associated with barbecue. Nothing wrong with gas though.

I've just read both your posts again it actually looks like you're pretty much agreeing with eachother. He's saying gas vs. charcoal not flame vs. pan.

Grilling over gas is still better then a pan indoors. Not as good as wood/coals, but better the a skillet, or even a grill pan. It’s a compromise. If you can get the same results inside the average home kitchen then you can using a gas grill, you are a better man than I.

There is bit of nomenclature issues at work. Grilling (generally hot and fast) vs. BBQ (classically low and slow) The terms are often used interchangeably by some people (even within America), but for some there is an iron clad distinction.

Some break it down even farther. I.E. It’s not BBQ unless it’s a brisket. Or ribs. Lots of regional pride and honor at stake.

Oh absolutely, but Lance never mentioned anything about a pan. He simply said you can grill with gas indoors, you can't grill with charcoal indoors. Which is a correct statement. If that's what you were referring to.

BBQ culture in US is crazy and experimental, love it. Aussies can do a decent barbie as well.

 The Regulator wrote:
Oh absolutely, but Lance never mentioned anything about a pan. He simply said you can grill with gas indoors, you can't grill with charcoal indoors. Which is a correct statement. If that's what you were referring to.

BBQ culture in US is crazy and experimental, love it. Aussies can do a decent barbie as well.

No, I am hard disagreeing with him. Telling somebody that there is only one way to do something is absurd at best.

If I am cooking inside, I am not cooking in a grill. I am not getting the flavor that has built up in the grill. You can "grill" inside over gas, but the experience is not the same at all because there is nothing for the flavor to build up on. Think of it like a cast iron skillet.

Crikey alright think I'll just stick to the George Foreman myself.

BBQ comse from the amerindian / carribean indian device the barbacoa, which was a raised slow cooker / smoker made out of wood. Probably much like every other culture in ancient times, when you cooked a big animal that way, you invited the village cause one person would have great trouble in the tropics keeping a lot of meat fresh. So it was likely also pretty social. Nerdnote? People also used barbacoa as sleeping platforms, maybe a bit like a hammock in the modern sense. In some rather rainy areas its just good to be not on the ground at night.

The social aspect of a communal meal over a cookout is one way the word gets used, the technical and very demanding new world arts of slow smoking or slow roasting meat in a variety of sauces is the other way it gets used. So you can have a cookout with BBQ grilling, or a BBQ with cookout grilling, and as long as you bring adequate beer for the purists to consume while arguing, you probably will get considered as having thrown a good shindig.

But here is where the equipment matters. Barbaque grills are special grills that can be almost entirely closed up so that the fuel in them is unable to process into flames because of lack of air. Simply put, the art of slow cooking in a grill requires a lot less heat than fast cooking on a grill top. Small holes exist in bbq grills to allow a tiny airflow, can be opened a tiny bit or a bit more, regulating precisely a temperature range that slow cooks but does not burn. Tricks like soaking the meat beforehand make the outside layers less likely to dessicate and become jerky over the time span of a 'que. Because of this, a more traditional grill where you just put a bunch of coals down and slam a sausage packet onto the wires, is going to get hotter and faster cook than BBQ, with its (often) days of marination and hours and hours of gradual cooking over very banked flames. There ain't nothing in the rulebook that says you can't whip out a cast iron skillet, put that on the grill, stoke your coals, and sear both sides of a thick fresh tuna steak on it, and then drizzle it with, I dunno, some fruit sauce reduction and balsamic vinegar before wandering back in to the movie and beer. Or, have a fruity beer, pour some in the skillet, and sizzle your burgers in it. Really, I doubt the carribean indians of the 15th century will ever come back to life and nitpick that you didn't do your meal the way they did -- and I bet if they had access to onions, green peppers, and tomatos, they would have grilled the holy trinity of cookout vegetables alongslde their meat as well.

My method of determining how well a steak is done is to compare the feel of the steak to what the base of your thumb feels like when its touching different fingers on the same hand.

Thumb not touching any of your fingers = raw

Thumb touching first finger = Rare

Thumb touching middle finger = medium Rare

Thumb touching ring finger = medium well

Thumb touching pinky finger = well done

We usually do whole Tri-tips. 400 degrees on the grill. 6-8 minutes per side. Then you can move it to the side not directly above the heat for another 5ish minutes. Remove from heat and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing.