How do I barbeque meat.

May 29, 2005 12:51 AM

I've been asked to don the chef's cap at a barbeque this afternoon. This is something I've never done before. Does anyone know any good resources or tips for barbequing meat so that (a) it tastes nice and (b) I don't kill everyone.

Also, I know there was a "bbq lessons" link floating round in the last month or so, but I have been unable to find it. If anyone can point me back to it, then that'd be great.

posted by seanyboy to food & drink (25 comments total)

Marinate meat for as long as you can in the refrigerator for a tender result. Marinate in some soy sauce, ginger, garlic and sherry.
posted by Chimp at 1:11 AM on May 29, 2005

Oops....forgot to mention, don't restrict yourself to meat, try marinated chicken fillets and prawns as well. Bon Appetit!
posted by Chimp at 1:22 AM on May 29, 2005

On the 'not slaying the guests' part, you could try the Food Standards Agency (UK).
posted by athenian at 1:41 AM on May 29, 2005

Hmm. I've done wonderful things with a bbq sauce of mustard, olive oil, vinegar, and sauteed onions (for meat or poulty, and if you have time you can use it as a marinade first; everyone is always crazy about this), also with honey, lemon and sesame oil (for chicken). I pretty much end uo sticking with olive oil and lemon for fish.
posted by taz at 1:41 AM on May 29, 2005

Marinate marinate marinate.

Scrape and clean the grill/plate, then oil it with vegetable oil.

If you have enough room to segregate, vegetarians like fat portobelllo mushrooms, red bell pepper and lengthwise slices of zucchini. They will not thank you for getting meat dripping on them though.

A few fried onion rings are good for everyone and help flavour the meat.

You want to sear/brown on each side of the meat on the hot grill, finish off on the medium heat, and park things to keep warm on the edges. People use the word "charred", but actual burned meat tastes extremely nasty. It helps to have a sacrificial piece of meat to help you determine where the hotspots are. Don't turn up the heat everywhere. If you have a hot, a medium and a cooler zone then you can move things around instead of shagging about with the controls every 10 seconds.

Demand beer. The barbeque gods will be displeased if no beer is spilled. Also, once everyone's had a couple of beers, they'll be hungry and less critical, which is what you want at a barbeque.

Use those bloody great 2 foot tongs. You'll get burned anyway, but they'll minimise the damage.

If the meat has to come out all at once, scope out the warming drawer in the kitchen in advance so that the cooked stuff can pile up in there.

Good prep helps guarantee success.

Lastly, cooking al fresco is no excuse for poor food hygiene. Clean plates for cooked meat, wash your hands, and no cross-contamination between raw and cooked, please.

PS: here in the Antipodes, sausages are mandatory. I guess you heathens can leave them out.

PPS: (I'm sure taz will back me up here) Lemon juice + chopped thyme and oregano + chopped garlic +olive oil is the ideal (and Hellenic) marinade for lamb chops. Put them on the grill with some herbs still sticking to them. Bonus points for rosemary sprigs. Mmmm.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:45 AM on May 29, 2005

so right, joe's_spleen (and, nice answer!)... plus this reminds that I forgot the garlic, which goes into all of my above shorthand recipes. D'oh!
posted by taz at 1:51 AM on May 29, 2005

Thank you, taz. And of course, everything grilled is improved by craploads of good olive oil.

I forgot: gas or charcoal?

If charcoal, don't use accelerants unless you're desperate, you risk tainting the meat. Likewise, resinous pine or other softwood is also nasty. You want good pre-made charcoal, or dry hardwood. Absolutely no salvaged building timber, unless you LIKE arsenic preservative impregnating your meat. Grape prunings are superb but I'm betting you're pushing shit uphill mustering grape prunings in the UK.

Anyway, you want to build up a honking great fire and then wait, wait, wait until it burns down to coals, unless stinky smoky crunchy meat is your thing. Then you have a 10-20 minute window to cook everything, before you have to repeat the performance. Woodsmoke is best for flavour, but definitely fiddly and risky for the tyro, so I hope you have gas.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:03 AM on May 29, 2005

If charcoal, don't use accelerants unless you're desperate,

I don't know if this is helpful, but my husband is in charge of fire (yes, we're a cliche, I know!), and (with charcoal briquettes) he uses cotton balls soaked in alcohol as his accelerant...
posted by taz at 2:16 AM on May 29, 2005

I was thinking of petrol (dangerous) or those stupid kerosene-impreganted "firelighters". Pure meths'd be fine from a taste POV. The cotton sounds like a good idea. Whatever you do, never, ever pour inflammable liquid onto a fire. Or like my idiot friend, carry it in a plastic cup.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:21 AM on May 29, 2005

Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong.
posted by MLIS at 2:32 AM on May 29, 2005

See also.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:49 AM on May 29, 2005

That's a great tip about frequent flipping, MLIS - makes perfect sense. Perhaps one of the unkinown functions of heavy barbeque sauce has always been to help keep those juices from evaporating when the item isn't flipped enough.

Also, the rotating is something we always do. This is just an aside, but we also end up tossing one or two things straight into the hot coals for a short time - red peppers or eggplant/aubergine, usually - to have on the side with an olive oil and lemon dressing (after peeling the charred skins).

Also we usually make an aluminum foil "dish" in which we put a thick slice of feta cheese topped with a big juicy slice of tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with pepper and oregano (you can also toss slivers of hot pepper all around - yum), and cook this on the grill until the feta begins to pleasantly melt. This is an amazingly delicious little side dish, and perhaps my all-time favorite way of serving feta.
posted by taz at 3:02 AM on May 29, 2005

On the not killing the guests: Get a meat thermometer. You should be able to find a cheap one that will tell you when to stop cooking that meat, because going by color isn't good enough for the inexperienced cook. You end up either overcooking and making the meat too dry or undercooking and possibly leaving in bacteria. Yay food poisoning!
posted by Apoch at 5:21 AM on May 29, 2005

If you have the time, hit the bookstore this morning and look at Cook's Illustrated's new Guide to Grilling and Barbecue.

Jot down cuts of meat, cooking times, the recommended charcoal/hardwood/gas organization method (they like making the grill multi-zone in terms of heat level). ABSOLUTELY pick up a decent thermometer as many people have suggested.

As for accelerants with charcoal, buying a charcoal chimney is a MUCH better solution. The problem with grilling is not getting the fire started, it's keeping control of temperature through the duration of cooking. The chimney is basically a thing shaped like a tall coffee can that you fill with coals/wood to really intensify the temperature while preheating. It ensures that the coals are evenly red-hot all the way through, so they radiate nice, even, HOT heat when you want to cook. Or something.
posted by bcwinters at 6:32 AM on May 29, 2005

Another point for not killing everyone and making tasty food - especially valid for chicken - is to pre-cook it in the oven. I put it in for 30 minutes at lowish heat (max 150C). This makes sure the centre is cooked without overfiring the meat on the grill, which keeps it juicy.
posted by sagwalla at 6:53 AM on May 29, 2005

Alton Brown has a clever trick for starting fires - a piece of newspaper lightly coated with some cooking oil. Cooking spray is perfect for this. It'll burn much longer than just paper alone.
posted by O9scar at 7:22 AM on May 29, 2005

BBQ with Bobby Flay.
posted by ericb at 8:12 AM on May 29, 2005

I learned (from Cook's Illustrated, I believe) that one can in fact overmarinate meats. If they soak too long (at least in some marinades) it breaks down the structure of the meat too much and the positive texture qualities are destroyed. So while marinating (or rubbing) is always a good thing don't assume that marinating twice is long is always a better thing.

I second the recommendation of a instant thermometer. I have a little one I bought for maybe $15. I put on a heavy grilling glove and I can easily check a few pieces of meat to make sure they've hit 160°F (a decent rule of thumb) or whatever their specific target temperature is. Actually the thermometer packaging included recommended temperatures and I stuck this to the side of the fridge for reference as I head past it.

If you have trouble with thing drying out you can try cooking in foil packs. I like to cook corn on the cob this way, first husking the corn, then wrapping the ears (in groups of two or three) in foil and filling the packs with quite a bit of water. These cook in 25 - 30 minutes and you can leave them on longer without worrying about overcooking them as quickly as you would in boiling water. Many folks like grilling them in the husks but I haven't learned the knack for this yet (my husks dry out and sometimes catch fire).

Sweet peppers and tomatoes can be brushed with olive oil (with or without other seasonings) and put directly on the grill, or you can slice them in half to cook a little faster. Very easy and very tasty, especially with farm fresh veggies. Onions are also great but you have to slice these a bit smaller so they can keep up.
posted by Songdog at 8:35 AM on May 29, 2005

The Food Network is having Grillin' and Chillin' all weekend - all programs about BBQing. They also have recipes and tips on the FoodTV website.
posted by geeky at 8:55 AM on May 29, 2005

Oh also, my personal favorite: buy balsamic vinegarette dressing (I use Newman's Own) and marinate your veggies in it (I prefer zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, and mushrooms) for an hour or two. Then just throw on the grill for a few minutes until they're warm and slightly soft, and enjoy!
posted by geeky at 9:02 AM on May 29, 2005

1- Buy good meat, you know, the kind that tastes like something, so you don't need to drown it in "marinade".

2- Get a good fire going, wait until the flames die down.

3- Put the meat on, with some rock salt.

4- Turn over once or twice, leave alone the rest of the time.

5- Enjoy.
posted by signal at 9:32 AM on May 29, 2005

It's worth noting that in many states, it's illegal to have apartment grills in multi-family wood structures these days. If the International Fire Code has been adopted in your fire jurisdiction, you might get a visit from The Man this summer while you're grilling up something. (I'm renting a single-family home starting next month because of this!)
posted by SpecialK at 1:00 PM on May 29, 2005

err apartment grills = barbecue grills
posted by SpecialK at 1:00 PM on May 29, 2005

My dad is a master griller and is one of those country southern men whose grill is a converted 55 gallon drum. Anyway, he makes the best bbq and the most important thing that I learned from him is to have patience. Slow cooking is the key.

I know my dad will be up at 6 o'clock Memorial Day morning getting all the ribs & brisket prepped and ready and he will be bbq-ing all morning til around 1pm. And by bbq-ing I mean sitting out on the back porch with a giant glass of ice water listening to BB King on the radio, checking on the meat about every hour or so.

Another thing is to keep it simple. You don't have to get fancy with your technique or your ingredients. Most meat tastes great with salt & pepper and a few other seasonings. It's the slow cooking that make it divine.

God I wish I were back home about now...
posted by SoulOnIce at 9:36 PM on May 29, 2005

If you use a thermometer on your steaks, remember that they will keep cooking for a couple minutes after they're removed from the grill - its very easy to cross the line from mediumrare to medium if you don't take this into account.
posted by jeffmik at 1:32 AM on May 30, 2005