I recently attended a cookout where the hostess was having a little bit of trouble with the grill.
“You’re a man,” she said. “Fix it.”
Well, yes, I am a man. I also happen to be a borderline pyromaniac and an avid carnivore, so yes, I was able to start a nice little fire and have burgers and dogs cooking faster than you can say “George Foreman.”
But man or woman, vegetarian or carnivore, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t be able to enjoy the age-old miracle that we call fire.
Of course, modern technology, namely propane, has made grilling with charcoal seem kind of old-fashioned, but the fact is that charcoal grills are way cheaper, the food tastes better and it isn’t that hard to do with a little practice and these helpful hints.
Use hardwood charcoal. This may be more of a personal preference, but I think it’s worth mentioning. Which would you rather have flavoring your food though — pieces of real wood or a bunch of dust that’s been mixed with petroleum products and molded into artificial-looking “briquettes?”
Be sure to use enough. The secret to most grilling, or any other cooking for that matter, is lots of heat. Figure out how big a cooking surface you need (in most cases that means the whole area of the grill), and then pour out enough charcoal to cover that area in a two-to-three-inch layer.
Start with a mound. You have to let the charcoal burn for a bit before you can cook with it. A nice tall pile will help the charcoal burn evenly without wasting any heat.
Let it burn. You want red-hot coals with white ash on the outside. Don’t even think about trying to grill if any of the charcoal is still black.
Go topless. Simple grilling takes a lot of heat, and although it may seem counterintuitive, the grill gets hotter if you leave the lid off. The reason: oxygen. The lid may trap heat in, but it also keeps oxygen out. Leaving the lid off lets your charcoal breathe and allows it to burn faster and hotter.
Buy a chimney starter. This $15 gadget takes most of the guesswork out of the hardest part of charcoal grilling: getting the fire started. Just dump the charcoal in the top, put a sheet of newspaper in the bottom, light it up, let it burn and dump it into the grill. It may cost a little more than a bottle of lighter fluid, but after you use it a couple of times, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.
Now that you know how to start a fire, the next question is what to grill. Aside from the obvious choices of burgers, dogs, steaks and chops, any fish that isn’t too flaky (like swordfish, bluefish and tuna) will work. So will any vegetable that’s not too small to fall through the grates. Some of my favorites include asparagus, corn, yellow squash, zucchini and potatoes.
No matter what you grill, the steps will generally be the same:
Cut it up and precook it if necessary. I usually slice zucchini and squash lengthwise into 1/8-to-1/4-inch strips. I boil potatoes and thicker asparagus stalks before I grill them. For the potatoes, I generally slice them into 1/2-inch rounds and boil them until they fall off a fork without sticking to it. For asparagus, I basically drop them in boiling water and take them out when they turn green.
Toss the pieces with oil and seasoning. I use a large mixing bowl and aim for a light coating of oil (as if I were putting dressing on a salad) and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Add sturdier herbs (like rosemary, sage and thyme) and any spices at this point if you so desire (see previous columns for ideas and suggestions).
Arrange them on the grill. If you’re grilling a lot of stuff, start at the top corner and work from left to right, row by row until you reach the bottom. Leave at least 1/2 inch of space between each piece. By the time you have everything arranged, it’s probably time to go back and flip each piece, working in the same order that you laid it down. When you’ve flipped everything, you can go back to the beginning and start taking them off in the same order.
Add any other flavorings. Sometimes you’ll want a squeeze of lemon or a dash of vinegar to bring it together. You can also add any more delicate herbs like parsley, cilantro or basil at this point.
Meat is much trickier to cook, and I don’t have any real insight other than to trust your instincts, and when in doubt, cut it open and take a look. If it’s not done the way you like it, keep grilling.
There’s no way to become a grill master without practicing, but it looks like this weather will give you plenty of chances if you’re so inclined. So go play with fire — you know you want to.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
