BARBECUE & GRILL-ROASTING BASICS
MOST COOKS INTUITIVELY UNDERSTAND How to barbecue. You build the biggest fire possible and place the food—meat, fish, chicken, or vegetables—right over the coals. Once the food is nicely seared on both sides, it's done. Steaks, chops, and other relatively thin foods can be grilled this way because the interior will be cooked by the time the exterior is nicely browned.
But what about a thick pork roast or brisket? If grilled this way, the exterior will be charred and ashen well before the interior of such a large piece of meat has a chance to cook through. Same thing for a whole chicken or turkey. The solution is indirect cooking, with the lid down (not up, as in grilling) to trap heat and create a regulated cooking environment much like that of an oven.
While grilling calls for filling the grill with charcoal or lighting all the gas burners, indirect cooking on the grill relies on a smaller fire. The lit coals are banked on one side of the grill, or one of the gas burners is turned off. Foods cooked by indirect heat are placed over the "cool" part of the grill. Since there is no direct heat, the exterior of the food cooks slowly without flare-ups. With the lid on, the heat of the fire is trapped, and it cooks the food slowly and evenly.
Why bother with indirect cooking on the grill when you can roast in the oven? The smoky flavor we associate with ribs or pulled pork comes only from the grill. Even foods that we don't normally consider grilling—a whole turkey or side of salmon—taste better when wood flavor is added to the equation.
There are actually two kinds of indirect cooking that are possible on a covered grill. Barbecuing is the traditional low-and slow-cooking method used with ribs, pulled pork (shredded Boston butt), and brisket. Because the goal is to impart as much smoke flavor as possible, a long cooking time over a relatively low fire is required. Barbecuing also provides ample time for fatty, tough cuts to become more lean and tender.
Although there is much debate among barbecue experts as to the proper cooking temperature, we found in our testing that barbecuing should take place between 250 and 300 degrees. While some chefs and pit masters might argue that ribs are best barbecued at 180 degrees, we found it very difficult to maintain such a low fire. Also, such low temperatures allow bacteria to multiply and increase the risk of food-borne illnesses.
Once the sustained (or average) temperature during the cooking period exceeds 300 degrees, we believe (and most experts concur) that the process becomes grill-roasting, the other method of indirect cooking. The grill setup is the same, there's just more heat.
Grill-roasting is best for foods that are already tender and that don't require low and slow cooking. Birds are especially well suited to grill-roasting (at lower temperatures the skin remains soft and flabby), as are tender cuts of meat (like beef tenderloin) that need to develop a crisp crust during their relatively short cooking time. Grill-roasting occurs between 300 and 400 degrees. (It's hard to sustain much higher temperatures by indirect cooking; for comparison, true grilling occurs at temperatures in excess of 500 degrees.)
Salmon might seem to be an ideal candidate for grill-roasting. Clearly, this fish does not need the long cooking time provided by barbecuing to render fat and become tender. But we found that grill-roasted salmon cooks so quickly that the fish doesn't pick up enough smoke flavor. Thus, we prefer the lower cooking temperature of barbecuing to lengthen the cooking time.
SMOKE
One of the best reasons to barbecue or grill-roast is to flavor foods with smoke. Charcoal itself has some flavor (gas adds none), but the real smoky flavor of good ribs or brisket comes from wood chunks or chips. Chips will work on either a charcoal or gas grill (see the following pages for details), but chunks are suited to charcoal fires only, since they must rest in a pile of lit coals to work. (If placed on the bottom of a gas grill they will not get hot enough to smoke.)
Hickory is the most traditional wood used for outdoor cooking, but there are other choices. In our tests, we found that any hardwood chunks or chips can be used. Frankly, the differences in flavor are minimal, especially if the food has been coated with spices. The difference between hickory and mesquite, for instance, is hard to taste on spice-rubbed ribs but will be more perceptible on a chicken that has been rubbed with butter, salt, and pepper and nothing else. We have noted traditional pairings (such as ribs and hickory or salmon and alder) throughout the book, but feel free to use whatever wood is available.
CHARCOAL VERSUS GAS GRILLS
Our preference when grilling is to use charcoal. We like the way it heats up and the flavor that food absorbs from hardwood charcoal (our favorite fuel for most recipes). However, when doing indirect cooking—barbecuing or grill-roasting—many of the advantages that charcoal grills have over gas grills disappear.
Hardwood charcoal, also called natural or lump charcoal, tends to burn too quickly. It's too hot to be practical when cooking by indirect heat. We like the intense fire this charcoal makes when searing steaks, but when using it to barbecue brisket, you have to open the grill and add charcoal much more often than you'd like. Also, because the fire can run hotter at the outset, there is a greater risk of burning the edges of large foods (such as turkeys and ribs) that may be close to the coals. For indirect cooking, we prefer to use regular charcoal briquettes, which burn cooler and more slowly.
Briquettes don't have as much flavor as hardwood charcoal, but they do give foods a more smoky flavor than a gas grill. Whether grilling over briquettes or gas, wood chunks or chips must do the real flavoring work. In our testing, we consistently found that foods cooked over charcoal had a smokier flavor than those cooked over gas. That's because a charcoal fire does a better job of getting the wood (which is sitting right in the fire) to smolder and smoke.
Although we eventually devised a method for maximizing the smoke from chips used in a gas grill the smoke flavor is not as strong as it is in foods cooked over charcoal. If you like really smoky foods and are using a gas grill, you might consider using more chips at the outset when grill-roasting or adding more chips to the foil tray partway through the cooking time when barbecuing.
Intense smoky flavor aside, gas grills do have some advantages over charcoal when cooking by indirect heat. It's easier to regulate the heat on a gas grill. Just turn the dial and the temperature immediately responds. Also, there is no need to add charcoal during the long cooking process, so there is less hassle and mess. Gas grills are also more convenient to use during rainy weather.
Finally, our tasters felt that foods cooked over gas were juicier than foods cooked over charcoal. The reason for this is simple. Smoke makes foods taste great but causes them to dehydrate. Since gas grilling generates less smoke, foods retain more moisture. That's why we found that brining birds and other foods that tend to dry out is especially important when cooking over charcoal. Brining adds flavor to foods that will be cooked over gas, but it has a less noticeable effect on texture.
In the end, we found that cooking with charcoal or gas produces excellent, if somewhat different, results. For your convenience, each recipe in this book has been adapted for both types of grilling.
USING A CHARCOAL GRILL FOR INDIRECT COOKING
We find that a kettle-style grill rather than a rectangular hibachi is the best choice when using charcoal. The deep bowl shape allows air to circulate, and the high lid accommodates even tall foods like a turkey. Choose the largest grill possible, preferably one with a grate that measures 22 inches across. On smaller grills, the "cool" part of the grill will be too cramped to accommodate a turkey or two slabs of ribs.
Before starting, empty the grill of any old ashes, which may block air circulation and prolong cooking times when barbecuing or grill-roasting. We find that a flue starter, or chimney starter, is the most efficient way to light charcoal. (See figures 1 through 4 for instructions on lighting the charcoal and setting up the grill for indirect cooking.) A chimney starter is foolproof, and it eliminates the need for lighter fluid, which can impart off flavors to delicate foods such as fish and vegetables.
Some experts recommend banking the coals on either side of the grill and leaving the center open for indirect cooking. They believe that having the coals on both sides of the grill promotes even heating. When we tried this method, we found that the edges of large pieces of food, such ribs, brisket, and turkey, can burn. We prefer to bank all the coals on one side of the grill, leaving half of the grill free of coals and providing a large space for foods to cook without danger of burning. Since the lid is down, the heat from the coals is distributed just as well as with two piles of charcoal.