Summer is the perfect season for grilling up some of your favorite meats and veggies. A true grilling pro utilizes tips and tricks to ensure that their food is perfectly grilled, moist and jammed packed with flavor every time they light up the grill. If you aren’t already a grilling expert, the following tips will help you to reach that level in no time!

  • Direct or indirect cooking: According to the author of Taming the Fame, Elizabeth Karmel, it is best to use direct heat if it will take the food less than 25 minutes to cook. However, if it takes more than 25 minutes, it is advisable to use indirect heat. Direct grilling is when the food is cooked directly over the heat source whether it be charcoals or a gas burner. Indirect grilling consists of removing the direct heat. For charcoal grills you would remove the charcoals or push them over to the side of the grill that you are not using. For gas grills, you would turn off the burner after it preheats and cook the food over the burner that is turned off.
  • Seasoning basics: Always make sure your brown sugar is moist when using it in a rub. This will make the brown sugar mix easily with other spices in the rub. An old sugar will not mix well and will ruin the rub because of its hard pebbles texture.
  • No grill brush, no problem: Just in case there is no grill brush at your disposal, all you have to do is crumple a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil till you achieve the size of a navel orange. You can then pick it up between locking chef tongs serving as the handle.
  • Allow it to rest: After your meal has been cooked to temperature on a grill, allowing the meat to rest for around 15 minutes makes the meal perfect. It can even last as long as 30 minutes for larger games. This way, your steak becomes juicy since the juices have enough time to dissipate throughout the meat. Also, allowing the meat to rest uncovered prevents steaming and skin sogginess or a golden brown crust.
  • Prep smart: Soaking bamboo skewers every time you need it can be time taking. However, you can save some time by soaking a big batch of bamboo skewers for about an hour, draining it, and then freezing it in a plastic bag. You can easily reach your bamboo skewers anytime you need it.
  • Season gently: Apply rubs delicately. Rubbing seasonings hard on the food can damage the texture of the food, meat fibers, as well as cause the risk of over-seasoning the food.
  • Marinade your meat: What makes the best BBQs best is because they have been previously rubbed several hours to a flavorful rub. With a delicious rub, chicken and beef have a great taste, but the taste gets better by using fresh citrus marinade for juicier meat. However, it is important to note that for the best results, rubs and marinades need some hours to settle down. Also, when building a marinade, it is important to start with little acids like a bunch of good flavors, a little oil, and mango chutney, or lemon juice, mango chutney, or vinegar. This serves as the basics. An acidity to oil ratio of 1:3 just like salad dressing is great because while acidity contributes to tanginess and tenderize of the food, oil makes the food rich and moist.
  • Don’t over-marinate: Marinating in grilling is a complete YES, but over-marinating is not allowed. 30 minutes to 2 hours of marination is recommended for most foods. When marinades contain enzymes from papaya, pineapples, and the likes, over-marinating can oversoften the food leading to a mushy texture. The tip is that when the food is small and delicate, you should soak it for a short period.
  • Use a grill pan: Grill small foods like chopped veggies or delicate fish fillets in a perforated grill pan. This prevents the food from falling through the grate.
  • Safely extinguish flare-ups: Using a water bottle to put-off flare-up flames is not advisable because water can make the porcelain-enamel finish of the grill crack, burn or even make flames to splatter. The best way to get rid of flare-ups is to put the lid on the grill because the lid will reduce the amount of oxygen available to the fire. This limits or snuffs out the flare-ups.