How To Choose The Perfect Charcoal Grill

Charcoal grill is old-fashioned if you compare with gas grilling but everyone still loves it. Besides, it is cheaper than other grilling methods. Charcoal grill can make distinctive taste to your sausages, burgers, ribs, and other grilled items. Some people would rather like charcoal grills than gas grills because they are easier to transport and are safer to use than gas grills. While there are differences in features and preferences among grillers, charcoal grills still are the choice that people choose. People can use them in picnic or an outdoor grill. When choosing charcoal grills, you have to know what your needs are and to know the pros and cons of having such a grill over the other available grills in the market.  Below are the things you should have to consider for choosing the perfect grill.

1. Cooking Space

First of all, you have to determine how much space you need for grilling. If you are grilling for a small family of three, you will do well enough with a 75 square-inch grill. You will have to consider larger grills if you are cooking for more people. It doesn’t make sense if you bring a puny sub-75 inch grill to a large picnic. Remember that the size of your grill increases the amount of food you can grill exponentially. Just looking at the grill won’t give you a clear idea on how big the grilling area is. You have to measure it and where you can put the grill in your home. Some grills have a warming rack that increases the perceived size of your grill.

2. Portability

- Get grills that have wheels

- Try to choose grills whose parts are efficient

- Reduce the risk of damaging your grill when transporting

- Your grill also has to withstand the rigors of outdoor use

- Purchase grill that are durable and lasting

3. Convenience

Some charcoal grills come with their own igniters. Try to choose grills that have this option. Other grills need lighter fluid to fire up. With the built-in igniter, you will not need lighter fluid anymore. On the other hand, you may want to avoid lighter fluid altogether. Some people dislike the taste and smell this fluid in the grill. You can use alcohol instead. It burns odorless and does not ruin the flavor of your food. Choose grills that allow you to easily access to the ash pan. This is easy to cleaning the grill. It also reduces the amount of ash flakes that stick in your food. Also, lids are a very important part of the grill. Choose a grill that has a lid to keep the heat trapped within the grill. This allows for faster and smokeless grilling.

4. Quality

The materials used in making the grill are also very important. Some grills are made of material that easily corrodes or does not stand up well against the elements. Stainless steel grills hold up remarkably well to both the weather and the heat of the grill. Try avoiding painted grills as the paint may easily flake of. Although, durable materials are hard to find among the grills, you would do best to look for such. Remember, the most important for choosing the grills is durability.

Tips For Having Barbecue Better Taste

We all know that there are a lot of people who are responsible for the grilling and barbecue.  In every event has option, and many times the barbecue is destroyed for a wide variety of reasons, the fire was too strong, the wind increased the fire, the meat was not right, etc.

To know how to grill successfully is not about being an expert in meat grilling and fire building, but it is just keeping some very simple basic rules to the way you use the grill and some advice is involving with the fire. Control of the fire is a basic rule you must keep if you want a better chance of eating a nicely grilled meat. In reality, if the fire is difficult to keep control, you need to be slow and conscience of what you are doing.

Most people discover that grilling takes much longer than they thought; this brings a lot of problems to the barbecue table. For example, people who waiting for the barbecue are hungry.  After that, they will come to the area that you grill and offer a lot of advice and tips. Some people just want to see how it is doing, because they start getting hungry. The best thing you have to do is know your plan. Then, find out the time that the meat is expected to be ready, and start the fire 20 minutes ahead of time. Since increasing the fire is not a problem, but decreasing it might cause very big problem.

The tips are: before you start, you should have something to eat or all the time of cooking, you have to keep focused on the quality. It’s not the time it take to cook, you have to take the meat out from anything that keeps it cool about 30 minutes before you will put it on the grill. This will help the meat to cook perfectly.

In most cases, you won’t want the barbecue to have any fire but you just only heat by deciding that is it warm enough or needs more heat. To increase the heat you can simply blow into the fire or use something you can make it grow. If you want to decrease the fire you can pour a little water to kill some extra warm places and reduce the heat. Do not use a lot of water because if you do, it will kill the fire, too. Besides, if you are unsure about the heat, you can put a small piece of meat and wait 10 minutes to see the result.

Cut the fat off the meat before you cook, the fat can increase the fire when it starts to drip into the barbecue. In some cases, if the fire is too strong, it can effect in the meat actually. For some person, catching fire is a catastrophe for who is about to eat that piece of that meat. In any case, when cooking some kind of meat you are unnecessary to cook until you test then fire already and put the meat to grill. So, start the grill beforehand, test the meat for about 15 minutes and see if it’s the right heat for the meat or not.

BBQ Food reminds me that summer is here

Winter ends, spring has sprung and summer is on its way. It’s the perfect time to take the cover off of the barbecue grill and get grilling. BBQ food is the perfect to start a great summer. As the smells of neighborhood grills begin wafting down the streets of towns all across America, there is a theme that permeates the breeze. Summer is here, it’s time for fun in the sun.

There is nothing that takes me back to my childhood like BBQ food. The smells, the flavors, and most importantly, the feeling of quality time spent with family and the fact that we are creating memories for our children and someday we share with them. If you think about it, you can have BBQ food of some sort, almost any night of the week. As long as you are willing to use your grill, you can attract people to be together with you like meeting in your family. It’s warm and full of love. You will feel good.

Here are some great grilling ideas that will enable you to have BBQ food almost anytime you want.

1) Veggies taste better when cooked on a grill. You can also have fun mixing flavors and seasonings. Kraft had a great idea of butter mix-ins for vegetables, I also like to marinate mine in Italian dressing and grill them in foil packets.

2)  Almost any meat you can purchase will taste better cooked on a grill. I even enjoy smoked sausage cooked on a grill with BBQ sauce.

3)  Make it a great night by allowing family members to make their own shish kabobs.

4)  Have theme nights for your BBQ food, you can do Italian BBQ, Mexican BBQ, Caribbean, be creative and have fun with it.

The real beauty of BBQ food is that it is an excuse we use to build lasting memories of good times with family and friends. There is no reason we can’t make meal times special in each day, not just during the summer months. Last, enjoy your time with family and friends. It’s worth and important. Don’t miss it.

Barbecue Techniques: Two Methods For Barbecuing

When we think about doing barbecue, there are two main techniques that you can follow. 

The first is the most popular method for those who grill in their back yards. It is the style where the food is cooked directly over the source of heat.  This way, the food is rapidly cooked on a hot grill suspended directly over the charcoals, the wood, or the gas burners.  Rarely is the lid ever closed. Any foods, including the most tender cuts, hamburgers, steaks, kabobs of all kinds, chicken, and even vegetables are quickly seared and cooked to the perfection by using this technique.  If you like sauces, you can add it before grill, during the cooking process, or even after the food comes off the grill.  These choices will all create different and make you enjoyable tastes and flavors.

The second is using heat indirectly.  This is more appropriate when you’re cooking much larger or whole cuts of meat, such as thick steaks, roasts, a whole hog, or a pork shoulder.  When you’re cooking by using this method, the food is cooked away from the actual source of heat.  This usually requires a water pan of some kind in order to maintain the moisture level of the food.  The temperatures generally sit in around 250 F.  During this cooking method, the lid of the barbecue remains closed most of the time, and the length of the cooking is much longer than in the first method.  When you’re using an indirect barbecue cooker, there is usually an additional fire box that allows you to combine charcoal and wooden logs for burning.  This allows the heat and the smoke to rise through the cooking chamber where the meat is. So, that it is heated perfectly.  The rule of thumb of this technique is a low temperature for a long time.

No matter which method you do, it’s important not to cook your meat too quickly.  If the internal temperature of your meat rises too quickly as you cook it, the water and the fat within it will be expelled before the collagen is able to melt.  This means that your cut will be dry and tough.  However, you cannot cook too slowly or you will risk a bacterial contamination.  Though, there is a fine line for barbecuing properly, it’s important to find that line and stick to it.

If you’re already dealing with a cut of meat that is tough, such as a brisket or a pork roast, consider cooking slowly as the collagen adds flavor to the meat.  If you buy a less tough, more expensive cut, you can cook at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time. This is why ribs and steaks take such a short time to cook, while pork shoulders or beef brisket can run up to 20 hours.

As last, it’s important to have fun while you barbecue! Your pleasure will come through in your cooking as it will leave you motivated, and be willing to try new and interesting things.