Grilling Tips & Techniques

How do you grill?

As this weekend is Labor Day weekend, most people will be firing up their grills for one of the last times this summer, if not the last time. So, we want to make sure your grilling is done perfectly. Rounding out the season with the best grilled meal possible. Read on to find out our grilling tips and techniques that we think everyone should know when it comes to grilling their meats and vegetables.

One. The first tip, that sometimes people forget, is to give your grill plenty of time to preheat. If you don't preheat your grill, it's a good chance your food will cook unevenly. One side can be charred while the other still raw, and that's no way to serve food. Approximately 15 - 25 minutes is a good amount of time to wait once you've turn on the grill. A grill is more temperamental than a skillet on a stove, but even that you are supposed to give time to preheat. Why not start off on the right foot by simply waiting a few minutes?

Two. Now, when it comes to putting the food on the grill, it's always better to marinate your food first. This is an item of preference, but most grilled food is better when it's been marinated. Look online for marinating recipes, or find bottles of premade marinades at your local grocery store. You'd be surprised at how well grilling locks in a flavor. Foods like chicken or fish hold a flavor amazingly when they're marinated, so don't skip this important step.

Three. The amount of thoroughness food is to be cooked differs based on both type of food and personal preference, so you always want to check the temperature when you're grilling. The last thing you want to do is undercook food, making others ill. Use a guide for the optimal internal temperature before serving. To do this properly, use a meat thermometer. Simply stick the end of the thermometer into the center of your food and wait for the reading. If it matches the temperature for that type of food, it's ready to be served. There are plenty of guides online that break optimal temperature down by food category.

Four. Once you're finished cooking, you can do the next most important step: clean off your grill. This is easily done by using a grill scraper. If your food stuck last time, or there are remnants of crispy black on your grate, you need to scrape this off. Obviously you can't just wash off your grill easily, or stick it in the washing machine, so to care for your grill, you must instead scrape the metal rods.  Just think, if this was a skillet, you'd wash it before using it again, so why is a grill any different. Scrape it off so you get the best taste possible. For this simply use a grill scraper like this one here.

And there's the list. Do you already use these techniques while grilling? Do you have others that you'd like to share? Leave your tips or techniques in the comments section for others to read!


photo credit: Robert S. Donovan via photopin cc