High heat and when to use it – an important aspect of how to barbeque

Some people really know how to barbeque. It seems like everything they make turns out delicious, whether it’s flavorful veggie shish kabobs or a thick, juicy steak.

Probably one of the reasons things go so well for these backyard chefs is that they’ve learned some of the secrets of how to barbeque – like when to use high heat or hot coals.

Seal In the Juices

You’ve probably heard someone say that the best way to cook meat and other foods on the grill is to use high heat to sear the outsides of the food and seal in juices and flavor. Many people who know how to barbeque use this approach with veggies or medium rare steaks.

In fact, searing over high heat works great for most foods that you don’t want to cook thoroughly. But if you have a menu item like pork ribs or hamburgers, for instance, you need to cook the meat all the way through to avoid bacteria and other health concerns.

Ask anyone who knows how to barbeque — if you were to use high heat for these foods, and cook them for 15 or 20 minutes, you end up with dry, charred ribs or burgers.

The reason for this is because as meat cooks, the cells and fibers tighten and the moisture and juices are squeezed out. Searing will help seal those outer layers of food that cook first, but if left on high heat, the inner layers will cook too quickly and the juices will vaporize. It takes some trial and error when first learning how to barbeque different foods.

10 Minutes Tops

The best bet is to use high heat for up to 5 minutes on each side. If you like your steaks medium rare or your veggies still a bit crunchy, they should be done by then. After 10 minutes on high heat, any other food should be moved to a part of the grill with medium heat and allowed to finish cooking at a lower temperature.

How the Experts Do It

Those experts who know how to barbeque everything, from delicate shrimp or fruits to thick juicy burgers, have several ways to tell how hot their fires are.

One common test is to hold your hand a couple of inches above the grill grate. If you can keep it there just for a second, you have high heat (over 600(). If you can hold your hand over the coals for a few seconds, the heat is in the medium range (about 400(). And with low heat, you can typically stand the heat for 5 or more seconds.

High heat is an important technique to master when learning how to barbeque. Used correctly, it helps seal in delicious juices and gives food that perfect browned look. But given time, high heat will also turn foods dry, tough, and even charred.

It can take a bit of practice to learn which foods cook best with high heat, but practice is the name of the game when learning how to barbeque.

When is the best time to clean the grill? An answer to the age-old debate

Most of us backyard cooks know we have to clean the grill. It’s important for overall health and it makes the next barbeque easier. But we may be confused about when to clean the grill. Should we do it just after you finish cooking, or is it best to wait until we fire up the grill for the next cookout? The truth is, when we clean the grill really isn’t all that important.

Why We Clean the Grill

Some of us are just clean freaks by nature and we instinctively know to clean the grill when we’re done (and we probably clean it again when we use it the next time). Others have learned that if food particles are left on the grill, they tend to make more food stick. It’s a domino effect.

Food particles stuck to the grill become charred, and research shows that charred food may contain cancer-causing agents. Plus, bacteria can also grow in those food particles. So, for a variety of reasons, it’s important to clean the grill.

Strike While the Fire’s Hot

If you give the grill grate a good scraping with the wire brush and then close the cover right after you are finished cooking, the heat will burn off any small food particles and allow any grease left on the grate to help season the metal for easier cleaning next time.

What’s the Hurry?

But often when people grill, it’s because we have company over or we’re in a hurry and need a quick way to cook without a lot of cleanup. We may not want to take the time to clean the grill when we’re done. We want to eat and mingle or get off to our engagements.

It’s perfectly okay to wait until the next time you grill before cleaning the grate. You may find that it takes a bit longer because food has adhered to the metal. But if you turn up the heat and close the cover for about 10 minutes while the grill heats, you should be able to clean the grill grate without any problems.

No matter when you chose to clean the grill, allowing it to heat up for a few minutes before cooking new foods will eliminate any bacteria that may have formed. Most recipes recommend waiting until the grill is hot anyway, to avoid drying out the meat. So despite all the debate, when you clean your grill isn’t all that important – as long as you clean it before your next cookout.

Which is safer for grilling: barbecue wood chips or charcoal?
Barbeque wood chips are a popular fuel source for grilling and barbequing. Some people prefer them over charcoal. Barbeque wood chips are generally inexpensive and easy to use. And many people like to use hickory or other wood fires to add smoke flavoring to their barbeque.

Another reason people prefer barbeque wood chips is because they think the natural wood materials are healthier than charcoal. But this assumption is not necessarily true.

Charcoal Choices

Like barbeque wood chips, most charcoals are actually made from wood. However, there are different types of charcoal, and each is made differently. Briquettes are made from sawdust and low quality woods that are burned to a carbon state and then compressed with a starch binder. Ground coal may be added to help it burn.

In some cases, these additives can make the charcoal briquettes burn faster or at a lower heat than barbeque wood chips. In addition, some people think the additives in briquettes make food taste funny.

There is no indication that they cause health concerns. Some self-starting briquettes contain petroleum to help it ignite. While this also has been known to make food taste funny, it burns off quickly so there are no health concerns if used correctly.

Hardwood lump charcoal is a better quality charcoal. As the name implies, it is made from hardwoods that have been cooked with medium heat, either while buried under soil or using a special oven or kiln. The key is to limit the oxygen so that the wood burns slowly and releases gases, resins, water, and other elements while retaining the carbon. This type of charcoal burns hotter and slower than barbeque wood chips and is not any less healthy.

Smoke ‘Em

What barbeque wood chips do that charcoal briquettes don’t is add smoky flavor to foods. This is especially important when making authentic barbeque, which is slow cooked for hours. But when it comes to grilling, unless foods are cooked for 20 minutes or more, very little smoke is absorbed from the wood chips anyway.

So if you want to add wood smoky flavor to your food or you just like the smell of a wood fire, go with the barbeque wood chips. But when it comes to health concerns, charcoal may have some additives to make it more user-friendly, but it has not been shown to be any more or less healthy than barbeque wood chips.