Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [22]
Lubricating. As another safeguard against sticking (and for a bonus of darker grill marks), oil the grill grate just before adding food. Our favorite method is to wad up a paper towel, dip it in oil with tongs, and wipe the oily towel over the hot grill grate. The oily paper towel greases the grill grate and cleans off any remaining residue from your last grilling session. Keep some oil and a roll of paper towels near the grill, and the process is simple. You could also lube the grill grate with another kind of fat, like a chunk of trimmed beef or pork fat. Or you could spray the rack with oil spray, but first remove the grill grate from the grill to avoid flare-ups. Regular lubricating and preheating helps to season your grill grate and develop an increasingly nonstick surface.
Cleaning. To keep your grill grate as clean as possible, scrape it twice with a stiff wire grill brush—before adding food and after removing food. If you brush the grill only once, do it immediately after removing food. A hot rack cleans more easily than a cold rack, and you will already be at the grill anyway. If you wait until later, any food residue will only dry out, harden, and become more difficult to remove.
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01. Direct Grilling
This method is probably familiar to you. You cook food directly over a fire (charcoal, wood, or gas) on a hot grill grate that’s set 2 to 6 inches above the flame. Direct grilling is similar to broiling, except that the heat comes from below instead of above and the hot grill grate creates dark marks on the food’s surface. Use this method for foods that will sear on the surface and cook through to the center in less than 30 minutes, including hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, steaks, chops, poultry parts, fish fillets and steaks (and small whole fish), shellfish, vegetables, fruits, doughs, and other small or tender foods. Larger or more dense foods may burn on their surface before the interior is cooked. Save these for another grilling method.
To set up a gas grill for direct grilling, simply heat it to the desired temperature, which is usually medium-high heat (about 450°F). Make it easier to control the heat by setting up two or three areas on the grill for high, medium, and low heat. On a charcoal grill, rake the hot coals into a bed that’s 3 to 4 inches thick on one side and 1 to 2 inches thick on the other. Use the higher-heat area to sear meats and grill vegetables or other quick-cooking foods. Move foods to the lower-heat area if they start to burn or to finish cooking them. You can also use the lower-heat area for toasting breads. See the Direct-Grilling Guide on page 41 for more details on setting up charcoal or wood grills for various heat levels.
Closing the grill lid traps heat and smoke, which speeds the cooking and infuses the food with more smoke flavor. For these reasons, we usually close the lid when direct grilling. (If your grill doesn’t have a lid, improvise by covering the food with a disposable aluminum pan.) At times, however, the food cooks so quickly that there’s little reason to close the lid. Leave the lid off for thin, small, or very tender foods that cook in less than 5 minutes, such as sliced summer squash, boneless chicken breasts, shrimp, and thin fish fillets.
02. Indirect Grilling
This method works best with bigger or denser foods that take more than 30 minutes to cook, including beef brisket or whole beef tenderloin, pork shoulder or loin roasts, whole chickens and turkeys, and large whole fish. Instead of putting food directly over the heat, you keep the food away from the heat so that it has time to cook through to the center without burning on the surface.
To set up a charcoal grill for indirect grilling,