Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [24]
Spit-roasting is another name for rotisserie grilling, but it’s usually done on a larger scale with primal cuts of meat or whole animals. Most often, spit-roasting refers to animals suspended several feet over burning coals and slowly turned by hand or a motor. For example, see Spit-Roasted Whole Spring Lamb Overcome by Garlic on page 243. For simpler rotisserie recipes, turn to Three-Ginger Rotisserie Chicken (page 190) or Bedouin Leg of Lamb on a Spit (page 242).
04. Adding Smoke
Many people associate the aroma of wood smoke with grilled foods. But gas grilling adds no wood smoke flavor, and charcoal adds only a wisp. It’s true that you get some smokiness from dripping fat in a gas grill, but if you really want to get smoking, you need to burn wood. The traditional way is to build a wood fire (see page 31). The modern way is to add wood chunks or chips to your gas or charcoal grill.
Wood chunks and chips work best when using indirect grilling to cook large or thick foods that will need at least 30 minutes of cooking time. That gives the food time to absorb the smoky aromas. But you can also infuse smoke flavor into small, thin, or delicate foods by smoking them over the unheated area of your grill and then moving them to the heated area to cook through. For an example, see Smoked Jerk Tofu on page 296.
Dry wood chips and chunks ignite quickly and incinerate when placed on hot coals. To extract the maximum amount of smoke, slow down the rate of combustion by soaking the chips in water for at least 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour. The longer you soak wood chips and chunks, the longer they’ll smolder before burning up. Soaking also helps to maintain a steady temperature in your grill. Even though you are adding fuel to the grill in the form of wood, the reduced combustion rate caused by soaking prevents the fuel from igniting and raising the grill temperature. Wood chips or chunks can be soaked in a bucket, a bowl, a heavy-duty plastic bag, or almost any pool of water. For subtle aromas, use a flavored liquid such as beer instead of water.
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FLARE-UPS AND HEALTH
Flare-ups are the bane of a grillmaster’s existence. They happen when fat drips onto your heat source. Flare-ups make food taste sooty, and the smoke can send potentially harmful molecules (called poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs) back to your food. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, scientists haven’t determined a safe level for these substances in our diet, so they recommend erring on the side of caution. To avoid these potential carcinogens, the best recommendation is to keep fat off the grill. Choose lean cuts of meat, and trim visible fat before grilling. Cut meats into small pieces or grill them over medium-high heat so they cook quickly and have less time to drip fat onto the coals. Or when grilling fattier cuts like beef brisket and pork shoulder, use indirect heat (see page 36) to avoid flare-ups.
It also helps to keep fat in marinades to a minimum. But studies show that it’s a good idea to marinate or brine because these flavoring methods can reduce another potential carcinogen called hetero-cyclic amines, or HCAs. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, marinades may provide a barrier between the meat and the heat; or the citrus juice, oils, and herbs in marinades may provide some anticancer protection. Even so, keep a spray bottle of water handy to douse any flare-ups that may occur.
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On a charcoal grill, drain the soaked wood and put about 1 cup of chips or two to four wood chunks directly onto the hot coals; if using a split charcoal bed, split these amounts between the two sides. Wait until the wood smokes, about 5 to 10 minutes, then add the food to the grill