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Grilling Tips for Beginners

Grilling tips for beginners cover temperature, meat and products to ensure your meal turns out great!

By Riley Raul ReesePublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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Grilling isn't like most other forms of food prep. It's done in an outdoor setting, and to a point, showing your pitmaster skill is a feat that puts your mettle to the test more than a tour through a restaurant kitchen would.

Handling a grill is different from trying to cook on a kitchen stove, primarily because you have to keep an eye on the grill's temperature. Even placing your food on the wrong side of the grill can make a major negative impact on your food's flavor.

It takes years to learn how to grill food like a professional—thankfully, there are plenty of ways to get great BBQ tips from pitmasters. Here are some of the biggest grilling tips for beginners you need to try for your next grilling session.

Invest in good meat.

Whether it's in grilling or just regular cooking, a large portion of how good your dish turns out will rest on the quality of your food. If you start with low-grade meat, there's only so much that your seasonings, bastings, sauces, and cooking skills can do.

The taste of fresh, high-quality meat is unmistakeable. Therefore, one of the real grilling tips for beginners is to know is to invest in good ingredients. With good ingredients, you will be able to do a lot more — and taste a lot more, too.

So, purchase great steak, and avoid bad food ingredients. Both your stomach and taste buds will thank you.

Wrap your meat in foil to get a good smoke.

A hallmark sign of a great pitmaster are smoke rings in meat. Those smoke rings give the meat a level of tenderness not found in regular cooking, and also impart that classic smoky flavor that makes BBQ taste incredible.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that pitmasters claim that one of the best grilling tips for beginners involves imparting smoke while keeping meat moist. Top meat cooks say that wrapping your meat in foil is a quick way to lock flavors and moisture. (In fact, BBQ competitors call this trick the "Texas Crutch.")

One of the easiest ways to get smoke into your meat is to use the foil wrapping method. First things first, grill your meat for a short amount of time in the barbecue. Next, smoke the meat it until the meat's gotten a good amount color into its skin, and then pull the meat off the grill.

Then, grab some foil. Add some apple juice, beer, or water to the bottom of the foil, then tightly wrap the meat in the wet foil. Place it back on the grill, and you'll get a moist, tender, and smoky BBQ treat once it's done. It's worth noting that this cooks meat slightly faster than average, so make a point to check in on it sooner.

Try the DIY Baster Trick.

You might have already bought up some of the best grilling gear out there, but that doesn't make you a pitmaster. Sometimes, grilling takes a little bit of "outside the box" thinking. One of the more unusual grilling tips for beginners we've heard chefs tell us involves creating a DIY herbal basting brush.

If you want to add a new dimension of flavor to your meat, run by your local organic produce store first. Grab some fresh herbs being sold by the stemful, such as thyme, mint, or coriander. Tie the ends of the stem together to create an herbal "brush."

Then, when you want to baste your meat, dip the baster in melted butter or oil, and use the brush to baste your meat. The herbs add a slight twist on flavor without resorting to a full dry rub. The end result is a delicately flavored dinner that doesn't overpower—but does leave people guessing.

Learn how to use proximity to your advantage.

One of the problems with grilling is that it's not usually an exact science—especially if you're using a charcoal grill. Different sections of the grill will have different temperatures. Thankfully, good grill masters are able to parlay this weakness into a strength.

Direct heat is great if you're looking to sear food and get a nice char. Meanwhile, keeping your meat away from the charcoal will give you a low temperature and a high smoke. Thus, most "low and slow" BBQ recipes will ask you to keep away from direct heat.

If you're using a gas grill or an electric grill, your best bet to create those heat zones is to leave one burner on high and another one on medium.

Keep the lid closed.

If you regularly struggle with dry meat when you grill, one of the most important must know grilling tips you can learn is to just keep the lid closed.

Keeping the grill open means that all the smoke and moisture gets lost into the air, and it also drastically lowers the temperature of the grill. Both of these factors can cause meat to dry out.

Meat cooks best at a steady temperature, so while you should keep an eye on your meats, constantly checking it is a bad idea. Learn to fight the urge to constantly poke around under the grill, and you'll have learned one of the best grilling tips for beginners.

Temperature is king.

Top pitmasters will have no problem investing in using a meat thermometer, nor will they be upset about having to take their time to learn how to grow a fire well.

Managing a grill's temperature isn't always easy to do, but one of the biggest must know grilling tips out there involves learning how to start a good grilling temperature.

Meat cooks well at a low heat. The "low temperature" side of a grill should be around 225 degrees, while direct heat should be closer to 425 degrees. Depending on what kind of meat you're cooking, these temperatures can vary a bit.

If you want to get a really steady fire, start your fire early and let it mature for about 15 minutes. This way, you get a more predictable source of heat.

Of course, one of the better grilling tips for beginners who are unsure of whether their meat needs extra time is to follow a recipe. Having a good grilling cookbook or two can seriously help.

Thicker meats need to be reverse seared.

You know how grillmasters always manage to make steaks taste perfect and keep that tenderness in them? If you're a fan of a majorly thick steak, one of the must know grilling tips to learn is the practice of reverse searing.

Reverse searing means that you slowly cook the meat over indirect heat until it's almost done. Then, when you're ready to take it off the grill, put it on direct heat. Doing this will get char lines, tenderness, and a fully cooked, insanely thick steak!

Prep your barbecue grate before you cook.

Are you new to grilling? One of the real must-know grilling tips for beginners is to start every grill session anew. The easiest way to do this is to scrub and clean your grill's grate before you plop the meat down on the grate. (Make sure that the grill is warming up when you do this.)

Scrubbing the grill is crucial to getting a clean flavor. This removes all the ash, charcoal, old grease, and residue from from your grill—and also lets you enjoy the full, unadulterated flavor of your grill.

Once your grate is cleaned, use a brush to add a little bit of oil to the grate. This helps ensure that you don't end up with meat sticking to your grill.

Reduce the number of times that you turn the meat.

Chefs claim that one of the biggest must know grilling tips in the professional world is learning how to leave meat alone on the grill. Most "amateur pitmasters" make the mistake of constantly flipping meat, which in turn causes meat to lose its marks, get dry, and also just lose tenderness.

Meat is not supposed to be constantly poked, flipped, or prodded! Flipping it once it's gained char marks is enough.

Find a grill method that suits you.

Every grill type has its own must know grilling tips.

Most BBQ pitmasters will swear by a charcoal grill and will say that the best layout for a charcoal grill is to add some wood to the fire so that you can get that delicious smoky flavor. If you have what it takes to grill with charcoal, then this is a great way to go about things.

But, the thing is that not everyone is a charcoal grill kind of person. Some of us are better suited for electric grilling for one reason or another. Others might want to work with a propane grill, a la King of the Hill.

If you already have a grill, take the time to research grilling methods using that particular kind of grill. What works on a gas grill won't always work with a charcoal grill, and vice versa.

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About the Creator

Riley Raul Reese

Riley Reese is comic book fanatic who loves anything that has to do with science-fiction, anime, action movies, and Monster Energy drink.

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