Tag: Grills

Eliminate Outdoor Cooking Mistakes

As humans, we all make mistakes. It is human nature to do so, and cannot be prevented each and every time. When it comes to barbequing, this rule is no different. We often make mistakes that we do not even realize until we taste our food, or something potentially dangerous happens.

Some mistakes just mean that the food you cook is not going to taste very good, while others could potentially mean a trip to the hospital, or a visit from your claims representative on your home insurance policy. No matter the severity of the mistake, you should do your best to try to avoid them whenever possible.

Cooking Mistakes

You must properly prepare the meat you are cooking, before cooking it. You should never attempt to cook meat on a grill when it is still frozen, or even partially frozen. Thaw your meat by sitting it out about 12 to 24 hours before you plan on cooking it, or by thawing it in a microwave.

Once meat is cooked, never put it back in on the same plate you had it on when it was raw. This could cause the spread of many unwanted illnesses.

Cooking with charcoal lighter fluid can be good or bad. The lighter fluid will cause the food you are cooking to taste different then with other types of grills. Alternatively, attempting to not use lighter fluid may cause a lot of frustration due to the fact that charcoal can be difficult if not impossible to light without lighter fluid.

Never poke you meat while it is cooking. Poking holes in meat will cause the juice inside to leak out into the bottom of the grill. Not only will this make your food dry and unappealing in the end, but it also could potentially ruin your barbeque grill. At the very least, it will cause a buildup of unwanted grease and juices on your grill, which will make cleanup harder.

Once the meat is on the grill, try not to open the lid to many times. Each time you open the lid, you change the temperature in the grill. The constant change in temperature and the air flow will cause your meat to dry up quickly.

While using tin foil or aluminum foil will make cleaning easier, it will cause your food to have more of a fried taste then a grilled taste.

Dangerous Mistakes

Never, under any circumstance, should you leave a grill alone when it is in use. Grilling does have fire involved, and accidents can happen. Fire spreads quickly, so being aware of your grill could mean the difference between a small fire that is quickly extinguished, and a visit from the fire department.

Never place a hot grill against a wall, even if the fire is already completely out. A hot grill can heat up an exterior wall to the point of combustion. Also, do not put the grill cover back on until you are sure that the grill is completely cool.

You grill should be cleaned after each and every use, no exceptions. While no one likes cleaning the grill, it is essential for the life and safety of your grill. If you allow your grill to sit dirty, not only are you causing a potential fire and health hazard, but you are ultimately making it harder on yourself when it does come time to clean your grill.

Different Types of Barbeque Grills

Summer is here, which means that it is time to begin grilling and preparing awesome barbeque parties. The only problem is, you have not bought your barbeque grill yet. When purchasing your first grill, you will find that you have a large array of options available to you. It may seem overwhelming at first due to the almost endless amount of possibilities and options available. The best way to decide on what type of grill is right for you is by educating yourself about them.

Cost

Barbeque grills can range from extremely cheap to very expensive depending on the type and features available on it.

If you are looking for a cheaper grill, then you should probably consider a charcoal grill. While larger charcoal grills are available, smaller grills can be purchased for as little as $10 to $15 at your local department store. Fancier, large charcoal grills can be purchased for about $60 to $75. Charcoal requires purchasing charcoal and lighter fluid each time you, so you must remember this when considering the cost.

Propane grills are slightly more expensive, starting around $100 dollars.

A smoker grill is slightly more expensive then a propane grill at about $130 each.

Natural gas grills on the higher end of cost. The mechanical part of this grill make it larger and more complex. The Natural gas grills are meant to be hooked up to your home line. Typically these types of grills start at about $300.

Multiple fuel grills are the most expensive at about $450 and up. Multiple fuel grills allow you to grill using one or a combination of fuels.

Ease of Use

The easiest grill to use is by far the natural gas grill. Natural gas grills are designed to hook directly into your homes natural gas line, eliminating the need to provide the fuel source. Natural gas grills are also one of the easiest grills to clean since you do not have to worry about cleaning out the charcoal or wood.

The next in line would be the propane grills, as they have similar features of the natural gas grills. The only issue keeping Propane grills from being equal to natural gas grills is the fact that you must provide the propane somehow. This usually means hauling and handling propane tanks.

The hardest grills to use are charcoal and smoker grills. Both types of grills require additional purchases of supplies, and then requires extra cleaning once grilling is complete.

Flavor

If you are concerned with flavor, you first choice should be a charcoal or smoker grill. Both of these grills allow you to replicate a true smoked flavor. Smokers are especially nice because you can also control the flavor by changing the type of wood or wood chips you use. This is good if you are wanting to slow cook your meat.

If you are wanting to cook something a little quicker, you may want to stick with the charcoal grill. A Charcoal grill will cook quickly if you want it too, and it will still provide a good smoked taste.

Space

Finally, the space you have available should be a consideration. When you grill is not in use, you must have a proper place to store it. Charcoal and Propane grills are ideal for smaller areas such as apartments and city homes. If you have a large amount of space available, then you may want to consider the larger options.

Barbeque Maintenance Tips

When purchasing your barbeque grill, think of it as an investment rather then just another item for your outdoor entertainment. You should expect this item to become a large part of your outdoor activities for many years to come. But like any other investments, proper maintenance and care is needed to ensure that your barbeque grill will work for you for many years to come. While some maintenance and cleaning is specific to the type of barbeque grill your own (gas, electric, charcoal or smoke barbecue grill), the majority of maintenance that should be carried on does not change from grill to grill.

Step 1- Gathering The Necessary Items

You will need some common household items on hand when it comes time to clean your barbeque grill.

Brass wire grill brush
Steel wool pads, preferably that contains soap already.
Mild dish soap
Sponge or dishcloth
Spray cooking oil
Dry baking soda
Aluminum foil

Step 2- Brushing Your Grill Off

The first thing that should always be done to your grill is a routine brushing. Using your brass wire grill brush (or other brush suitable to your type of grill) you should brush off all the surfaces. By routinely brushing your barbeque grill, you will prevent any type of buildup. If buildup from food is left to long, it can become increasingly difficult to remove.

Step 3- Spray Cooking Oil

Once you are sure that your grill is free of all buildup and debris, and that your grill is completely cooled off, you will want to spray it down with a light layer of cooking oil. Spraying it down with cooking oil will prevent your barbeque grill from rusting. It is especially important to make sure your barbeque grill is completely cold, as spraying cooking oil on a hot surface may cause the oil to heat up and ignite, which could be potentially dangerous to you and your barbeque grill.

Step 4- Use Baking Soda and Aluminum Foil on Your Grill

Baking soda is a very nice cleaning and polishing agent. Once you have removed any extra debris and buildup, lightly scrubbing your barbeque grill with baking soda will give it that extra shine, similar to the day that you brought it home from the store. This can also be used on handles and knobs to remove any extra buildup that cannot be taken off with a wire brush.

Aluminum foil can also be used to keep your grill looking nice. Gently rub the aluminum foil on your grill, and you will notice that it removes grim and buildup.

Step 5- Clean Your Racks

The racks in your grill are especially important as this is where the food touches when it is cooking. You will have to use the wire brush to remove as much buildup as possible. Once you remove as much as possible, start washing the racks with dish soap. If the racks are really dirty, you may also want to use the steel wool pads. Be sure to completely rinse off all soap and residue before cooking on these racks again.

Step 6- Preventing Problems

The majority of problems that arise from barbeque grills comes from lack of cleaning and maintenance. That means if you notice something does not seem quite right with your barbeque grill, chances are it can be fixed with just a simple cleaning. Even if you clean it, and still find that it is having problems, at least you saved yourself the potential embarrassment of taking it to a professional only to find out all it needed was to be cleaned.

New Recipes For Outdoor Grilling

What We Know

If we are not too into barbecues, the only types of items in the grill we might know could be those lovely racks of ribs our parents used to make with tomato based barbecue sauce. While that recipe is very much lovely no doubt, if that is the only recipe that you know then you are missing out a lot. Nowadays, there are a lot of new recipes for barbecue sauces made out of whatever it is that you can think of. From strawberries, mangoes, apples and even mustard are now used as bases for barbecue sauces.

If you are only using your grill for direct grilling, then you sure dont know a lot yet about how versatile your grill is. An outdoor grill can be used for virtually anything you can do inside your kitchen and more than that. With an outdoor grill, you can grill, smoke, sear and do a lot more stuff on your outdoor barbecue. With all the new things you can do, it is sure that the way you view your outdoor grill will be way different than how you always used to.

New Barbecue Sauce Recipes

Most people who barbecue would result to having sauces that are ready for pick up at their local grocery shelves. While these sauces might taste good too, nothing beats the experience of being able to make your own barbecue sauces or any outdoor grilling recipes. Not only is it more fun to do yourself but you also get to adjust the taste according to how you want it to be. Like if you think a sauce needs more spice or more lemon juice, you can adjust it yourself.

Keep in mind that there are no limits when it comes to making your own outdoor grilling recipes. In fact, all the things most of us might consider weird are used by many on the grill. A barbecue with mustard sauce is in fact getting more popular by the minute because of its nice taste. Whatever pleases the tongue is good to go on the barbecue.

New Ways Of Cooking

Because it is an outdoor grill, we would usually stick to the old outdoor grilling recipes, ways of using it and many other traditions we follow when it comes to it. If that is our mindset, then we are definitely missing out on a lot because there are numerous ways of enjoying when we are grilling outdoors. One way of it is smoking which is best on fish, sausages and meats. This method of cooking gives grilled food a distinct and lovely taste apart from any other methods of cooking.

You can also put an aluminum foil pan on top of the grill and cook meats on top of that to make it soak in its own juice. This method is more famously known as roasting and it is now commonly done on top of an outdoor grill. While all those are new and lovely ways of cooking in the grill, you can still have grilling the classic way ever once in a while after all, it never tasted too bad.

Things To Keep Traditional

While there are many new things we can do on top of our outdoor grills and a whole lot of outdoor grilling recipes you should try the next time you would have to, we have to keep in mind that safety rules are still to be kept as always when it comes to outdoor grilling. Make sure that the grill is away from everything that could catch fire and the kids or the pets dont come playing near it until it has cooled of completely.

Also make sure to have a fire extinguisher always ready. With a lot of new things with traditional safety, experiences on the grill are sure to be much better than before.

Grilling Outdoors The Safe Way

Keep It Safe

Because outdoor grilling is undoubtedly fun and enjoyable for everyone, a lot of people fail to see the importance of outdoor grilling safety and the dangers that outdoor grilling can impose to a lot of people involved in it. They are not aware that simple outdoor grills have caused a lot of sever accidents, some of them being even fatal, a lot of structure fires and a lot of outdoor fires. This is very contrary to the common image of outdoor grilling which is supposed to be fun for everyone.

However, these disasters would only happen if concerned people fail to abide by some outdoor grilling safety methods, these of which are considerably very simple and basic for every person who has grilled. So for you to get more in depth with those outdoor safety guidelines and what they can do for you, here are some important things you should do every time you grill outdoors.

The Grilling Area

Make sure that your outdoor grill has its exclusive area in the backyard and would not share it with other items especially those that could catch fire easily such as the house itself, paper, bushes, trees, shrubs and long grass. That designated outdoor grilling area should also be a no play zone for kids and pets especially while you are grilling or while it is still hot. Make sure that the kids and the pets do not go near the grill at all times as they may do a lot of things with it that could cause dangers.

Also make sure that the grill is not near any electric wires, devices or plugs as exposing these objects to extreme heat could make them explode and cause fires. One of the most basic guideline for the grilling area is never to have it indoors, it is called an outdoor grill because the name itself already spells out where it should be place, forcing it indoors could also cause a lot of accidents.

The Grill Itself

It is very important to check how the grill is every time before you start grilling. You have to make sure that it is completely safe to avoid accidents. If you are using a gas-powered grill, make sure to check that there are no leaks in the pipe and never do this with the use of a match as it can make the tank explode. Take note that gas tanks are very sensitive when it comes to fire so you should be extra careful with it.

Also check that the grill stands firmly on the ground, especially if you have one that stands on 4 legs. This is very important as you do not want the grill to later topple over and cause a lot of accidents later on. Make sure that you only start a fire if the grill itself is ready and is safe enough.

More Guidelines

When you are grilling, you have to be focused on it. That is you should never leave the grill while the fire is on and especially when there are items on top of the grill. Aside from having your steak burnt, there are a lot of things that could happen if you dont watch the grill carefully. It would also be much safer if you had a fire extinguisher on stand by at all times as well as access to call emergency. You will never know what could happen so you might as well be prepared.