Great Grilling: Where the Food meets the Flame
By Daniel Traster

With Spring here and Summer around the corner, it's time to move outdoors—socializing, exercising and even cooking.

In America, cooking outdoors is synonymous with grilling. Grilling is simply defined as cooking on a grate over an open flame with the heat source lying underneath the food. The process goes rather quickly, so smaller, tender cuts of meat and vegetables highlight the best elements of grilling.

 Most home cooks welcome traditional grilling’s fast pace, which helps get food on the table in less than an hour. By following a few simple tips from the culinary trade, you can tame grill flames and avoid being burned by them.

The secrets to good grilling are three-fold:

1. Control your hot spots. The easiest way to control hot and cold spots on a grill is to place the majority of the hot coals to one side of the grill, then scatter remaining coals sparsely around the other half. The densely-packed half provides a single, intense hot spot, perfect for searing and caramelizing. The cooler half gently finishes the cooking process without the risk of burning that $20 steak. Fans of gas grills can easily achieve the same effect by turning one burner on high and the other to the minimum setting.

2. Clean the grate. One of the most unsavory flavors born of the grill is ash. Residue stuck to the grates from previously grilled food will transform into burned carbon as soon as the grill gets hot. That bitter char migrates quickly to new food placed on a dirty grill. To avoid this misstep, simply preheat the grill grate for 10 minutes and scrape off the resulting ash using a metal grill brush. The heat and scraping cause the ash and any other residue to release easily from the grate before coming in contact with any food.

3. Oil the grate. Once the grill grate is hot and clean, grab an old rag dipped in oil (vegetable, olive, canola, your choice) and rub the grate with it. Use tongs to hold the rag to avoid burning your hands. The rag will not only remove any additional ash missed by the grill brush, but it will add sufficient lubrication to the grate to keep your food from stubbornly sticking to the grill.

Equipped with this well-prepared grill, you are finally ready to take on the food.

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