The Barbecue Grill Thread

[squibber]

What is the best thing you grill? How do you cook it?

Do you have any advice on grilling such as types of seasoning?

I like a medium cooked porterhouse steak and salt it a little bit. When it is on my plate, I completely cover the steak with coarse black pepper. Yum. Someone told me the French do this as well.

[DaveBrown74]

What is the best thing you grill? How do you cook it?

Do you have any advice on grilling such as types of seasoning?

I like a medium cooked porterhouse steak and salt it a little bit. When it is on my plate, I completely cover the steak with coarse black pepper. Yum. Someone told me the French do this as well.

I love grilling, but I don't get too fancy with it. Rather, I have tried (and hopefully succeeded) to learn how to perfect the mainstays of barbecuing. Cooking times, prepping the food correctly, fire strength etc have all been things I have worked on in recent years.

My favorite things to grill are steaks (NY Strip my long time favorite), butterflied leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary, and the classic burgers and dogs/sausages meal. My wife and I also love strip steak, which is fortunate because it's one of the cheapest cuts.

I will sometime grill fish but I am less of a fan of that as I tend to like my fish to be cooked more delicately. When I do grill fish, I will sometimes put it in aluminum foil, but I don't do this often as I'm not convinced the end result is better than an oven. Whereas with meat that's directly on the flame, it is light years better.

Propane makes life easier but charcoal leads to such a better end product in my opinion. Propane is still better than an oven for most red meats though in my humble opinion.

One tool I recently bought that I recommend is the below:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072JCWQ4H?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It's absolutely great for grilling vegetables. Works well for fish too if you're dealing with a delicate fish that will break up on the grill. This prevents that.

If you're really into barbecuing and looking to expand your repertoire into more advanced dishes, this YouTube channel has a lot of good ideas. I wouldn't recommend it if you're actively looking to lose weight (or even just maintain your current weight) right now though!

https://www.youtube.com/c/howtobbqright

[MightyGiants]

I am a simple man when it comes to food.  I will be more than happy with a quality BBQ hamburger.

If I go fancy, smoked food with dry rubs take the whole outdoor cooking thing to a new level

[DaveBrown74]

I am a simple man when it comes to food.  I will be more than happy with a quality BBQ hamburger.

If I go fancy, smoked food with dry rubs take the whole outdoor cooking thing to a new level

I'm with you. Barbecuing is such a treat to begin with that you don't need to have some wildly sophisticated preparation to have a truly excellent meal. I would much rather have a very well cooked, high quality burger or steak with just salt and pepper as a seasoning than have something more sophisticated that is a lower quality meat or trying too hard to impress and not being that good in the end. I've seen a lot of the latter over the years.

[Ed Vette]

What is the best thing you grill? How do you cook it?

Do you have any advice on grilling such as types of seasoning?

I like a medium cooked porterhouse steak and salt it a little bit. When it is on my plate, I completely cover the steak with coarse black pepper. Yum. Someone told me the French do this as well.

A great steak starts with the cut of meat. You like Porterhouse which is two steaks in one. It's a NY Strip and a Tenderloin. I choose a thick cut of at least an inch and a half to two inches with consistent marbling and a large tenderloin. Stu Leonard's has a good butcher dept with a variety of each cut to choose from.

If you have a good quality piece of meat, you don't need to salt it. That dries up the blood and the steak is not as juicy. I will usually use a bit of a rub on one side of the steak and sometimes I will lay fresh spices on the top side. Sometimes I will smoke a piece of wood like hickory or mesquite. Sometimes nothing. I always preheat the grill to over 500 degrees to sear it. Five to six minutes on each side for a thick cut. Then turn down the heat and cook to the desired wellness. Medium to medium rare for me. If it's a thinner steak I sear one side then turn the middle burner off and go 3/4 on the outside burners.

After it's cooked, salt and pepper to taste and if you butter it, do it the last couple of minutes and if you melt the butter on the stove, spoon out the crap additives off the top and then you have pure butter.

Another topping can be olive oil, Parsley and garlic. I often will marinate the steak with some extra virgin olive oil on one side lightly and use a fork to let the oil absorb in the meat for 20-30 minutes. Best to cook the steak after sitting at room temperature.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Pellet Grill
Flat Top
Barrel Smoker
Offset smoker

I'll grill it all


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[DaveBrown74]

A great steak starts with the cut of meat. You like Porterhouse which is two steaks in one. It's a NY Strip and a Tenderloin. I choose a thick cut of at least an inch and a half to two inches with consistent marbling and a large tenderloin. Stu Leonard's has a good butcher dept with a variety of each cut to choose from.

If you have a good quality piece of meat, you don't need to salt it. That dries up the blood and the steak is not as juicy. I will usually use a bit of a rub on one side of the steak and sometimes I will lay fresh spices on the top side. Sometimes I will smoke a piece of wood like hickory or mesquite. Sometimes nothing. I always preheat the grill to over 500 degrees to sear it. Five to six minutes on each side for a thick cut. Then turn down the heat and cook to the desired wellness. Medium to medium rare for me. If it's a thinner steak I sear one side then turn the middle burner off and go 3/4 on the outside burners.

After it's cooked, salt and pepper to taste and if you butter it, do it the last couple of minutes and if you melt the butter on the stove, spoon out the crap additives off the top and then you have pure butter.

Another topping can be olive oil, Parsley and garlic. I often will marinate the steak with some extra virgin olive oil on one side lightly and use a fork to let the oil absorb in the meat for 20-30 minutes. Best to cook the steak after sitting at room temperature.

Great tips here.

The reason I like the salt and pepper seasoning before cooking the steak is I find this helps a lot with creating a good crust on the exterior. A light amount of oil prior to the seasoning helps the seasoning stick too. I have tested it both with the salt and pepper before and without it, and I found I preferred the former. I didn't notice any difference in juiciness. To me the big enemy to juiciness is overcooking.

I am sure many if not all of you know this already, but since I didn't mention it before, two things I think are critical (and I have tested both) to cooking a good steak are:

(1) Making sure the meat is close to room temperature when you start the cooking. If the meat has been sitting in the fridge, taking it out and just letting it sit on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes or so prior to cooking helps you get a more tender end result. If I put fridge-cold meat right on the grill I can really taste a difference between that and previously room temperature meat.

(2) After the cooking is finished, I believe it's important to let the meat sit for a good 4-5 minutes prior to eating or cutting into it. If you slice steak right after it comes off the grill/stove or out of the oven, you tend to lose a lot of the juices. Letting it rest for 4-5 minutes helps the meat relax and the juices re-distribute themselves. The meat will still be plenty warm so don't worry about that aspect of it.


I think a meat thermometer is an absolute must for cooking red meat. I kind of know my desired times to a tee anyway, but I always check to be sure. If you have to cut into the meat to see the redness and decide that way, that's not really ideal because you're going to lose major juices doing that. Much better to have a meat thermometer and just know the temperatures that work for you.

[LennG]

 I would love to partake in this thread, but there are just 2 of us at home, my two closest kids are vegans, and the grandkids, when they come, just prefer hot dogs. That said, we rarely BBQ anymore. When I do, at least a couple of times a year, my main thing is shish-ka-bob with either chicken or salmon.

Enjoy your eating.

[squibber]

Does anyone use a pellet grill? I'm thinking of buying one next year. I'm tired of wondering how much gas I have left and dragging the tank to the store to get an exchange. Plus I'm a bit nervous about using gas. The pellets seem safer to use and you always know how much you have left.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Does anyone use a pellet grill? I'm thinking of buying one next year. I'm tired of wondering how much gas I have left and dragging the tank to the store to get an exchange. Plus I'm a bit nervous about using gas. The pellets seem safer to use and you always know how much you have left.

Squib

Ask away I got a pellet grill




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[squibber]

Slugsy, How does steak taste compared to a gas grill?

Is it safer than gas in grills?

Do the pellets light up fast? Are the pellets costly compared to gas?

Your grill looks amazing but I would probably buy one of the cheaper ones. Maybe $700.

Thanks!

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Slugsy, How does steak taste compared to a gas grill?

Is it safer than gas in grills?

Do the pellets light up fast? Are the pellets costly compared to gas?

Your grill looks amazing but I would probably buy one of the cheaper ones. Maybe $700.

Thanks!

Slugsy,

How does steak taste compared to a gas grill?

A: Taste is better - depending on the types of pellets you use.  What you won't get is that charred flavor you can get from direct flame   Think if a pellet grill as more of an OVEN then a grill.

Is it safer than gas in grills?

A: Yes - there is a deflector pan inside so no grease hits flame   It's also got an internal pot that burns the wood pellets so there isn't any open flame

Do the pellets light up fast? Are the pellets costly compared to gas?

A: It does take longer for the grill to get up to temp then gas.  I have never compared what I use in propane vs what I buy in pellets.  So couldn't say.  I can say I like the flavor and cooking on the pellet vs gas.  Although my favorite is charcoal!!

Your grill looks amazing but I would probably buy one of the cheaper ones. Maybe $700.

A:Thanks my grill cost over 2k. But I'm nuts when it comes to that stuff.

My only recommendation is don't go to cheap.  The quality of the steel is important.  Thin steel won't hold heat and temp properly and will definitely effect your cooking and even more so your smoking.

If you have some grills in mind ask or send me a PM and I'll I'll give ya my 2 cents for what it is worth.

If you like that charcoal flavor there is a company that came out with a charcoal version of a pellet grill.  I'm tempted to buy one but I put any more cooking equipment in the yard I may get a divorce lol


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[squibber]

Slugsy, thanks for the Intel.

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Slugsy, thanks for the Intel.

Anytime


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