Grilling Ingredients

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Grilling is a American favorite pastime. People get out the charcoal or the gas grill, fix their favorite foods and sometimes it just doesn’t seem to taste as good as you thought it should. Why is that? Is it you or the food or the grill or the timing? Here are some things to take into consideration when preparing your favorite grilled dishes.

Start with Quality Ingredients. Don’t use stale or out of date rubs, spices or ingredients. Time changes and disintegrates the quality of ingredients. Always use fresh and the best ingredients you can find. Grilling brings out the natural flavor of food and your task is to enhance that flavor, not cover it up or reduce it by poor ingredients.

Plan ahead. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But many a dish you have been prepared better with just a little planning. Make sure you have all the necessary ingredients ahead of time, the needed utensils, and an idea of the timing of the grilling. Grilled food always tastes best right off the grill. Grilling also is a fast cooking so you need to be prepare the other dishes ahead of time. Also set the table prior to grilling. You do not want the grilled food getting cold and dry while you are trying to get everything else ready. Go over the recipe prior to starting the grill so you have some idea of about how long it will take. Grilling is easy and fun but you need to be prepared to avoid the frustration of not having every ready when it should be.

Season carefully. Again you want to enhance the flavor of the food not cover it up or mask it with too strong of flavorings. You want the inherent flavor of your grilled dish to come through. Too heavy of spices not allow the natural flavor of the dish to be enjoyed. The task of the seasoning is to enrich both the food and the flavor of the grilling.

Preparing the grill. Make sure your grill is clean and ready to use ahead of time. Cleaning a burnt on grill takes time so it is best to do it long before you need it. The grate on the grill should be clean, preheated and basted with cooking oil to prevent sticking. The grill grate should be lightly oiled prior to being preheated and then lightly brushed with oil again just prior to placing the food on the grill. When you are finished cooking brush off the grate to remove any left over pieces of food on the grate. This makes it easier to maintain and keep clean.

Is it done yet? Make sure the food you prepare is properly cooked and done. It is sometimes more difficult on a grill to test whether the meat is done or not. Recipes usually list cooking times but when grilling this is somewhat arbitrary. Just because the recipe say 1o minutes does not mean it will be done in 10 minutes or it may even be over done in 10 minutes. Go by the clock but also don’t be afraid to poke, prod or cut into the dish to see if it is done. Better you do it at the grill than have your guests get a unwanted surprise on their plate at the dinner table.

The above are just some helpful tips to make your grilling easy and more enjoyable. Go ahead now, get out that grill and start cooking!