Looking for BBQ tips, tricks, and general good times

Cafe Society
21

Is it done?

You can go for art, as everyone so far has, or you can go for science. Though I respect the art, I have converted to science. This is the 21st century, and I’m not a Luddite. Get yourself a digital thermometer with a probe on the end of a long wire. Taylor makes a dandy timer/thermometer with a tilt up display and big fat buttons. Stick the probe in the thickest part of the meat when you think there’s a chance that it’s done. When the temp comes up to 5 or 10 degrees below the finished temp, take the meat off the fire. It will continue to cook for a few minutes after it leaves the grill.

I no longer get anything a little too rare or a little overdone. Everything is just right every time.

Radio Snack sells a remote thermometer, so you can put the receiver in your pocket and walk away to serve drinks to your guests and still keep an eye on the meat.

You can buy a thing with a probe on the end of a long fork. The problem I had with those is that the hand holding the fork got overheated. Ow.

22

On grilling onions:
To help keep your onion together on the grill, and to flip them easily without rings flying all over the place, skewer your onions. I prefer 2 flat skewers. Mine are small, so I can generally fit two slices on each pair of skewers. I’ve seen some freakishly long ones elsewhere. I place each skewer about 1/2" or so off center (so the skewers end up about 1" apart). I like red or vidalia onions best because of their high sugar content.

Toasted buns: I prefer potato rolls, but that’s simply a personal preference. I’ll melt some butter with some crushed garlic, then lightly coat the inside of the roll with the garlic butter and set on the grill until lightly browned.

Beef mixture: All beef is the way to go. I mix ground chuck to ground sirloin about 3-to-1. I will salt before pressing into patties. No garlic salt, worcestershire, onion powder, or anything else (turkey burgers are another story - they need extra moisture and flavor).

Before grilling: Clean ALL working surfaces. Heat grill on high. Clean grates with wire brush. Apply light coating of vegetable oil to grates using kitchen or paper towel and tongs. If you don’t have long tongs, go out and buy them. Can’t grill without them. If cooking in batches, clean grill and reseason with oil between batches.

Safe cooking: You should have an uncooked and a cooked work station, and the two should never meet. For example, if you walk out with the uncooked burgers on a plate, then cook them, DO NOT place the cooked burgers back on the same plate. Do not place the rolls, toasted or untoasted, on the same surface with the uncooked meat. Wash your hands often. I keep Purell near my grill for quick touch-ups.

Good party planning: The more you can prepare in advance, the more fun you will have when company is present. You can slice onions and tomatoes the day before. You can shape your burgers the day before. You can bring out all the tools you need, and check your gas levels, the day before. Or you can be like me, and realize you are out of propane the second you start cooking.

I like my burgers medium rare - medium. Looking at the attendees, I won’t bring beer, but I can make a nice bean salad for the gathering.

23

Well, I’m coming in very late, but here’s my two coppers:

I agree with those above who have said “don’t overdo it”. I know there are plenty of people who love worchestershire sauce and onion soup mix and the like on their burgers, and that is fine for them. To me, such things make the burger taste like a steak. When I’m having a burger, I want a burger, not a steak. So, all I season my meat with is 1.) onion salt, and 2.) pepper. Nothing more is needed.

As said above, make big patties, because they’ll shrink. Make 'em thin, too, because they’ll puff up.

Get your grillin’ grate hot before you slap 'em down. I shoot for about 550-600 degrees, for a good initial char that helps hold the patty together. After getting a good initial sear, the heat goes down and I flip frequently until my burger is well done, which is how I like it. “Frequently” means about every minute to minute and a half. And in the final minute, put the cheese on it while it’s still on the grill so it gets good and melted. You can toast the buns some during this time too.

Here’s my “rotating technique” to get everything cooked nice and even: imagine you’re grilling eight burgers. The layout is four wide/across, and two deep. When it’s time to flip, I start on the left side and slide my spatula under the burger at the rear of the grill. Keeping the patty on the spatula, I return to the front and use the front edge of the spatula to slide the front burger to the rear burger’s former spot, without flipping it. I then flip the burger still on my spatula, the one that came from the rear of the grill, into the spot just vacated by the front burger. Then, I do the same thing to the next burger column, and so on.

With that pattern, I ensure that every burger gets flipped after a fair time on the heat, and every burger travels around a bit. I find that keeping things rotating like this helps ensure that all burgers cook evenly, instead of some getting more heat than others by virtue of being at the front or back of the grill.

So, there’s some of Max’s grilling tips. Hope they help some.

24

Yep. Pretty much every grocery store I’ve been to has either prepackaged chuck, or chuck preground that they’ll scoop up for you. It should be no more than 85% lean, usually 80%. The other ground beef most stores usually have prepackaged is sirloin, which is usually advertised as 90% lean (or thereabouts) and is redder in hue than ground chuck. I do not advise using this for hamburger because of its leanness.

Otherwise, Trunk has explained in more detail than I have in making a perfect hamburger, and I completely agree with all of his statements.

25

The ‘1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi’ trick mentioned above is good - I learned it as the ‘4-second rule’ from my grandfather, who pointed it out to me in the Boy Scout Handbook, which probably got it from the ancient Aztecs, or something. It’s been around a while.

It doesn’t correlate very well to Low, Medium, High, but if I had to estimate, I’d stay stick your dial somewhere between Medium and High and you’ll probably be ok.

The nice thing about burgers is, they’re easy. Seriously. Forget grilling times, the one-flip rule, all that jazz. All it comes down to is, heat them up until they’re done.

An easy way to tell if a burger is done, without sacrificing one to the Edge of the Spatula, is to move it to the cool side of the grill (usually near the edge somewheres), then gently press on it just a bit with the flat of the spatula. If juice runs red, you probably want to give it a bit more time. If no juice runs, get it and it’s brethren off the grill before you turn 'em into imitation charcoal. If juice runs, but is clear or mostly clear, perfect!

–sofaspud

26

It appears I have a problem with translation.

The OP did ask for tips on cooking food other than burger patties on a BBQ. I suspect the words ‘BBQ’, ‘grill’, ‘beetroot’ and probably a few more mean different things to many posters than they do to me. I will go away now.

27

Diosa, when you get comfortable with your grilling, you can start mixing your chuck 70/30 with hot or sweet Italian sausage for a variation on the normal burger. You can also use that can of beer you’re drinking to douse the burgers when they flare up because of the extra fat in the sausage. It gives them a nice thin crust that really adds to the flavor.

28

Well, beetroot means the same thing this side of the pond (more often referred to simply as “beet”). We just don’t understand why any sane person would put it on a burger. And we don’t generally put fried eggs or pineapple rings on ours either.

29

Don’t go away. Enlighten us Yanks how things are done down under.

30

I would just like to second everything AskNott has said about using a meat thermometer when grilling. You don’t even need to buy a fancy one–just remove the burger from the grill before inserting it if it’s just a standard dial model or you’d be forced to hold your hand over the flame when using it. A thermometer is the way to go when cooking meat. Not just for roasts, but for everything. Nobody likes vomit-causing bacteria in their burgers. Trust me on that.

For dessert, fruit salad and ice cream (hand-cranked if you can swing it) are traditional in my family. Also s’mores, but I don’t know how those would work over a gas grill.

31

Bet you’ve never been to Oregon, because fried eggs on burgers is pretty common up here. Ham, too, which is kinda weird to me.

If you can find buffalo meat, mix some of that in with your ground chuck–the flavor is great and it’s a lean yet moist meat. Turkey/lamb is a nice combo if you’re feeling adventurous.

If you’re feeling very lazy get the preformed patties because it doesn’t get any easier than that, plus they always fit the buns perfectly.

Butter the buns and toast them under the broiler or on a skillet because it’s a little touch that makes the quotidian burger something transcendent.

Teriyaki burgers–mix some ketchup, soy sauce, chopped garlic, brown sugar, ginger, crushed red pepper, mustard and a splash of rice wine vinegar in a saucepan and simmer together, then brush on the burgers while they’re grilling. The sauce will caramelize and get sticky and it tastes fantastic.

If you want to experiment with fun food on a grill, try shish kebabs. Chunks of marinated chicken, beef or lamb alternated on skewers with pieces of onion, squash, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, whatever’s handy and grilled. Make your own skewers from plates of available meats and veggies–lots of fun, especially for kids.

I just got a new propane grill and tonight I grilled up a lovely boneless leg of lamb covered in a nearly lethal amount of garlic paste (many cloves, mashed in a mortar, with salt and chopped herbs like fresh rosemary and mint then olive oil stirred in) over indirect heat until it was just perfectly light pink in the thickest parts but well done and crispy crusted on the thin parts. Served with herbed roasted potato chunks, a fresh green bean casserole and french baguette with garlic butter toasted on the grill. Should’ve made a salad out of all that crazy spinach and lettuce in the garden but I was too lazy…

32

[QUOTE=SmartAleq]
Bet you’ve never been to Oregon, because fried eggs on burgers is pretty common up here. Ham, too, which is kinda weird to me.

Hence my wiggle word “generally.” I have seen fried eggs on burgers elsewhere in the States, but it’s not at all common (not that you’re saying it is). Beets, however, I’ve never seen on burgers in the US.

33

I lived in Oregon for two years, and used to go to a place where the house burger was served with a fried egg, and ham slice. It’s all right, but after having one, I never thought, “this is what a burger’s been missing all these years”.

Also, in Hawaii once, I went into a little dive of a place that had something called the “Loco Moco”. Well, let Wiki explain. Or if you don’t feel like clicking, it’s white rice, topped with a hamburger, a fried egg, and gravy. Gotta say I added some ketchup, and that went down nice.

Now that I’m on a little beet kick lately, I’m a little intrigued by the idea of putting a beet slice on a hamburger. Combined with my recipe in the beets thread, I could be looking at a burger with goat cheese, beets, and caramelized onions.

34

Diosa, in my grocery store’s meat market, ground chuck comes packaged in one of two ways: there’s the type that looks like all the other various cuts (the meat sits on a styrofoam platter like thing, shrinkwrapped in clear plastic so you can see the contents, with a label), and the tube.

The shrinkwrapped, styrofoam package generally gives you more variability in the amount - the exact poundage will be printed on the label and you can get ~1 pound or go on to larger sizes, up to 3 or 4 pounds.

The tube - what a wonder. In these guys, exactly 1 pound of ground beef is wrapped up in a printed plastic casing 6 - 7 inches long that’s about as big around as a pop can. They sorta look like big sausage containers (you know the Jimmy Dean kind? Same idea, but longer). Often, these guys will have differing percentages of leanness printed on them - you can get 85% lean, 90% lean, all the way up to 95 and 98% lean. Go for the lower numbers - they’re more fatty, yes, but they’ll taste better, hold together better, and a good amount of the fat will cook out anyway.

And about the onions - while you’re at the market, get a cheapie aluminum foil cake pan. You can place it directly on the grill and just throw the onions in there to grill them. The onions won’t fall through, but they’ll grill just the same ('course, you won’t get the grill marks either). You might want to spray the pan with a little cooking spray to avoid sticking, however. If you go the skewer route, Alton Brown (a cooking god!) recommends square skewers, if you can find them, as food won’t revolve around on them as much. Flat ones would work too - I’ve got some flat skewers that are bent almost in a circle that would work great.

You’ll do right, I can feel it.

35

Really stupid basic stuff, Diobelle but this helped me stop mangling everything I put on the grill…

Make sure the grilling surface is very clean. Pop it out of the container, spray it with oven cleaner and then seal it in a large garbage bag over night. Next day scrub and rinse it off well and bingo, clean grill. Of course this may not be necessary for folks more coordinated than I am who can use those stiff-wire grill brushes without abrading a few fingers off. Just make sure that no burnt black stuff adheres because that’s what makes food stick and hard to handle.

Then when it’s time to rock 'n roll, remove the grill top to start the fire. Take the grill section a few feet away from the fire and spray it generously, both sides, with Pam. Voila! As long as you handle the food relatively gently, it won’t stick, fall apart and plop into the fire. I even managed to grill fish this way.

That’s the extent of my grilling advice. It’s not my strong suit, y’know? Though this thread has kinda gotten me inspired.

36

That’s a lot of work TVeblen, when I grill sensitive foods I cut a potato in half and rub on the hot grill. Slice off a quarter inch and rub again. Bingo! Stick free and no grease that wants to burn.

37

I like to turn my burgers (and other meats) 1/4 turn half-way through the cooking cycle on each side, preferably to a “unused” spot on the grill. This gives the BBQ cross-thatching look and even if you only do it on one side and present that side “up” most people comment favorably.

38

I’ve been down under and, while I can’t exactly say I like their burgers overall (at least not the ones in fast food stands in Tasmania), the beet-on-hamburger thing isn’t that bad if you like beets in the first place. In case it’s not obvious, it’s a pickled beet that’s used, and it serves the same purpose a pickle would on an American burger, as a tart counterpoint to the meat and fat.

Still, I won’t be serving it to my guests anytime soon. :wink:

39

droool

I haven’t had one of those in SO long! Mmm…

One of my buddies calls them the Cholesterol Special.

BLASPHEMY!

Ketchup is the EVIL! Why not douse it in Drano while you’re at it? At least you’d taste something that way… :slight_smile:

–sofaspud

40

Hot dang! But that’s so…so…simple!

I got nuthin’ to add to this thread. Now off to buy a coupla spuds.