The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Grilling. Do you grill? What do you grill? How do you grill? What are you grilling with? How often?
Recently I had an incident where I wanted to cook a meal at my grandmother's house, but for four people, I didn't see any way to make multiple pounds of nicely and uncontroversially roasted meat without using an oven. So now I want to learn charcoal grilling, but the Weber charcoal chimney is in the mail, so I must burn with passion regarding grilling quietly to myself. Charcoal grilling seems a lot better to me because it's a lot more unique than stovetop, offers unique flavors, offers variety like smoking meats, and has way less moving parts and the grills cost a lot less and they seem generally more portable. Also I hate running out of propane in the middle of a cook. I actually haven't used the propane grill much because it feels like a hassle compared to stovetop. So if it's a hassle either way, I might as well pick charcoal, is the way I see it.
I do grill. I grill various things like steak, burgers, brats, salmon, etc. I also smoke things on occasion, which I would say is pretty different from grilling and really counts as its own thing.
First, you don't have to wait for your Weber chimney. Lighter fluid is vastly over-hated by the extremely online grilling crowd; I use it from time to time and I can't taste any difference in the food at all. Plus it's fun to watch a big flame shoot up as the fluid ignites. I would say try it for yourself and see if it works for you or not, don't take the claims that you must use a chimney starter on faith.
I definitely prefer charcoal to gas for grilling, though I do have a gas grill (from back when I lived at a place that strictly prohibited charcoal). I don't find it to be that much of a hassle, basically you get the coals going and walk away for 15 minutes. No biggie. I have a Weber Summit Kamado grill, and I love it. The design means that it holds temperature very well for long cooks, and it also is airtight enough that you can shut the dampers and the fire will go out (so you can save that unused fuel for next time). I've had various grills over the years ranging from El cheapo to not so cheap, and this one has been by far the best.
Biggest tip I would say is learn to control temp. Your charcoal grill is going to take in air on the bottom and vent exhaust out the top; both those things can be used to control air flow (and thus fire temp), but the intake matters more than the exhaust. If your grill lets you adjust coal height that also will make a big difference in how the food cooks. You don't want the fire to be rip-roaring hot because your food will burn on the outside before it cooks on the inside (though maybe you like it rare on the inside, but not all things are good that way). That temperature control is something you'll learn with time, and IMO is the real skill element in cooking with fire.
If you are going to cook bigger things (thick steaks, chicken and the like), you should use a two-zone cooking technique. When you put the coals in the grill, put them only on one half. Then you let your items cook through (or almost through) on the cool side, before moving them to the hot side to brown the outside nicely. This is a great technique and really effective, though the effectiveness does depend on there being enough thickness of meat so that you can get the outside nice and hot without heating the inside up too much. Doesn't really work super well on burgers or small steaks etc.
If you're interested in smoking, look up Meathead's articles at amazingribs.com. Dude knows his stuff and writes very informative articles, it helped me a lot when I first started smoking.
Overall, have fun! Grilling is a great way to cook, the fire hits you right in the caveman brain and it's very chill (especially if you smoke things). And keep us updated on how it goes, I look forward to hearing it!
Yes! Yes! This is the grilling content I wanted! Thanks for the amazingribs link.
I do not possess lighter fluid. I figured even if it was true that lighter fluid burned off before it got on the food, a charcoal chimney would probably be cheaper over a long period of time because you do not have to buy fluid continuously.
I have a very tiny 14 inch used Char-Broil tabletop kettle grill. We'll see if I can do two-zone with that.
I think the first thing I cook will be brats and chicken thighs and then maybe chicken leg quarters, too. I might try grilling up the cabbage in the fridge. Do you do marinades or anything like that? My lazy air frying usually involves just seasoned salt and a meat and it usually turns out pretty great, but then my uncle (who grills a lot) avails me of his complicated adventures involving brining and marinades and rubs and I feel bad.
I'm too cheap to experiment with steaks. Steaks are very expensive, especially lately.
Chicken is difficult because it is non-uniform in thickness, and non-uniform in density (bone-in). Brats are easy because they are uniform, as are steaks (cut to thickness). Chicken thighs can handle some abuse, but bone-in leg quarters seem challenging to me. Hard to get the inside cooked without burning the outside. It's easier to cook those in the oven where you can control temperature better, but then you're roasting, not grilling.
I would absolutely use a marinade on the chicken. Acid, salt, and fat are what you need, along with aromatics. Acid is usually lemon or lime juice, but can be vinegar or even wine (red wine makes dark chicken). Salt is salt, or soy sauce (again, dark chicken). Fat is some liquid oil. Aromatics would be garlic and fresh herbs. How's your herb garden looking this spring? If you don't want to make one, use a bottled salad dressing, or a bottled sauce.
Seasoned salt will work fine, as will salt and pepper. Powdered spices to include on top of just S&P would be garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and so on, depending on what flavors you want. Garlic powder as the only addition to S&P is the simplest and will get you great results on steaks.
Brining is nice to do. Dry brine just means salt well ahead of time and leave uncovered in the fridge. Pat dry when you remove. This pulls out moisture and usually leaves better crust and browning on the outside, while transmitting some of the salt into the meat. Wet brine is basically a marinade with only salt and aromatics, no fat or acid. If you're marinating, you're usually brining by default. Wet brines can help keep moisture in the meat, so for chicken especially it's useful, since dry chicken is the common failure. There's a reason your Thanksgiving turkey comes packed in brine.
I've experimented a little with marinades before when trying to perfect my fajitas, but there are some things I am unsure about with them still. For instance, do you always throw your marinade out once you're done with the meat? It seems a bit of a waste to me. Glazing it on is an option I've seen floated, but that seems like it adds extra considerations. And let's say that my marinade is 100% acid. How long is it safe to leave the meat marinating in it? How about 50%? I know that meat gets mealy if you marinate too long, but I don't know how long it needs to get an effect at all.
Since fajitas are just about my favorite meal, maybe I can give grilled pork or chicken fajitas a shot. Also, I can see clearly that I'll need to order a couple thermometers to do grilling correctly. Thankfully, chicken thighs are forgiving. I will take your leg quarter advice under consideration. They do really well in the oven anyway. I tried a soy honey marinade once with leg quarters, and then baked it in with the marinade, but it just turned out really watery and the soy honey flavor didn't come through very well.
If you have a really fantastic marinade that you want to use as a sauce, put it in a small saucepan and cook it down to a thicker consistency.
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