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DIRECT GRILLING - Usually direct grilling means cooking food on a grate directly over a fire, flame or heat source that is only 3-6 inches below the food which works very well with small or thin items to cook that inherently tender in nature. Because thickness of the food and the type of food determine the level of heat and the time of cooking, most barbecuers soon learn to either create different level of heat zones with multi burner grills or to take advantage of any naturally existing different level of heat zones (espcecially with charcoal or uneven gas flames that occur with burner flaws).
INDIRECT GRILLING - Because the intensity of flame associated with direct grilling will burn the outside of large or tough cuts of meat leaving the inside pretty much undercooked, various approaches to indirect grilling works best for large chickens, turkeys, roasts, chops, hams, etc. The actual placement of large items to be indirectly cooked on a gas grill will depend on how many burners and how high the flame on which burners are used according to the size and toughness of the food where the food to be cooked is placed on the grill with no direct flame below it. Sometimes, the same effect of indirect grilling can be modified by either raising the food farther from the flame, drastically reducing the flame and/or wrapping the food in tinfoil. On some built-in charcoal & wood-fired barbecues there may a way to lower the actual heat source to accomplish the lower cooking temperature of indirect grilling. Because kettle type barbecue grills and steel barrel barbecue grills can be used closed whereby lower cooking temperatures can simply be accomplished by closing the air vents which will cause the fire to burn cooler.
MODIFIED DIRECT GRILLING - Modified Direct Grilling is usually associated with restaurants that slow-cook the food on grill grates that are 2-6 feet abovee the glowing embers. Most home barbecuers don't often have built-in barbecue grills that can produce this effect.
SMOKING - Basically, smoking is a form of indirect grilling done slowly over a low heat whereby lots of wood smoke can permeate whatever is being cooked. Traditional backyard smokers are large metal boxes or cylinders with separate fireboxes at the bottom and others are a large metal box or cylinder with a separate firebox on the side. Smoking takes a long time because the cooking temperature is not very high. Smoking on a charcoal grill means that you place hickory, oak, apple, cherry or other hardwood chips that have been pre-soaked in water directly on top of the mound of charcoal and adjust the airflow according to the level of indirect grilling and the level of smoking.
SPIT OR ROTISSERIE ROASTING - The spit or rotisserie method rotates the food so that it is exposed to the heat source for a time and slowly rotated away from the heat source producing a similar result to that accomplished by indirect grilling.
DEEP PIT ROASTING - The most exotic form of deep pit roasting is the famous Hawaiian Luau where a whole pig is wrapped in a bundle of banana leaves and buried in the ground with hot coals to slowly smoke and cook. But the mainlanders have various other methods using concrete pits, gunny sacks, charcoal briquittes, wood embers, etc. Deep pit roasting takes a longer time than most other barbecue methods which enables the cooks more time to imbibe!
COOKING TEMPERATURES - For beef, rare is 125°F, medium-rare is 145°F, medium is 160°F and well-done is 180°F to 195°F. Brisket and pork shoulders get maximum tenderness at 190°F to 195°F. For food safety, pork roasts & beef hamburgers should be cooked to at least 160°F, and chicken & turkey shoul be cooked to at least 170°F. Fish is cooked through and done when it will break into clean flakes.
FLAMEUPS - Flameups are inevitable, especially where there is fat on the food. Trimming excess fat helps, but the flames can be controlled by moving the food from the flameup, closing the barbecue grill and its vents, measured response with a spray bottle or thumb-controlled release from a shaken-up bottle of beer.
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