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Barbecue Success Using The Rule of Thirds
from: Karlie BestlerEver been to a barbecue where the cook placed as much food as he could possibly fit onto the barbecue grill and then every so often stab the food with a fork and turn and move around so that it cooks evenly? Ever noticed how, within a few minutes, the flames start flickering under the food, and the cook proudly stands back admiring the char grill effect that he's creating? Then the panic sets in when the flames suddenly leap up and around the food and burns it black on the outside and leaves it raw on the inside.
The difference between great char grilled barbecue food and burnt offerings lies in a few small precautions when outdoor barbecue cooking. The cook we just described made a few errors that could easily have been avoided by using a few outdoor cooking tips.
Before discussing the errors though, lets consider the outdoor cooking equipment that we're talking about. Although the same can happen with outdoor cooking gas grills as with outdoor cooking charcoal grills, outdoor cooking gas grills can be turned lower, or off, when the flames start getting out of control.
The flames can also be controlled if the barbecue cooking grill has a tight fitting lid, as with a Weber kettle grill. However most people seem to cook on an open top barbecue cooking grill with the lid, if it has one, open. Note that we're talking about a barbecue cooking grill here, where the food is cooked directly over the hot coals. True barbecue cooking uses indirect heat with the food fully enclosed as though in an oven. So, the barbecue cooking grill that our cook is using is an open top, charcoal barbecue grill.
Now let's look at our cook's errors. First, he filled the outdoor cooking grates with charcoal along its entire length, providing a constant heat source, with no area of lower heat to place food if it started to burn. A simple solution is to use the rule of thirds. Imagine the outdoor cooking grates of your barbecue being in thirds. Fill two thirds of the outdoor cooking grates with charcoal and leave the remaining third empty.
Cook your food over the hot coals. When your food is ready, or starts to burn, or creates out of control flames, move it over to the section above the empty outdoor cooking grates. The food will stay warm but won't cook any more, or possibly it will cook more but much more slowly and wont cause any flare-ups.
A further refinement can be had, if you have a large enough grill, by placing a double level of coals in one third of the outdoor cooking grates, a single level of coals in the middle of the outdoor cooking grates, and no coals in the final third of the outdoor cooking grates. You now have three levels of heat!
A further mistake was to overfill the outdoor cooking grills. Completely filling outdoor cooking grills leaves no room to move the food. You're not able to turn it for even cooking and you have no space to move the food to a lower heat. Assuming that you use the rule of thirds as described above, when you first start cooking, leave empty the area of the grill above where you placed no coals. You've then have space to move the cooked food into.
Secondly, don't pack the cooking part of the outdoor cooking grill with food. Leave room to comfortably turn your food.
A second problem caused when overfilling the outdoor cooking grill is to use foods that require different cooking times. When the coals are first ready to use, they're at their hottest. This is the time to cook small, thin items of food that can be cooked in a short time with a high heat. These include items like sausages, burgers, kebabs and small pieces of meat off the bone.
Don't forget that food, such as burgers and sausages, drip fat and juices onto the charcoal during cooking and it's this that causes flare-ups. So you'll need to constantly watch the items of food and move them to an area of lower heat if necessary. After the heat has died down somewhat, start grilling food that takes a little longer to grill like chops and steaks and meat on the bone. Finally when the heat is even lower, grill food like fruit kebabs that really only need heating through.
The last mistake of the cook was that he stabs the food with a barbecue fork to turn it over. During the initially few minutes of grilling, the heat seals the surface of the meat, sealing in the juices. When the meat is stabbed, the juices flow out onto the coals, causing the meat to dry out and become tough, and producing a flare up which burns the food. When turning food, always use barbecue tongs.
With outdoor cooking charcoal grills, controlling the heat is difficult. Instead you need to ensure that you cook your individual items of food at the most appropriate time and that you have separate areas of heat. Use the rule of thirds to provide separate areas of heat. When cooking your food, first grill quick cook food when the coals are at their hottest. Second, cook food that require cooking at a mid temperature for a longer time. Thirdly, cook food that needs a low heat. By using these outdoor cooking tips, you will have a more successful barbecue cooking.
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