Indirect versus Direct Grilling
Source of Recipe
Aunt Saunny
Knowing the difference is one of the most important parts of
grilling
When it gets down to it, there are two ways to grill: directly or
indirectly. These methods have less to do with the type of grill you
are using or the style of food you are cooking than with the thickness
and volume of what you are grilling. Knowing which method to use and how
best to do it is a very important part of being a great griller.
Direct Grilling is the most basic and simple way to cook. Foods
are cooked, or grilled, directly over the heat. What can be simpler than
that? There is one basic variation to direct grilling, however: leaving
the lid up, or keeping it down. Direct cooking is the oldest method of
cooking. You can do it with a piece of meat, a stick and a fire. It is
the direct exposure to the heat that cooks the food. In this day and
age we have cooking devices with lids.
It is this lid that determines whether the food is grilled or
baked. By closing the lid you hold in the heat and allow foods to be
cooked all over.
Imagine using a frying pan. The frying pan on the burner is using
direct heat. The part of the food in direct contact with the pan is
cooking. Now put the lid on that pan. The part of the food in direct
contact with the pan is cooking faster, but the sides and top are also
cooking because the lid is trapping the heat inside. The same principle
applies to grilling. Open the lid and the rising heat will cook the bottom
of the food. Close the lid and the trapped heat will cook the sides and
top. Of course you still have to turn things over to get even cooking,
but with the lid down you reduce the cooking time and cook through to
the center faster than you would with the lid up.
The foods you cook with direct heat are the traditional grilling
fare: steaks, burgers, fish fillets, etc. Anything that is less than 2
inches in thickness should be cooked by direct grilling. These are
things that generally cook quickly and benefit from the fast cooking of a
hot grill. As for having the lid up or down, generally you want to go
with down. The only reason to grill with the lid up is for items that
need a lot of basting, or cook so quickly that having the lid down
increasing the risk of over cooking.
Any large food item or cuts of meat more than about 2 inches
thick should be grilled indirectly.
This method requires that the "fire" by built off to the side of
where the cooking will take place. If you think of a typical gas grill,
imagine having the burner(s) turned on, on only one half of the grill.
This is the heated side. You then place the food you wish to grill
indirectly on the unheated side and close the lid. Convection and radiant
heat will then cook the food. Since the food is not being exposed to
direct heat from the burners it will cook more evenly and be less likely
to burn on the exposed side. Of course this also means that it will cook
more slowly.
This method of cooking only requires that you be able to enclose
the food in some way, charcoal works just as well as gas. With a
charcoal grill you simply build the fire on one side of the grill and cook on
the other.
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