Saturday, April 4, 2009

Grilling Out - Temperature - The Basics

Spring is here and thoughts turn to grilling for those of us who have not been doing so very often through the winter.

This is a reminder about temperatures. So many people think you turn it up HIGH and grill. NO! NO! NO!

Let's discuss is the range of cooking temperatures. There are really only three major ones -

1) HOT!- This is above 400 degrees. You are not going to use this much. Sometimes you will so that you can have those nice grill marks on them, but then almost immediately you will take the meat to the medium or lower side to finish off what you are doing.

2) MEDIUM - 300 to 400 degrees F. This is the temperature where you will grill most items.

3) LOW - Below 300 degrees F. Your low temperatures are where we BBQ large cuts of meat like roasts, tri-tip, prime rib, etc. This is especially important where the meat has a large amount of fat.