Grilling

There are few things in summer that beat grilling. I’m not exactly a grill connoisseur, but nearly everything seems to taste better when it’s cooked over an open flame. Not only is it an excuse to dine nightly on BBQ-friendly fare like dogs, brats, burgers and steaks but grilling outside keeps the house from heating up.

We recently purchased a three-burner gas grill (with more stainless than our silverware drawer) to replace our old rusty Kenmore (literally, there were huge gaping holes in the grill tines).To make the new grill feel more at home we’ve given it its very own brick paver patio and keep it covered up when we’re not using it. For the novice griller like myself, it’s great – BUT I know the die-hards out there are chanting, “char-COAL! char-COAL! char-COAL!”

I remember the charcoal grill we had when I was just a kid. For some reason I don’t recall the superior flavor of anything that was grilled on it – just the amount of effort it took to prepare this primitive outdoor cooking appliance. Dad would methodically erect a pyramid of charcoal briquettes to ensure a stable heat cone and guarantee equal heat distribution. The care and time taken to do this seemed inversely proportional to the time it took a steady stream of charcoal fluid to knock them over (I can still smell that stuff). Match after match were sacrificed and cursed until the pile was lit. After all that work, we still had to wait for the briquettes to change into those red hot glowing snowballs. Then using tongs, dad would again methodically spread the pile out to ensure a wide but concentrated heat source.

Grilling the meat du jour was also a process. Noting the hot spots and using the dead zones for simmers was crucial and unfortunately different every time, so you weren’t able to memorize and get lazy. The griller had a full-time gig. He had to be quick with the spatula, tongs and the knife (the slice test was often needed to determine if meat was cooked properly). No sir, grilling with charcoal was work!