Charcoal briquettes burn longer than lump charcoal, so they need replenishing less often, but lump charcoal provides greater heat and woodsier aromas. Here’s a bright idea: Use both. Light your fire with a bed of slow-burning briquettes and add lump charcoal as needed for heat and smoke.




If you are cooking with large chucks of lump charcoal (bigger than your fist), you can create a quick burst in temperature by whacking them apart with long-handled tongs. Watch out for the sparks! The freshly exposed surfaces will burn very hot. Adding smaller scraps of lump charcoal will accomplish the same thing.


Your bed of glowing embers should extend at least 4 inches beyond every piece of food grilling on the grate above. Otherwise the food on the outer edges will not cook evenly.


 

Limit the amount of air by putting the lid on and close the top vent about halfway. If flames are still threatening your food, open the lid and move the food over indirect heat. Usually after a matter of seconds, the fat in the fire will burn off and the flare-ups will vanish. Then you can return your food to direct heat.






Before grilling steaks, let them sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. This will shorten the cooking time they require and give you much juicier results.


A charcoal fire will naturally treat each individual steak a little differently. Compensate for the inherent unevenness by swapping the places of each steak once or twice.


  

An instant-read thermometer inserted right in the middle of a steak will tell you the meat’s doneness. So will the “touch test,” which gauges doneness by firmness. Your last resort is to nick the underside of a steak (so your guests won’t see the cut) and judge doneness by the color of the meat.




Wood chunks with the bark still attached can overwhelm red meat with bitter, acrid aromas. If you can, cut off the bark, or just skip those chunks altogether.








Pork tenderloins are partially covered by a thin pearly layer of sinew call silverskin. It’s unbearably tough, so remove it before grilling by slipping the tip of a sharp, thin knife under one end and then sliding the knife away from you just underneath the silverskin.




In barbecue lingo, the St. Louis-style cut refers to specially trimmed spareribs. A full rack of spareribs has an irregular shape. When you remove the pointed tip on one end, trim the “rib tips” at the base of the rack, and take off the “skirt” that dangles from the middle of the bone side, you have the relatively evenly shaped rack we call the St. Louis-style cut.


The “pores” of pork are wide open when the meat is raw, so smoke will seep inside easily during the first hour or so of smoking. After that, the surface of the meat develops a seal that makes smoking a lot less effective.




Ribs are at their tender and succulent best when the meat has shrunk back from most of the bones by 1/4 inch or more. At this point, when you lift a rack at one end, it should bend and tear easily in the middle.







To help a marinade seep inside the meat of bone-in chicken pieces, cut a few shallow slashes into the meatier side of each piece. This will cut down the required marinating time by at least one-half.


Set whole chickens over indirect heat (with coals arranged on the opposite side of the grill) and face the legs toward the fire. This way, the dark meat in the legs will cook a little hotter, which is just what it needs to cook in the same amount of time as the light meat in the breast.




Cooking duck breasts, skin side down, over the outer edges of a charcoal fire renders out some fat slowly and crisps the skin without a major threat of flare-ups.




By cooking a brined turkey in a roasting pan partially filled with broth and vegetables, you will assure yourself of really moist meat and glorious gravy. If necessary, use a little foil to shield any part of the turkey that is turning dark. Remove the turkey when the internal temperature reaches 175F in the thickest part of the thigh.




Fish releases from the grill after a delicate crust of caramelization develops between the flesh and grate. That requires heat, usually high heat, and it often requires cooking the first side about 25 percent longer than the second side.




A fish basket with one hinged side makes it very easy to turn a whole fish, and it allows you to quickly move the fish closer to or farther away from the fire. In some cases, though, the skin has a tendency to stick to the basket, so line the basket with lemon slices or lettuce leaves.




Delicately textured fish stands a much better chance of holding together on the grill if it cooks with the skin still attached. When the fish is ready for serving, you can slide a spatula between the skin and flesh, leaving any charred skin behind on the grate.




Before cooking a whole side of salmon on a wood plank, cut through the flesh (but not through the skin) to separate into individual portions. The seasonings/glaze will get deeper into the fish and your guests will know how much fish to take.



 

Choose bell peppers (and some other vegetables, too) with flat sides that you can easily slice into planks. The flatter you slice the planks, the more surface area will caramelize on the hot cooking grate.


Try them. They are amazing. Just boil them until they are partially cooked but still crisp (about 5 minutes). Then brush them with butter and spices before grilling them quickly over blazing-hot coals.


Adding wood smoke to a charcoal fire gives vegetables a big boost of flavor, but start with just a handful or two, and use sweet-smelling woods like apple and cherry. Or create even subtler smoke by tossing stripped rosemary branches on the coals.





Banana skins will hold the shape of the fruit together while it is on the grill. Don’t worry if the skins turn dark. Just peel them off gently before serving the soft, warm fruit.

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