Fire Up the Grill

Tools of the trade

Arm yourself with this grill gear to make your outdoor cooking a refreshing breeze.

1. Long-handled brass bristle brush

This allows you to clean the entire surface of your gunked-up grill grate without charring your fingers.

2. Long-handled large head steel spatula

A wide head spatula helps you flip with confidence by increasing the chances you’ll serve burgers and fish in one piece. A plastic spatula may melt when exposed to the high heat of the grill.

3. Long-handled tongs

These are ideal for moving around fruits and vegetables on the grill and even cuts of meat such as chicken breast.

4. Silicone basting brush

Silicone bristles can handle the heat, making them ideal for lubricating grates and food alike.

5. Vegetable basket

An ideal way to hold small pieces of vegetables and items such as cherry tomatoes without the fear they’ll be sent to the flames below. For burgers, especially delicate legume-based ones, place a cast iron griddle on the grill grate. This will make flipping them easier.

A sticky situation

There are some important measures you can take to prevent burgers and other grilled foods from adhering to the grill grate like cement.

Scrub away

A spotless grate goes a long way toward reducing sticking and avoiding a burnt flavour. The best time to clean the grate is immediately after you remove your food from the grill or after it has been preheated for several minutes and is piping hot.

Hot stuff

Food is less likely to stick to a very hot grill grate. Preheat your grill on high for at least 10 minutes. You can reduce the temperature after preheating. Preparing meats at lower grill temperatures helps lessen the risk of charring. Those blackened bits of meat can contain potentially carcinogenic compounds. Be sure to scrape off any charred pieces before consuming.

Oil slick

For double protection against sticking, grease the grill grate and apply a light coating of oil to the food itself. In fact, applying some oil to meat helps promote good caramelization and seals in juices (read: yum!). To grease a hot grill grate, use a silicone brush or a paper towel dipped in oil and rubbed on the grate using tongs. Do not use cooking spray on a hot grill.

Fresh grill

Meat shouldn’t get all the BBQ love. Fresh produce such as bell peppers, mushrooms, peaches, tomatoes, and mangoes taste even better when infused with a little smoky essence.

• Slice items such as peppers, pineapple, and broccoli florets large enough so they don’t fall through the grate.
• For zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant, slice lengthwise instead of in rounds to make them easier to handle on the grill and less likely to burn.
• Anything that may fall apart or slip through the grate, such as cherry tomatoes, radishes, fennel, green beans, onions, button mushrooms, and, yes, even berries, should be skewered together or placed in a vegetable basket. Wood skewers need to be soaked for 30 minutes to keep them from burning.
• You want to grill vegetables and fruit just to the point of tenderness with some darkened areas, but not to the point of becoming mushy or completely charred.

4 steps to building better burgers

1. Handle with care

Mix meat and seasonings with a light hand. Overhandling can cause the beef to turn tough like jerky.

2. Flip once

Only flip burgers once on the grill, and never press down on them, as you’ll force out flavourful juices and encourage flare-ups that can lead to charring.

3. Measure up

Use a kitchen scale if you want your patties to be of equal weight. This helps them cook in the same amount of time. Ideally, formed burgers should be no more than 1 in (2.5 cm) thick so that the outsides don’t char before the insides are cooked through.

4. Be patient

Before serving, let burgers rest for about five minutes after cooking to help redistribute the juices.

Greener pastures

A more sustainable food culture would be one that includes less red meat. But when you decide to embrace your inner carnivore and grill a steak or beef burger, make sure it hails from an animal that was raised on pasture. Not only is it more enviro-friendly with fewer animal welfare concerns, but grass-fed beef gives you a bigger nutritional bang for your buck.

Just like us, cows are what they eat. And if they eat grass, as nature intended, the steaks and burgers they produce will be more nutrient dense, including higher amounts of antioxidants such as vitamin E and a better overall fat profile such as increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

What’s more, industrial beef fattened up unnaturally on grains is more likely to be contaminated with bacteria linked to food poisoning. Add an organic certification, and it’s a guarantee that the animal was not administered any antibiotics and feasted on pasture not treated with chemicals such as pesticides. Grass-fed beef can be leaner overall, so don’t overcook it and don’t use more than medium heat on the grill.

Check the temp

The best way to determine when meats are safe to eat without overcooking them is to use an instant-read thermometer that you insert into the centre of a burger or cut of meat. Burgers are safe to eat when an internal temperature of 160 F (71 C) is reached for red meat and 165 F (74 C) for ground poultry.

Take the heat

For grilling, use an oil that can handle the heat. Options include grapeseed, camelina, organic canola, or avocado oil.

Practise crowd control

Don’t overstuff your grill grate with too much food. It makes it less likely everything will cook evenly and makes it more difficult to flip items and move them around if flare-ups occur.

Buns away

For many people, a burger isn’t a burger without the bun. And yes, you should have some on hand if you’re feeding a crowd. But a well-made burger with plenty of exciting flavours can be just as great without being placed between two slabs of bread. Plus, going sans bun saves you some calories. But if you just need that bun for your burger, be sure to choose one made with whole grains and toast it first for that tasty, crispy texture.