Jamie Purviance - Webers Ultimate Grilling

The Pantry

Ill admit it. In my youth, I approached grilling the same way an unskilled, super-psyched teenager picks up a shiny electric guitar for the first time. Forget lessons! Ill just fire up the grill, throw some meat on it, and know intuitively how to manage whatever happens next.

In my case, what usually happened involved an eruption of flames, followed by plumes of dark smoke. As I sheepishly served black meteorites of unrecognizable meat, friends either winced or laughed. Back then no one wanted to eat my food. Not friends. Not pets. Not even me.

Eventually, my desire to eat better led me to The Culinary Institute of America for two years of rigorous training in cooking techniques. That raised my grilling game dramatically. Shortly after, I started working with Webera phenomenal opportunity to access grilling know-how from experts at the worlds grandest grill company. Within a year, I went from being a guy with halfway decent grilling chops to a cookbook author with a full-blown obsession and a wealth of knowledge about all styles of outdoor cooking.

I mention this to emphasize that none of us is born with grilling skills embedded in our DNA. We all learn along the way. My way was intensive and extreme. Your way will not require professional cooking school or a job with Weber. Your way could be as easy as using this book. What you are holding now is a comprehensive record of nearly everything Ive learned about grillingin professional cooking school, in restaurants, at Weber, and in the backyards of skilled grillers all over the world.

This book may look like just a collection of recipesand, in a way, it is that. But look a little deeper, as it is actually much more. Its a highly visual exploration of the techniques that will put better food on your plate. I included these particular recipes because I believe they are not only well worth making, but are also prime examples of skills that you can apply to other recipes as well. My mission with this book is to teach you so much about cooking over fire that each time you step up to your grill, whether you are making one of my recipes or one of your own, you will be capable of greatness.

To get started, check out . This front section is meant to organize your thinking. When you grill, there are lots of variables potentially at play: fire and embers, sparks and smoke, searing and charring, rubs and marinades, sun and wind, tough and tender ingredients, friends and family, beer and wine flowing, abundant choices of sauces and side dishes, split-second decisions about when to turn and when to take foods off the grill. This section will set your priorities straight. On any given day, with any given recipe, if you focus on the four Ts, you will be a better griller.

Next, I hope you will try at least a few of the ten BBQ Genius recipes in this book, as you will learn the most from them. Ive developed a BBQ Genius recipe for each of the most popular (and often most misunderstood) foods: chicken wings, pizza, cheeseburgers, rib-eye steaks, pork chops, baby back ribs, chicken breasts, salmon fillets, shrimp, and asparagus. Each recipe is introduced by essential tips and techniques, as well as a Grill Science column that will deepen your understanding of what is happening to your ingredients on and off the grill. Then comes the recipe itself, presented with detailed step-by-step photography so you can look and cook your way through it. Following each BBQ Genius recipe are Flavor Bomb variationseasy, weeknight-friendly recipes based on the techniques in the BBQ Genius recipe.

You will be surprised at how quickly your confidence and grilling skills improve when you start cooking with greater attention to techniques. Raising your grilling game is not just a matter of knowing what you are doing but also how and why you are doing it. Thats when you approach ultimate grilling. With more and more recipes and techniques in your repertoire, there will come a time when you are sitting around a table with friends, enjoying tremendously what you have made, and you suddenly say to yourself, Wow, this food I made came out great. To me, thats ultimate grilling. Lets go there. Ill show you the way.

Grilling, at its best and most elemental, is about simplicity: fire, food, and the ease of the outdoors. What calls cooks back to the grill time and again are the stress-free vibes and peerless flavors that open-air cooking creates. To experience that simplicity, you must first master four critical elements of the art: temperature, time, techniques, and tools.

Lets say you want to grill some steaks. Your first step toward success is to get your grill up to the right temperature and to maintain it there. This is the key to a proper sear and crust. Next, you must keep an eye on the timing so your steak cooks to your desired doneness according to their cut and thickness. Good results rely on solid techniques, too. With steaks, that technique could be , in which you set raw steaks directly on burning embers (much easier to master than it sounds). The final element in the quest for great steaks is your use of tools. Tongs are the obvious choice for turning the steaks. Less obvious but also important is an instant-read thermometer to help you know when your steaks are perfectly cooked.

In the pages that follow, youll see that if you set up your grill for the right temperature, cook the food for the correct length of time, employ trusted techniques, and use the proper tools, youll turn out fantastic food and achieve high marks for what might be called the fifth T: taste.

Temperature is paramount in grilling. If its too low, stuff goes wrong: food sticks to the grates, barely browns, or overcooks. If its too high, you are headed toward different disappointments: food burns, becomes bitter, and ends up about as tender as a ball of tangled rubber bands. Setting your grill to the right temperature is easy. Here is how to do it.

GAS GRILLS

Lighting a Gas Grill

The convenience and flexibility of a gas grill offers a lot to appreciate. It is easy to light, easy to adjust, and easy to sustain at ideal temperatures for a long time. In most cases, lighting one is as simple as lifting the lid, turning on the gas, and igniting the burners.

First, open the lid and make sure all knobs are in the off position. Open the valve on the propane tank all the way (or turn on the natural gas at the source), then wait a minute for the gas to travel through the gas line.

With the lid still open, light each burner individually, turning each one to high and making sure it has ignited before turning on the next.