Hot Off the Grill
A guide to summer grilling

Grilling is about summer, and summer is about the savory scents and tastes of grilling. Following are some tips for using the grill, plus general hints on cooking different types of food and, of course, choosing the proper wine matches.

First of all, we need to point out that grilling is not barbecuing. Barbecue, according to Wine Spectator Tastes columnist Sam Gugino, is a noun, and it's all about meat cooked long and slow over hardwood. That's all well and good—we'd never turn down an offer to eat some—but grilling is the verb that's available to most of us, whether we have a city balcony, a suburban backyard or a couple of acres somewhere out in the country.

Hot Tips

• Plan on 30 to 40 minutes from the time the charcoal is lit until you can put food on the grill. Gas grills should be preheated for about 15 minutes.
• Allow food to come to room temperature before it goes on the grill, about 30 minutes out of the refrigerator.
• Don't put cooked food back onto platters that held raw meat, especially poultry.
• Marinades, especially for poultry and pork, should only be applied during the first half of cooking. If marinades are to be used for later basting or as serving sauces, boil them five to 10 minutes first to destroy any bacteria.
• If a charcoal fire burns too hot, spread out the coals. To keep a fire going, add some fresh charcoal to one end of the heated coals just before you put the food on the grill.
• Flare-ups can be doused with the well-directed stream from a spray bottle. But use this judiciously. Put the cover on the grill and close the vents for serious flames.
• No need to replace lava rocks because you think they're getting old. The older they are, the more flavor they retain and give to the food you cook.
• Weber, the grill manufacturer, has a hotline run by "certified barbecue experts." Call 1-800-GRILL OUT (474-5568) 24 hours a day, everyday (except for Christmas) for answers to questions, or visit www.weber.com.

What's on the Grill?

Red Meats

Despite all the talk about fat, Americans still love their steaks and hamburgers on the grill. However, if you're considering smaller portions, share a large steak of, say, 20 ounces or more among four people rather than grilling four six-ounce steaks that could easily overcook and dry out.

One of my favorites on the grill is a butterflied leg of lamb. Have your butcher remove the bones from a full or partial leg of lamb and spread the meat out flat as if it were a large steak. This can be then marinated with seasonings from the Mediterranean (garlic, rosemary, thyme and olive oil); the Middle East (cumin, garlic and olive oil); India (yogurt, turmeric, ginger, garlic and fresh chiles); or the American Southwest (ground chiles, cumin and cilantro). Grill as you would a steak. The uneven thickness of the meat is actually a benefit because someone at the table will invariably want his or her lamb well-done while others will want theirs medium-rare to medium.

No matter what the recipe (or the butcher) tells you, stay away from tougher cuts such as ribs, shoulders and the like. These cuts need long, slow cooking with indirect heat. A good rule of thumb is that anything that you can broil or pan fry, you can grill.

Game

Game is an underutilized meat on the grill. Quail is excellent when first split, then lightly marinated. Venison is wonderful as long as you cook it no more than medium rare. Beyond that, the lack of fat will render it tough.

Poultry

Poultry is a real bugaboo on the grill because it always seems to burn on the outside before the inside is fully cooked. And the idea of precooking in the microwave is as appealing as parboiling a slab of ribs.

The best way to approach cooking poultry is the indirect method of heating, which is best done with a covered grill. For example, if you're using a charcoal grill, build a fire to one side of the grill. When the fire is ready, put the chicken everywhere except directly over the coals. Then cover the grill. If necessary, adjust the temperature during cooking by opening and closing the vents.

You can cook indirectly with a gas grill if you have more than one burner. Turn one burner off and put the chicken on the grate over that burner. Then close the lid and adjust the heat with the controls on the other burner.

If you're grilling a cut-up chicken, put the dark meat on the grill about 20 minutes before the light meat.

Cooking chicken—or anything else—with indirect heat minimizes flare-ups caused by the fat hitting the coals. (You can put an aluminum pan under the chicken to catch the fat as it drips down.) Cooking indirectly also allays some fears of carcinogens that form during direct cooking on the grill, though frankly, you'd have to eat a whole lot of grilled food to really worry.

You can cook smaller birds, such as Cornish hens, on direct heat as long as the heat is fairly low and the bird is split and flattened so it cooks evenly and as quickly as possible.

Don't add any sauce or marinade—especially ones that contain sugars or other sweeteners—until the very end of the cooking process. Sugars caramelize and burn easily. If you can get an accurate reading, poultry should be at least 160° F internally before it is removed from the grill.

Seafood

Fish—whether whole or cut into fillets—is becoming popular on the grill. But not every fish is a good candidate for the coals. Meaty fish such as swordfish, tuna, shark and monkfish are best, followed by grouper, halibut, mahi-mahi and salmon. Fish bones keep the meat moist, so choose steaks over fillets. And with fillets, keep the skin on.

Since fish have less fat than red meat, it's essential that the grill surface be lubricated or the fish brushed with oil, or both, before grilling, to prevent sticking. But don't overdo it or you'll cause flare-ups. Putting the fillet down skin side first also helps to develop a firm outside crust.

Marinades obscure the delicate nature of fish so steer clear of seasonings such as sesame oil, garlic and rosemary. (Keep seafood marinades light and short. Fish should sit no more than 30 minutes.) Heavy charring also masks the subtle flavor of fish. Therefore, you should cook fish at a lower temperature than red meat.

Knowing when fish is done is almost as tricky as getting poultry just right, though underdone salmon is less hazardous than rare chicken legs. For fillets or steaks use the finger-poking method. When pressed with your index finger, the fish should spring back. If the flesh is mushy or leaves a permanent indentation, it's not yet done. If it flakes, it's overdone.

Whole fish are a little trickier, though the finger-poking method still works. You can also "cut and peek" by slicing into the thickest part of the fish and taking a look. Fish is done when it's just beginning to become opaque rather than translucent.

Shellfish, with their delicate meat, require even more care on the grill. Shrimp are a natural, the larger the better. Ditto for large scallops and soft-shell crabs. A few minutes on either side is all you'll need for any of them, unless the shrimp are unusually large. Mollusks such as oysters, clams and mussels are fun on the grill. Just scrub the shells and put them on the grate. Remove them when they open, discarding any that don't.

Vegetables and Fruits

In general, dense vegetables such as potatoes should be grilled at lower heat or they'll char too fast on the outside before they're done inside. Softer vegetables can tolerate higher heat because they'll cook through quickly.

Peppers, whether sweet or hot, are magnificent from the grill. After thoroughly charring them, put them in a plastic bag to cool. Then peel, seed and slice or chop. The sweet ones are great with fat anchovies as a first course, in rice or pasta salads or by themselves marinated in garlic and olive oil. Hot chile peppers can be chopped for tomato salsas or mixed in other dips such as guacamole. (To mitigate some of the heat, remove all or part of the seeds and membranes.)

If you've ever had sodden eggplant in eggplant parmigiana, grilled eggplant will be a revelation. Fresher eggplants and smaller varieties (such as Japanese and Chinese) don't need to be salted. Just slice, lengthwise. Larger eggplants should be cut crosswise (don't peel). Brush with oil and put on the grill until nicely charred. Try making a grilled ratatouille by adding grilled eggplants to grilled peppers, onions, zucchini and tomatoes.

What could be more natural than grilled corn on the cob? Pull back the husk, remove the silk, then soak the corn in water for 20 minutes. Slather the corn with butter (plain or flavored with chile powder and scallions) and replace the husk, securing it with string or piece of husk. Then grill over medium heat, turning a few times, for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Any member of the onion family (including garlic) is great on the grill, as are tomatoes, mushrooms and summer squash.

Ripe but still firm fruit develops a delicious caramelization on the grill. But grilling also makes up for the lack of sweetness in slightly underripe fruit. I especially like stone fruit such as nectarines and peaches (marinated in rum), bananas (with only a few brown specks and no green showing), figs, pineapple (marinated in rum and ginger) and papaya. Don't think of grilled fruits just for dessert. Figs wrapped with pancetta or prosciutto or stuffed with semisoft cheese and nuts make a great hors d'oeuvre. Grilled pineapple is a terrific salsa ingredient to accompany grilled seafood. And fruit can go on kebabs with fish or chicken.

Wine Matches

Grilled foods' smoky flavors set up good vibrations with some wines, bad with others. The trick is that smoke is pleasantly acrid, just a wee bit bitter. However, if you add the bitterness of a moderately tannic wine, it pushes the astringency quotient over the edge. So the only no-no for matching wine with grilled food is a too-tannic wine. Leave those young Cabernets and feisty Bordeaux for another time.

Simple whites and fruity Beaujolais perform well with charred meat, fish and poultry. But that does not mean you must limit your choices to the softest of wines. A little tannin is OK, so long as there's plenty of fruit to keep everything in balance. Zinfandel makes a terrific match with barbecued lamb, even young, moderately tannic Zinfandel—so long as it is youthful enough to have prominent fruit flavors.

Oak character in the wine is not a problem with these kinds of food. In fact, a hint of woody flavor has a certain affinity for the flavors of wood smoke. But very woody wines lack the fruit to make a good match.

Safest choices are Beaujolais, Zinfandel, Dolcetto, Valpolicella and similarly low-tannin, high-fruit reds. Chicken and fish on the grill take nicely to Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs with lots of fruit flavors, but even better to Riesling (Alsace, Germany or New World), Chenin Blanc, Vouvray or Rhône whites. The closer to a fruit bowl the flavors seem, the better the match is likely to be.

Although some connoisseurs may recoil at the thought, even a little sweetness in the wine does not hurt—what better to balance the slight bitterness of smoke than a dash of sugar?

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