Photo by Rob Howard

Setting Up Your Grill By Steven Slon, July & August 2006 Some foods taste better when grilled over direct heat, while others benefit from hours of slow roasting. Here’s a primer

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Direct grilling is ideal for tender, lean, thin cuts of meat or fish, such as steaks, pork chops, swordfish, and salmon steaks, or fast-cooking vegetables, such as zucchini, broccoli, and corn. The searing heat quickly causes the surface to become crispy and caramelized, producing a flavor and texture that's impossible to duplicate in an oven.

Two-zone direct grilling When you build the fire, spread one layer of coals evenly across the bottom of the grill and a second layer of coals across half the first layer. Also leave a small area coal-free. This allows you to move items from high to medium or low heat as they become done.

Indirect grilling (or barbecuing) is for thick, fatty, or tough pieces of meat, such as pork shoulder, leg of lamb, whole chicken, and brisket. Classic barbecue is quite slow (225°F to 275°F for 10 to 12 hours in the case of an 18-pound brisket) and requires either a barbecue pit or a special smoker to maintain the steady low temperature. Most people don't have either of these. Nor, frankly, the patience to cook all day. Fortunately, Raichlen teaches a less time-consuming method of barbecuing that can be accomplished on a basic kettle-style charcoal grill. First, carefully push the hot coals away from the center so they're piled on either side of the firebox. (Add wet wood chips for added smoke.) Next, place a pan in the center to catch dripping fat. Finally, set the food on the grate and cover the grill. It will now function as a roasting oven, with all the heat and smoke swirling up and around the food. The ideal cooking temperature for this kind of barbecue is 325°F to 350°F. You'll cook a whole brisket in 5 to 6 hours, a leg of lamb in 1½ to 2 hours, and a chicken in about 1½ hours. You can wait that long, can't you?

Gas Versus Charcoal
If you're serious about grilling, you'll want a charcoal grill. That's not to say you can't make a good steak on a gas grill. And gas grills are convenient on a drizzly day, not to mention in winter. But gas grills are incapable of re-creating quite the same burned-edge, charcoaly, wood-smoky flavor. For the record, Steven Raichlen never knocks gas. Instead, he very diplomatically says everyone should have both kinds of grills. The classic charcoal grill is the Weber Kettle. If you have the space for it in your back yard, Raichlen likes the humongous Weber Ranch Kettle model, which is practically big enough to pitch a tent in. The best charcoal is the hardwood-lump kind. You'll light it using a chimney-style fire starter, never lighter fluid.