Tip - Grilling Terms

A few helpful definitions from Steven Raichlen's HOW TO GRILL: THE
COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF BARBECUE TECHNIQUES:


DIRECT GRILLING: Cooking food directly over glowing coals or a fire. Most
grilling is done at 450 degrees F to 650 degrees F. On a gas grill this is
directly over the flames.

INDIRECT GRILLING: A hybrid technique that bridges the technology of grilling
and barbecuing. In indirect grilling, the grill is set up in such a way that
the fire is on one side or opposite sides of the grill and the food is cooked
away from it, over the unlit portion. The virtue of this is that it turns
your grill into a sort of outdoor oven. Indirect grilling is generally done
at a medium temperature of 325 degrees F to 350 degrees F. It is always done
with the grill covered. On a gas grill, this is achieved by heating up the
grill using all burners then turning down one or more of the burners and
cooking the food on the unlit side of the grill.

BARBECUING:
True barbecuing (as practiced in Texas and the American South) is low-heat,
indirect method that uses lots of wood smoke to cook and flavor the food. The
traditional cooker is a horizontal barrel smoker, or pit, which has a firebox
at one end and a cooking or smoking chamber at the other. The food cooks at
a low (225 degrees F to 250 degrees F) to medium-low (300 degrees F) and
slowly (as long as 18 hours for a brisket), with generous amounts of wood
smoke (usually oak or hickory). The resulting food has an intense smoky
flavor and is generally tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. This
is an ambitious and thrilling method of cooking. A growing number of cooks
have recreational-size pits at home, and in HOW TO GRILL, Raichlen tells you
how to barbecue on a gas or charcoal grill.

SMOKING: A variation on true barbecue. Smoking can be done in a horizontal
barrel smoker or in a vertical smoker. There are two types of smoking: hot
smoking and cold smoking. Hot smoking, really another name for barbecuing, is
generally done at 225 degrees to 250 degrees. In cold smoking, the food is
located so far away from the fire that it smokes without cooking. It is used
to make Scottish or Norwegian style salmon and sometimes beef jerky.