One of the tastiest dishes Kell Phelps ever enjoyed hot off a live-fire grill was a food not usually associated even remotely with “fire” or “grill.”
“My favorite recipe – one of them – is a grilled banana split,” said Phelps, president of the National Barbecue Association.
Banana splits, peach cobbler, pizza and soup are not dishes that typically inspire you to head to the patio to fire up the grill. The truth, say grill masters and connoisseurs, is that the most unlikely menus and cuisines can be cooked on a live-fire grill, infusing them with a nuanced flavor profile of smoke and a stunning visual presence.
The Sky's the Limit
Phelps, also publisher of the monthly “National Barbecue News” and an avid competitor in the barbecue contest circuit, has seen a spike in outdoor, live-fire grilling as technological advances have made cooking directly on an open flame easier. “With the cookware and all that is available now, it’s just a cool thing to do – especially with all of the backyard kitchens going up now,” he said.
It’s important to make a distinction between “grilling” and “barbecuing”: Barbecuing generally is a low-heat, slow-roast technique for cooking meats and vegetables, while grilling denotes cooking on a high-heat open flame, either directly or indirectly. A variety of grills and charcoals impart a range of results and flavors to whatever you are cooking, and only your imagination limits the types of dishes coming off the coals.
“To be honest with you, there is very, very little that I have seen that has not been able to be duplicated on a grill,” Phelps said. “If you can cook it inside, I guarantee you I can figure out a way to cook it on a grill.”
Jeff Shivers, a barbecue and grilling enthusiast who averages 25 competitions annually, said during his many years on the competition circuit he has cooked everything from rattlesnake and ostrich to vegetables and biscuits. He loves to roast vegetables on a grill. “It puts a totally different taste into them,” he said.
Shivers, who co-founded the International Barbeque Cookers Association in 1989 and still sits on its board of directors, has tried many unconventional items over the years.
“Do you know what Spam is?” Shivers asked, chuckling. “Me and a couple other guys got on this kick (that) about every time we go to a cook-off now we take a can of Spam and put it in the smoker. You can usually get enough smoke in one in about an hour to an hour and a half. And if I slice some of it off, most people don’t believe that is what it is. It really tastes good.”
And that’s not all.
“One of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten in my life came off a Green Egg (grill),” Shivers said. “It was made from scratch, right on the spot; it wasn't somebody buying a frozen pizza and heating it up. They actually made the dough and everything.”
Tricks of the Trade
Knowing you can cook virtually any food on a grill is miles from doing it, of course. Take, for example, that banana split that Phelps recalls so glowingly. How in Prometheus’ name do you prepare a delicate dessert like ice cream, cobbler or cake on an open fire?
“The biggest trick would be temperature control,” Phelps explained. “Once you’ve got temperature control, there are tons of different grill stones or apparatus to help you cook any dish. That’s the key: knowing what temperature you’re cooking at and keeping it steady while you're cooking."
This makes your thermometer – either in the grill or an outside, standalone tool – vital, Phelps said.
“A lot of grill companies will use a cheaper thermometer in there that is not really accurate,” he said. “You may think you’re cooking at 300 degrees and you’re actually cooking at 500 degrees.”
Controlling the temperature on gas grills is relatively easy, but on charcoal grills – which are rebounding in popularity, Phelps said – sustaining a steady temperature is much harder and requires practice.
Also imperative, Shivers said, is awareness of your variables outside, including wind and humidity. Knowing your equipment is critical, too.
“You can take two different brands of cookers and they don’t cook the same, so it takes a little bit of experience on one to figure it out,” he said. “Once you figure it out and you’ve got the technique down, you should be able to cook anything.”
Certain types of food respond best to specific techniques. Grilling delicate items such as vegetables works better if they are cooked over indirect heat – to the side of the charcoal or wood chips, for example – and wrapped in foil or placed on a grill grate coated with oil to prevent sticking.
If you're grilling pizzas, cakes or other doughy items, the cooking dish makes a big difference. For a pizza, you're better off using a pizza stone, Phelps said. For baking a cobbler or a cake, a foil baking pan is a must, Shivers added.
You Can, but Should You?
Steven Raichlen has traveled the world studying the barbecuing and grilling habits, styles and flavors of various countries and cultures. A Fulbright scholar and James Beard Award-winning author, he has written numerous books on world food, including his most recent, "Planet Barbecue," which documents his tasting travels across 50 countries.
Raichlen’s tasting of nontraditional, live-fire-grilled fare runs the gamut from comforting to bizarre. Care to try the Greek dish kokoretsi? It’s a hodgepodge of organ meat – sheep brains, sweetbreads, tongue, lungs, liver, spleen and testicles – impaled on a long metal skewer, wrapped tightly with sheep’s intestines and spit-roasted over a fire.
“You can almost think of it as a haggis on a spit or on a grill,” said Raichlen. “It is actually a lot tastier than it sounds; it sounds pretty disgusting. It’s actually something I would eat twice.”
Countless foods cooked on a grill may surprise you with their rich, bold flavors, Raichlen said. “It is very immediate, very primal. It produces tremendous depth of flavor, both because of the smoke that rises from the wood if you're using a wood fire and because the intense heat caramelizes the animal proteins or the plant sugars, depending on whether you're grilling meat or vegetables.”
But Raichlen believes in grilling only if it enhances the flavor of the food.
“Yes, you can cook almost everything on the grill, but should you?” he asked. “My argument would be you should only cook those foods on the grill that taste better because they're grilled.”
Tips & Warnings
Controlling the temperature of a charcoal or wood fire is tricky, but a product called the BBQ Guru is a “game changer” for maintaining a steady temp, essentially by acting as a bellows, said Kell Phelps, president of the National Barbecue Association. “The Guru is hands down the best invention I’ve seen to regulate temperature,” he said. “It actually senses temperature and as it needs (to raise the) temperature, it will blow air on the fire, sort of like a bellows, and then once it gets to certain temperature it will quit blowing air.”
