How to Cook the Perfect Flat-Top Patty

Know what you're looking for. Even heat distribution is essential, and it's attained by changing the vents to let oxygen in and out and stacking the coals to produce indirect and direct cooking zones. You also desire a blazing-hot fire. Charcoal doesn't contain water, allowing it to reach those white-coal temperatures that create the perfect sear on a steak or char on a cob of corn.

Sure, there are many types of charcoal grills, from barrel shaped to flat-tops. Even a fundamental Weber Original Kettle grill (premier in Consumer Reports' "Best Charcoal Grills of 2020") can outperform the others simply based on its traditional shape, which is optimum for heat blood circulation.

If you want the highest-performing, the majority of heat-efficient charcoal-burning grill on the market and cost isn't a deterrent, consider a Kamado, whose designs include The Big Green Egg (see opposite page). Fuel. Select lump charcoal over briquettes. Swelling burns hotter. Zerkel also likes to add smoking (skilled wood) chips, which provide a more intense, smoky flavor.

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Forget the lighter fluid. Buy a chimney. This hollow metal cylinder with a bottom grate holds the charcoal. You utilize paper and matches or an air-driven lighter to assist the charcoal ignite and never have food that tastes like lighter fluid. Photo by Aliza Baran Tighten up your poultry game.

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One failsafe technique is to decide for thigh meat, which has more fat and therefore greater juiciness and flavor. Do not like dark meat? Buy bone-in, skin-on breasts and cook them carefully over indirect heat. Zerkel likewise recommends marinating the breast ahead of time and butterflying it slicing open the breast to make 2 cutlets.

The method you cook this lean breast meat makes a distinction, too. To keep it from losing its valuable juices, "I would burn it and move it to the cold side of the grill" to cook slowly, he says. He likewise purchases whole chickens, cuts them up and has parts he can prepare in a different way grilled thighs, poached (in liquid on the stove) breasts for ramen.

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Season your meat with salt and let it come to room temperature. (You can even season it as much as eight hours before cooking and let it sit in the refrigerator.) Position the steak on the hottest part of the grate and burn it for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

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Move the meat to the cooler part of the grill to complete it off to whatever temperature level you like. Fall in love with vegetables. A preferred on the Zerkel grill is cabbage. "I'll put a half-cabbage on the 'cold' side of the grill, get a great char on it, and it softens and ends up being something else" something fantastic, he says.

"The crust it forms will likewise assist it different" from the grate without falling apart, he says. Before using it each time, Zerkel scrapes the grate and cleans it down with oil.

Weber Original Kettle 26," $329 at Town Ace Hardware (2170 N. Prospect Ave.) Advocates declare the huge advantage is the taste it imparts to food that tantalizing smoky taste. Zerkel, an expert chef who's accustomed to utilizing a range's knobs and temperature controls with precision, likes this approach of cooking for its unpredictability.

Image by Aliza Baran The Big Green Egg can bake, slow-smoke, saut and sear. If rate is no object, this grill simply might be for you. Picture courtesy of Didriks You may have heard of this device a green, egg-shaped ceramic grill that can prepare a pizza at 700 degrees in minutes and smoke a beef brisket at 220 degrees for 14 hours.

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The Big Green Egg is a barbecuing financial investment that might make sense if you plan to utilize it a lot. The Fein Brothers co-owner keeps his Egg in regular rotation in summertime.

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The Egg does not need much charcoal, and for those who loathe cleaning grills, this one is low-maintenance. To purchase: Particularly fantastic for steaks, ground meat and pork ribs, bone-in roasts, chops.