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I am not a barbecue or grilling expert. Let's just get that out of the way. While I have certainly gotten better over the years, I also have vivid memories of chicken that was burned on the outside and raw within.
With warmer weather calling me and many others to fire up the grill - a year-round practice for plenty of people - I consulted some professionals to discuss some of the biggest and most common mistakes novices make when barbecuing and grilling. On top of that, I attended a class ahead of the National Capital Barbecue Battle to learn what the pros aim for when making competition level 'cue.
Here's what to avoid:
1. Winging it
"I'm like the Chicken Little of barbecue, so I don't make mistakes very often," Melissa Cookston, world barbecue champion, restaurateur and judge on Netflix's "Barbecue Showdown," said. "I do a lot of homework before I ever start cooking." Unless you have a lot of practice, being a confident cook in your kitchen does not necessarily translate when you head outdoors, as there are a lot of new factors that can come into play, such as managing a live fire and dealing with the elements.
"What [novice cooks] have access to that I did not have access to is the World Wide Web," Cookston said. "There's so much information out there for free." And while books and recipes can be useful guiding tools, they often can't tell and show you everything you need to know. "People think that because they follow a recipe that they're going to get great barbecue. Recipes are great, but unfortunately, barbecue is not a recipe cooking method."
If you want to invest a bit more, sign up for a class from a credentialed expert where you can ask questions and perhaps even get some hands-on experience. "I still go to classes just because I feel like outdoor cooking especially is always evolving," Cookston said.
2. Not cleaning the grill
You wouldn't cook with a dirty skillet (I hope), so you shouldn't cook with a dirty grill. "Grates are a great place to start," Ryan Mitchell, pitmaster and co-author of "Ed Mitchell's Barbeque," said.
"Clean grates are essential for killer grill marks, and they help keep food from sticking," grilling guru Steven Raichlen wrote in "The Barbecue! Bible."
Cleaning your grill grates is also important for flavor. My Kansas City Barbeque Society judge certification class instructor, Bill Jones, told us the tale of a competition team that neglected to clean their grill between cooking fish and chicken and ended up with chicken that tasted like fish. Naturally, the team did not score very well in the chicken category.
But don't stop at just the grates. "Don't forget to clean out the old bottom and also scraping the grease and the smoke off the top of the inside of your smoker," Mitchell said. "Cooking over old burned charcoal is going to give your smoke a darker color in the very beginning. So that's going to settle on your meat," which can lead to "black soot kind of settling over the top of whatever it is you're cooking."
3. Using lighter fluid
Admittedly, I've been making this mistake for years. Now I know better, and it makes sense if you spend five seconds to think about it. "Lighter fluid is just chemicals," Cookston said. "I do not put anything in my grills or smokers, not even paper, that is not the flavor profile of what I want in my grill." Instead, use a chimney starter to get your charcoal going. (And if you're looking for an alternative to paper to help start the fire, she recommends using leftover tortilla chips.)
4. Rushing the coals
Barbecue takes time and patience, and that starts with your coals. "My uncles and my dad used to let me make all the mistakes," Mitchell said, chief among them spreading out the coals "before they get a chance to get white hot and before the wood really catches on to really stay consistent."
"My uncle used to say, 'That boy's going to work himself to death,'" Mitchell said, as he recalled instances of putting a whole hog over the fire too soon only to have to take it off 20 minutes later. "Having to unload that grate with a hog on and then reload, man, you learn pretty fast."
Cookston agrees. "You really need to wait 'til your charcoal is white before you start grilling," she said. "That keeps them having any flare-ups, because while we do like a little kiss of fire flavor profile, you don't want the Towering Inferno." How long it takes can depend on the type of charcoal and the size of the chimney you use to start it, but Cookston says 20 to 30 minutes is a good guesstimate.
5. Using poor-quality ingredients
As with any type of cooking, the quality of the ingredients you start with matters. "The better the meat is, the better end result you're going to have," Cookston said. When selecting meat for barbecuing, perhaps the most important thing to look for is marbling and internal fat content. It takes a little bit longer to cook and costs more, "but the product is so moist and maintains so much flavor that a good-quality meat will make you much happier with your end product overall."
In addition to the food itself, also pay attention to what you're using to cook it. We've already discussed lighter fluid, but the charcoal can make a difference, too. "A lot of charcoals have a lot of fillers," Cookston said. "A good-quality, all-hardwood charcoal is really best for maintaining not only a constant temperature, but there's less ash and you get better flavor from it."
6. Saucing too early
"I would say 99 percent of sauces contain sugars, and sugars burn," Cookston said. "So you don't want to sauce until you're at the very end of your cooking process," about 15 minutes before you're ready to serve.
7. Using too much smoke
Smoke is one of the defining characteristics of barbecue - it's what differentiates barbecue from grilling - but you want to use it judiciously lest your food ends up tasting like a campfire. "Over-smoking seems to be one of the most common mistakes," Cookston said. "You should treat smoke just like any other ingredient. You would never over-salt something, so don't over-smoke something."
This is where some research can come in handy instead of just grabbing whatever is available, as wood from different trees burns differently. You also need to take into consideration what you're smoking, as white meats will accept smoke more readily than red meats.
8. Using too much direct heat
The biggest lesson I've learned in my barbecue journey is the importance of having indirect and direct heat zones on the grill, which means having a portion directly over the heat source and a portion that is not. You can get away with just using direct heat for things that cook hot and fast, such as hot dogs and hamburgers. But indirect heat, which allows for low and slow barbecuing, is imperative for anything else. If you have sugar in your dry rub for a pork butt or shoulder, for instance, "this is where your indirect style of cooking is going to kind of save you," Mitchell said. It also gives novice cooks more leeway.
Too much direct heat can also contribute to flare-ups. If you encounter one, "don't panic," Mitchell said. "Just take the meat off the hot flames and move it to the side where it's not dripping right on top of your coals." Cookston also recommends having a water bottle nearby just in case.
9. Ignoring air vents
If you're working with live fire instead of a gas grill, you need to know how to manage that fire, and doing so is all about understanding and controlling airflow. "If you've got a piece of steak or your chicken dead center over a hot batch of coals and it's steady dripping grease and your vents are wide open, well, yeah, you're going to open that thing up to a grease fire," Mitchell said. "I always tell guys, listen, either keep the vents off or partial until you get totally comfortable with how you want the airflow."
10. Opening the lid too much
Think of your grill like an oven: It's not a good idea to keep opening the oven door while cooking, so the same applies to the grill. "We've got a saying around the house: 'If you're looking, you ain't cooking,'" Mitchell said. "Every time you lift that lid, you're adding some cook time."
11. Not using thermometers
"Especially when grilling outdoors, people think, 'Oh, you know, I can touch that and know that that's medium-rare without using a thermometer,'" Cookston said. "I've been in the restaurant business for 42 years, and yes, I can probably do that. But I would advise people to get a good-quality thermometer and depend on it, because 145 is 145 every time."
A thermometer takes out the guesswork.
"My granddad and them was like, 'You don't need a thermometer, all you need is your eyes,'" Mitchell said. But "everybody ain't cooking over a smoker every day for their every meal."
In addition to a probe thermometer to test the doneness of meats, you need to know the temperature of the grill itself, too. "I really am a fan of having an appropriate thermometer on your grill top so you understand those moments between smoking and grilling," Mitchell said.
12. Cooking too hot
For me, cookouts are all about spending time with family and friends while throwing something on the grill. Of course, the food is important, but one way to set yourself up for relaxation and success is to stay away from high-heat cooking.
Mitchell doesn't really go above 325 degrees when he's cooking in his backyard. Below that temperature, "I'm good to go, because that gives me time to put a beer in a koozie or make some mixed drinks," Mitchell said. "I can have conversation with the family and it gives me the ability to multitask."
As Jones, the instructor, so aptly put it: "Barbecue is supposed to be fun."