One of the most important techniques for barbecue

Whether it is grilled meat or grilled vegetables, the best result is that the outer skin becomes crispy and has the rich flavor produced by Maillard Reaction and Caramelization. At the same time, the inside of the food reaches the ideal temperature to keep it tender and juicy. 

We always use grills and smokers, and our usual cooking methods are that the heat source first heats the surface of the food, and then the surface heat is conducted to the inside of the food. Because of this, we need to treat the exterior and the interior separately.

One of the problems often encountered when grilling is that the grilling is too fast and overheated, and the surface is often battered, and the inside is not necessarily cooked. In many cases, slow roasting at a low temperature will be better. 

But the best way is to start with low-temperature and slow-bake, wait until the inside of the food is close to the ideal temperature, and then high-temperature and fast-bake, so that Maillard Reaction and Caramelization can occur on the surface. This very important technique has a proper term called reverse sear.

When is it hot to bake?

The thinner the meat, the more suitable for high temperature, such as thin Skirt Steak, asparagus and shrimp, because they are easy to cook, so high-temperature fast roasting can get a browning surface without over-cooking the inside.

Fast roasting at high temperature means that the grill is running at full power, and then the food is directly on the heat source and the closer to the heat source, the better, so that the heat of infrared radiation can be applied to the food to the greatest extent. In addition, generally do not open the grills lid when baking at high temperature (no matter it is charcoal or air grilling, basically there is a lid.). 

This way the heat only acts on the bottom of the food. Covering the grills lid will have reflected heat to cook the upper part of the food and transfer the heat to the middle. Open the grills lid, try to get all the heat from the bottom, and only use the high heat to "blow" the surface. But because of the high temperature, you need to keep turning the food.

When is low temperature and slow roasting?

Thicker meat or vegetables need to be roasted slowly at a low temperature. Otherwise, even if the surface is carbonized, the inside will not be cooked. Meat contains a lot of water (more than 70%), and water is not a good heat transfer body, so it is actually very slow for heat to enter the food, especially the inside of the meat.

Lower the temperature, and then close the grills lid so that only a small amount of heat accumulates on the outside of the food, allowing sufficient time for the heat to enter the center. Low-temperature slow roasting has a good effect on hard parts with a lot of connective tissue, such as sirloin, pork shoulder, and ribs. 

Use low temperature cooking for long enough, the fat will melt and the connective tissue will soften. Another advantage of low-temperature slow roasting is that the salt has enough time to enter the food, and the whole piece of meat can have a taste.

To bake slowly at low temperature, a very important technique is two-zone setup. In this way, there will be a mild convection indirect heating zone, gentle air flowing around the food in this area; and a direct heat radiation zone.

Master two important temperatures:

You need to do experiments on the pellet grill and master the skills that the indirect zone can maintain 117 degrees Celsius and 183 degrees Celsius respectively (when the pellet grill is covered with a lid, the same is true without a lid). At 117 degrees Celsius, you can use indirect convection heat to slowly roast, right Ribs (the ribs made by Fredi in "House of Cards" may be used at this temperature) are especially suitable. At 183 degrees Celsius, you can make the skin of the roast chicken crispy. Mastering these two temperatures, you can grill a variety of foods.

When do you need reverse sear for both methods?

If you want to grill a 5 cm thick steak, the ideal internal temperature is 54 degrees Celsius. If you bake at 117 degrees Celsius, you can get a beautiful and even color inside, but there is a problem that there will be no browning. 

The solution for thick steaks, chicken, and even potatoes is to use two methods at the same time: first low temperature and slow roasting, and then high temperature and fast roasting. It can be called a two-step cooking method or a reverse sear. By cooking the inside and outside separately, both the inside and outside can reach the perfect temperature.

First, set the grill to two-zone setup, and the temperature of the debugging indirect zone is 117 degrees. Put the steak in the indirect area, you can lower the temperature to reduce the particle conduction speed, (then turn off the grill's lid) low temperature and slow smoke.

Turn the  PID temperature controller until the internal temperature is about 7 degrees Celsius below the target temperature. You need a good instant-read digital meat probe to confirm the internal temperature. For example, a medium-rare steak, when the temperature inside the steak reaches 47 degrees Celsius (in the case of pork chops, it reaches 54 degrees Celsius, and in the case of chicken it reaches 66 degrees Celsius). Take it off and put it on a plate for a while. Now that the inside is almost complete, it's time to bake the outside quickly at high temperature.

Adjust the temperature of the direct heating zone, the hotter the better. If your charcoal grill can adjust the height of the carbon, you can adjust it so that the carbon is as close as possible to the grill. For gas grills, adjust the burner to the maximum or turn on your sear burner (it can reach a very high temperature, especially suitable for grilling steak.).SO use Z Grills pellet grills can easy to adjust the temperature that we need, Choose Z pellet grills, Be the grill master that you want to be ‍

Before roasting, pat the meat side dry with kitchen paper. Then put the dry side on the hottest area of the grill, open the lid, and prevent any heat from reflecting on the steak through the lid to heat the inside. Don't take too long, or the heat will start to heat the inside of the food. 

Keep turning it over until the surface becomes dark brown (the color of bourbon) and a crispy crust appears. If the inside is 54 degrees Celsius, then the outside just becomes brown. You have a perfect medium rare steak. Food over 2.5 cm thick basically needs to be roasted in two-zone, two-stage to achieve perfection.