Grilling and Outdoor Cooking: Choosing a Grill and Using It Safely

Outdoor cooking equipment ranges from a small portable grill to something the size of a kitchen. The right choice depends less on budget than on how you actually cook and where you can store it.

Fuel type

• Gas — fast to start, easy to control, easy to clean. Convenient enough that it gets used on weeknights, which is the real argument for it.
• Charcoal — higher heat, more flavour, longer setup and cooldown. Better for people who enjoy the process.
• Electric — the only realistic option on many balconies and in flats where open flame is prohibited. Check your building's rules before buying anything else.
• Pellet — controllable like gas with wood flavour, needs mains power and costs more.

Check local rules and any tenancy or building restrictions before buying. This is the constraint people discover after delivery.

Two heat zones

The most useful technique in outdoor cooking, and it costs nothing. Set the grill so one side is hot and one side is cooler — on gas, by leaving burners off on one side; on charcoal, by banking the coals to one side.

You sear over the hot side and finish over the cool side. This is how thicker cuts get cooked through without burning, and it solves the most common grilling failure.

A grill big enough to do this is more useful than a small one running everything at full heat.

What to look for

• Cooking area against the number of people you usually cook for, plus room for a cool zone.
• Build quality of the grates. Heavy cast iron or thick stainless holds heat and marks food properly. Thin wire grates warp.
• A lid. It turns a grill into something that can roast, which doubles what you can cook.
• A built-in thermometer, though treat it as a guide.
• Ash and grease management — a removable tray is the difference between cleaning it and avoiding it.
• Storage size and whether it needs covering over winter.

Food safety, which is the part that matters

Outdoor cooking is where undercooking happens, because the outside browns long before the inside is done.

• Use a probe thermometer. Colour is not a reliable indicator of doneness. This is the most important accessory in the category.
• Check the safe internal temperatures published by your national food safety authority for poultry, minced meat, pork and whole cuts — they differ by type, and minced meat needs a higher temperature than a whole cut of the same animal.
• Keep raw and cooked separate. Separate plates, separate tongs. The plate that carried raw meat out is the classic cross-contamination route.
• Do not reuse marinade that touched raw meat unless it is boiled first.
• Keep food cold until it goes on, particularly in hot weather.

Grill safety

Never use charcoal or gas grills indoors, in a garage, or in any enclosed space — carbon monoxide from charcoal is lethal and has no smell. Keep the grill away from walls, fences and overhanging branches. Check gas hoses and connections for leaks at the start of each season with soapy water. Let charcoal cool completely before disposal, which takes longer than people think.

Before you order

Check whether your building or tenancy permits the fuel type. Check the cooking area allows a two-zone setup. Check storage dimensions and whether a cover is included. And budget for a probe thermometer at the same time — it does more for results and safety than anything else you can add.