Grilling

Direct heat is fast and shallow

A grill delivers a great deal of energy to the surface of the food and very little beyond it. The surface therefore browns, chars and eventually burns long before heat has conducted into the middle of anything thick.

That is fine for thin, fast things — a flattened chicken breast, a sausage, asparagus, a thin steak — where the interior is done in the time the surface takes to colour. It is a problem for anything thick, and it is why bone-in chicken over a barbecue is the classic disaster: black skin, raw inside.

The answer is not lower heat. It is two zones: a fierce area for colour and a cool area for the food to finish in, with the food moved between them.

Setting up two zones

1. On charcoal, bank all the coals to one side, leaving half the grill with no coals underneath.
2. On gas, light one or two burners and leave the rest off.
3. Under an oven grill, use the top shelf for colour and a lower shelf for finishing.
4. On a griddle pan, use the hot centre and the cooler edges, or move food to a low oven.
5. Sear the food over the hot zone until it has the colour you want.
6. Move it to the cool zone, cover if you can, and let it finish through gently.

Getting it right

• Preheat properly. A grill that is not fully hot steams and sticks. Charcoal is ready when the coals are ashed over grey, not when they are flaming.
• Oil the food, not the grill. Oil on hot bars burns off and smokes; oil on the food does the job.
• Dry the surface first. Wet food will not char.
• Sugar goes on late. Barbecue sauces, honey and marinades with sugar burn in a couple of minutes. Grill first, glaze at the end.
• Do not press burgers. You are squeezing out the fat and juice into the fire, which causes flare-ups and dries the meat.
• Move food away from flare-ups rather than spraying water at them, which throws ash onto the food.
• Let the bars mark the food and leave it. Moving it constantly gives grey stripes and no crust.

What suits it

Thin and fast

Flattened chicken, thin steaks, sausages, prawns, halloumi, spring onions, asparagus. Straight over the hot zone.

Thick and slow

Whole chickens, bone-in joints, ribs. Mostly in the cool zone with a brief sear at the start or the end.

Vegetables

Aubergine, courgette, peppers, corn, little gem lettuce, spring onions. All improve enormously with char.

Fruit

Peaches, pineapple, figs. The sugars caramelise and the acidity balances it.

Not suited

Anything delicate that falls apart — flaky white fish without a basket, small pieces without a skewer.

Getting it right under a domestic grill

• Preheat it properly. A grill that has been on for two minutes is not up to temperature, and the food dries out waiting for it.
• Distance is your temperature control. Close to the element for fast browning on thin things; further away for anything that needs to cook through.
• Line the tray, and use a rack over it so fat drains away rather than sitting under the food and smoking.
• Never leave it. A grill goes from perfect to black faster than any other heat in the kitchen, and there is no recovery.
• Pat food dry and oil it lightly. Wet surfaces will not brown under a grill any more than in a pan.
• Use it for finishing as much as for cooking — browning a gratin, blistering a skin, melting cheese, crisping a crackling that did not crisp.

Common questions