Grilling on the barbecue is a staple of the Canadian summer.
People sink hours of their time into outdoor cooking and learning how to barbecue right takes effort.
But, how can people continue to enjoy this delicious pastime once the summer begins to fade out, and the temperatures outside start to cool?
Windsor Morning6:06Extend BBQ Season
You might be thinking about packing up the BBQ. But before you do, you may want to hear how you can extend BBQ season into the colder months. The self-proclaimed ‘Godfather of the Grill’ tells us how
Ted Reader is a self-proclaimed “Godfather of Grilling.” The an award-winning chef and professor of modern culinary applications innovations at Niagara College has some great tips to keep you grilling well into the fall and winter months.
He spoke to Windsor Morning‘s Nav Nanwa.
Here is part of their conversation.
NN: I want to ask you, first and foremost, being the godfather of the grill, is it safe to say that you grill all year round?
TR: Oh yeah, we do all year round. Winter, spring, summer, fall in the rain, in the snow, in the cold, in the hot. We’re outside grilling and smoking and having a good tasty time. That’s what it’s about. It’s grilling season 24/7 in my world.
What do you like about grilling to the fall and winter seasons?
Well, it gives you a break from from all that summer heat, which is wonderful and nice. But when you’re standing over fire pits all day long, it gets super, super hot. So the fall becomes a little bit of a break for you.
It’s exciting because you have to adapt, especially if you’re working with live fire, as in hardwood and charcoal, and understanding how to manage the time and the temperatures as the weather gets colder, as the winds get colder. Firewood and charcoal will burn faster in the winter than they do in the summer.
On that whole idea of adapting for barbecue season into the fall and winter, how should we prepare our barbecue when it comes to wanting to go about this?
Well, if you’re using a propane or natural gas grill, one thing you need to remember with natural gas grills is that you have a nice even heat source and flow of fuel so you don’t have to worry about refilling your tanks. In the colder weather your propane tanks, they need to be full. So you want to keep them topped up all all through the winter season.
You want to make sure that your grills are clean. So, as you get into the fall, you should strip it down, take out all the grates, take out the drip pan underneath the sear plates that are in there, scrub everything. Because a clean grill is a hotter grill, and a clean grill is a healthier grill. And so really you need to do a good deep clean into the fall and it’ll last you through the winter time as you want to continue to grill.
The firebox of your gas grill, that’s the thickest where the metal is. You want to make sure that your grills are tucked out of the wind in the direct wind, because when you open that lid on a gas grill you’re losing all that heat and it takes a bit of time for it to rebuild.
Working with charcoal grills or Kamado grills in the winter time is a little bit easier because you cook with the lids closed and so that regain of the internal temperature of that smoker or that grill comes back a little bit faster than it would on a gas grill.
Once prepared, what are some things we should keep in mind while cooking?
Well preparation for the upcoming weather is to do most of your prep indoors and then go out to do your final things you want to. If you’re grilling, it’s going to be things that are pretty hot and fast that you can do or utilize your rotisserie and let things spin. Make sure you got a drip pan underneath it to to catch anything of your dripping so that you’re not creating a grease fire and having a problem inside your grill.
Really, that’s it. It’s about patience. And, if it’s a really super, super cold day, you may want to say, “My oven is a better choice.” You can still do lots with your oven in the house if you don’t want to go outside.
When we get into the fall and winter seasons, what are the best foods that we can consider grilling on our barbecue?
Well the fall foods are harvest time. So roasting sweet potatoes and potatoes, squash, eggplant, cabbage, even roasted and grilled cauliflower on the grill. All those vegetables do great. Smoking ahead of cauliflower: Pop it in your microwave for about 6 to 8 minutes in a bowl covered with a little plastic wrap and some moisture in there.
You pre steam it and then you can pop it into your grill and roast it so it retains that moisture and it doesn’t dry out. Put a little crust on that of spread it with some seasoned mayonnaise with some spices and herbs and roasted garlic and then sprinkle it with some cheese. You’ve got an amazing roast cauliflower coming out of your grill.
Meats are fantastic all year long. Rotisserie chicken, smoking a turkey, grilling some salmon, or grilling a burger and steak. You can do that all year long, hot and fast. Quick and easy. Smoking as well, low and slow. You just have to monitor the temperature. It might take a little bit more energy to keep those temperatures higher in the colder weather.
