11 Grilling Mistakes Every Guy Makes

By David Joachim, Posted Date: May 4, 2012

When the average guy throws down the first steak of the summer, he expects everything to go just right. But while we might imagine ourselves as Bobby Flays of the backyard, the reality is that most of us routinely make dozens of minor mistakes that can detract from ever reaching grilling perfection. Here are 11 of the most common errors, courtesy of David Joachim, author of Mastering the Grill.
1. Never cleaning your grill. Ever lift a friend’s grill lid to find a mess of spider webs and burnt-on burger bits? Not a pretty sight. And it makes it grilling anything decent next to impossible. Think of your grill grate like an open sauté pan. It should be clean before you cook on it. Brush the grate immediately after you take off the food. A hot grate cleans easier than a cold one.
2. Not oiling her up first. Just like a sauté pan, a grill grate needs a little oil to help transfer heat and keep food from sticking. Keep a jar of cheap cooking oil near the grill. Wad up a paper towel, dip it in the oil, and rub it over the hot grill grate just before adding food. Like magic, fish doesn’t stick! Grilled pizza crust browns beautifully! Steaks get deep grill marks!
3. Not getting her smoking hot. A red-hot grill helps prevent sticking, gives you professional grill marks, and cooks food faster. Preheat your grill grate, preferably with the lid down, for at least 15 minutes before adding food. The metal should be hot enough to sear on contact.
4. Grilling cold food. Ever wonder why your steaks take so long to cook? Maybe they’re ice cold! If you take a nice thick ribeye from fridge to fire, it burns on the outside before the inside reaches doneness. Let your steaks, chops, roasts, and even vegetables rest out of the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to take the chill off. That’s as long as you should preheat the grill anyway.
5. Grilling wet food. It’s a great idea to rinse chicken breasts clean. (Dirty birds!) But pat the meat dry before you toss it on the grill. Food doesn’t start to brown until the surface gets to about 250 degrees—but water can only get to 212 degrees before it evaporates. If the food is wet, it’ll steam before it grills. Bottom line: dry food = better browning = better flavor. Oiling the food also helps because the fat speeds heat transference.
6. Marinating in sweet barbecue sauce. Marinating is good. But not in barbecue sauce. It’s loaded with sugar and burns faster than a marshmallow in hell. No wonder your barbecued chicken always comes out black! Try marinating in a vinegar- or oil-based marinade. Save the sweet barbecue sauce for slathering on during the last 5 minutes.
7. Walking away from the grill. Step away from the fire and the chicken ignites. The pork chops turn to hockey pucks. The burgers incinerate. Here’s a solution: screw a cupholder onto your grill so you have an incentive to stand there. Or just drag your beer cooler to the grill so everyone will hang out with you. Once you get reeeally comfortable with cooking on your grill, experiment with walking away for brief periods.
8. Pressing on burgers. “My burgers always come out dry, not juicy.” Well, pressing all the juices out into the fire aint gonna help. After you toss burgers on the grill, let them sit there without touching them until they’re deeply grill marked. Then, and only then, flip them. Once. You’ll also get a juicier burger by adding 2 tablespoons ice water per pound of burger mixture. And it helps to use hamburger meat with at least 15 percent fat.
9. Guessing doneness. Don’t mess with bacteria. They can kill you. That’s doubly important with hamburgers because grinding meat spreads surface bacteria throughout the meat. Don’t just guess how done your burgers, steaks, and chicken breasts are. Stick an instant-read thermometer in them and find out for sure.
10. Not resting. The steak is cooked to perfection, and the beer-can can chicken has browned up beautifully. Now, get them off the grill and have a beer! The food needs time to rest. Ideally, you want to let food cool to an internal temperature of about 120 degrees before cutting into it. (That’s anywhere from 5 minutes for a thin pork chop to 20 minutes for a whole chicken.) During that time, the meat proteins firm up and they become better able to hold onto the meat’s juices. Every slice of rested meat tastes juicier.
11. Being a boring grill man. Everyone grills burgers and steaks. Think outside the beef. You can grill pizza, fruit, French toast…you name it. If you love burgers, try a bison burger. Want grilled dessert? Toss on some pineapple or pound cake.

June 17, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

In Dallas looking to get home.

We cleared customs and are at the gate for Nashville. All bags and people made it to Texas.

We have been traveling now for 38 hours straight. Everyone is doing well. Seems that all of the sickness has moved on. Ready to be home.

What a great team this has been. Molly the rookie who had never flown in an airplane has done great. We have all had a wonderful learning experience. God is good!

June 13, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education | FCA Uganda | Leave a comment

We have made it to London! Half way home.

The flight from Kenya to London was about 8 hours and was very smooth. Slept for about 5 hrs & Lisa slept almost the entire flight. She’s a real pro. Immigration was pretty smooth except for one in our group who could not get his liquids out of his bag & through the scanner separately. He was also the one in the group that had the most liquids & the most suspicious looking. Not naming names.

About to board the AA flight for Dallas and then on to Nashvegas. Halfway there.

June 13, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education | FCA Uganda | Leave a comment

We are heading home! Hard to leave.

Sunday was a great day of worship and teaching at Mountain of the Lord Church with Pastor Benjamin. We were in service from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm. They are serious about having church. Dave Deloach did a great job preaching and our version of their Ugandan worship songs wasn’t too bad.

We finally had to leave even though the service was still going. We had an appointment with a beautiful beach resort at Lake Nebuganu, We had a picnic on the ground in a lakeside setting and relaxed after a long week of work and play at Jireh Children’s Center. We finished the day with a desert at the Cafe Felkerren a Danish Cafe that many Omuzzungus (white folks) go and where we had the barbecue on Friday night. Several of the team have been fighting some dehydration and the “Ugandan Hustle” as we call it here but everyone is doing better. It’s been great to have Dr. Mullett on the team to help with health issues.

The extension for the teachers quarters is going well. We finished all of the brick to the exterior and interior walls and now the roof framing is still needed to be completed with the tin roof coming on last. A team from Texas (yeah) has just arrived and will be helping complete the teachers quarters.

Monday was a teaching time with both the older boys and girls on sexual purity. Setting the vision for abstinence is critical in this culture due to the high rate of HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted disease. We also presented the 6 drums that Stuart and Dr. Boyd gave to the Center and the 2 guitars that Dave Deloach brought and donated to the Center. The students were overjoyed! They wrote letters to our team and gave us a going away “program” of songs and skits. We struggled with the many tearful goodbyes.

It’s Tuesday morning now and we are about to load up for the 4+ hour bus ride to the Entebie Airport with a quick stop at the Equator gift shops for some last minute buying of African articles and memories. This has been a life changing trip in many ways and this has been an incredible team! I am very proud of how they have served and learned throughout this week.

June 12, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

We are closing in on the end of our trip. Work on the teachers quarters is going well.

We just finished our 5th day at Jireh and it’s not going to be easy to leave! The exterior walls are now completed on the new section of the teachers quarters and the vents are going in with the rafters will be going up next. These quarters will house up to 11 people or more and will even include a “shower” in the new section. Our new friend Alex is the brick layer and his crew of Johnny and David are becoming friends. I never knew a Cliff Bar could mean so much to someone.

The dental clinic is finished now and Dr. Ames saw over 177 patients and extracted 34 teeth. Overall he says the oral health of the Jireh children and staff is quite good. Dr. Boyd is now finished with the medical clinic and has been relegated to throwing bricks and mixing mortar.

The FCA girls spent some quality time sharing their stories with the Jireh girls and the Jireh girls shared their stories as well. These are life-changing events and ones the Father uses to help break down barriers and encourage ALL of our students in their faith.

June 9, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education | 1 Comment

A Guest Post on the Jireh Uganda Trip From Andrew Ellis & Others

Andrew Ellis:

This has been an excellent trip in many ways. Before leaving I was under the impression that it would be a simple trip to come help with a few construction projects and then go home. It has been much more than that. I did not think that what I am doing now would make as much of an impact as it has. Even though we are not finished I can already tell that even just our team simply showing up means more than I could ever imagine.

I have been challenged on this trip physically and emotionally. We are working on repairing and building teachers quarters requiring about six hour days of construction “Uganda style”. I also got sick yesterday which took out a lot of my energy. It is going to be hard to leave.

I have become attached to a few of the kids here. They are all very smart and very motivated. It is very encouraging to see people who have nothing monetarily so rich spiritually. I made a friend called Kakooza Robot who is a very good artist. He looks up to me and likes to follow me around whenever possible. I look forward to seeing him every day. I do not think his real second name is Robot, but I really badly want to believe that it is.

andrewpierceellis.wordpress.com

Lynn Vander Elst:

We’re having such an amazing and challenging time in Uganda. The first day at Jireh Children’s Center we received a warm and gracious welcome from the children; a blessed time of singing and dancing. God is graciously showing us our spiritual poverty as we spend our days ministering at the orphanage. What a blessing and a privilege to be here!

Stuart Boyd and Emmy Deloach:

We are having an amazing time and the children are little angels:))))) We are learning so much from them. Its not too hot surprisingly. we miss our moms. the bus rides are interesting. and the tea is fantastic. we are learning Lugandan and singing a lot of songs with the children. the building project is going well and for the most part we are all healthy. olyotya bukwano!!? i am engaged to linda – stuart

Gemma Rocha:

I’m at a loss for words when it comes to describing how amazing this missions trip to Uganda has been. The love and the joy the children in Jireh display to each other and to us is unbelievable. Every day we wake up early but are so excited to get the day started with the kids. We have learned a variety of Ugandan phrases and songs (we’re not that great) but we have fun singing along with the kids. As a team we have worked together and have accomplished so much. We have learned so much from these kids. I will always remember this trip above others.

June 8, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Update from Jireh.

We have access to the Internet now with the acquisition of some air time. Sorry for the delay in posting. Things are going well. Dr. Ames has seen over 166 dental patients and extracted over 30+ teeth. Dr. Boyd has seen 60+ students and treated many for various dermatological issues. The re-roofing of the teachers quarters is going well. We have completely pulled off a roof and are building new rafters and and a new sheet metal roof. We are also extending the building by 2 rooms. We are laying brick and mixing mortar with the Ugandan work crew.

FCA Students and alumni are teaching classes and playing with the children and some have been helping in the medical and dental clinics. Our accommodations at the Garden Courts Hotel are very nice and the food is outstanding especially if you like chicken, rice, potatoes, and pineapple.

We have been working on the Ugandan praise songs that Pastor Benjamin wants us to sing this Sunday at his church in addition to the ones we are bringing from the US. Dave Deloach and Lisa Harris are preaching this Sunday at Mountain of the Lord.

Stay tuned!

June 7, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Work is moving along @ Jireh! Dental & Medical Clinic going well & construction on teachers quarters.

Yesterday was a great time with students and we all went back to the hotel very tired. Today there has been good progress on the teachers quarters. We are re-building the roof and extending walls to provide privacy for 4 living quarters. Sawing African style is quite the experience. We purchased building materials yesterday and had them delivered up the hill to Jireh. Mixing mortar & completing the framing for the new rafter system will be completed today.

Dr. Ames has seen over 152 children now making a much-needed assessment of the oral health and hygiene of the students. At current count he is going to need to make over 15 extractions. Dr. Boyd has been working on multiple skin cases and have helping with their overall medical care.

Many of the ladies on the trip have been helping with games, artwork, and lunch preparation as well as helping on construction and in the medical clinics.

Everyone is doing well and falling in love with the Jireh students, teachers, and staff. Leaving is already going to be hard to do.

June 5, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

We are at Jireh Children Center! What a trip and what a wonderful place.

We made the final leg from Nairobi to Kampala and then the “3 hour” bus ride to the Garden Courts Hotel and the accommodations are very nice. The food was delicious and the rooms were very comfortable. Last night even though we were blurry eyed we practiced our songs and got a good nights rest even with the Prayer Calls going out and some discos with the music going loud. Some of us had our first experience with mosquito nets and cold showers but we are on an adventure right?

This morning we took the short bus ride out to Jireh and the children are so excited to see us. Some of our friends from our last trip are still here including Joseph who helped me build rabbit cages last time as well as Herbert the artist. We had a quick spot of tea and now the group is touring the facility and meeting all the children.

More to come later!

June 4, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Uganda style works well! Shot cards arrive!

The shot records cards made it! Thanks so much to Wendy Webb, Gina Nuenke, & Hannah Cropper for going above & beyond the call of duty & getting out in the wee hours to fax & email the shot records prior to us leaving the London Hilton.

We are now in Nairobi, Kenya after a 7 plus hour flight. Everyone is great! Just had one ambient induced bad trip on the flight here. We ate flying with the England Rugby team so we feel very safe & there are certain female types on the trip that are enjoying the view!

Also, Dave got some sleep!