Hot Tubs and Grilling Mistakes

So, you have decided to throw a little dinner party for a few of your closest friends, that is mighty nice of you. But instead of whipping up your famous chicken cacciatore, you have opted to serve a BBQ dinner. You were inspired by a recent episode of BBQ Pitmasters.

This is a little out of your comfort zone, so you hope it all goes well.

You head out to the grocery store to stock up on chicken, brisket and ribs. You also grab several bottles of BBQ sauce. But before you fire up the grill and prepare your feast, you should make sure you are doing it right. Spa Max, your hot tub superstore in Corona, offers BBQ mistakes to avoid.

 

 

Too Much on the Grill

Grills are wonderful, but don’t overload yours with hot dogs, burgers, chicken, onions, corn and kabobs. This will not play out very well. In addition to the risk of cross-contamination, having too many items on the grill will cause undercooked and overcooked foods. Play it safe and just cook a few items at once.

Refrigerator to Grill

Any seasoned chef will tell you to never take meat from the refrigerator and place it on the grill. It is far better if you allow the meat to reach room temperature before slapping in on the grill, it will cook more evenly.

Incorrectly Seasoned

Using the wrong marinade or seasoning mix is sure to ruin your BBQ. Avoid using a marinade that is loaded with corn syrup, sugar or is high in citrus as these ingredients tend to burn off very quickly on the grill.

Any BBQ enthusiast knows that you need to marinate the meat at least several hours before cooking it on the grill. The ideal marinade will be a puree that is low in acidity, like mango, for example, or you can choose to simply use Worcestershire sauce. If you decide to use BBQ sauce, brush it on right before the meat is fully cooked.

If you want to skip the marinade or BBQ sauce and go with a rub, that’s fine. Just remember to keep the spice rub simple and apply it to the meat right before placing it in the grill.

Not Enough Meat

You don’t want to hand one of your guests a burger that is dwarfed by the bun. That’s not cool. The burger is so small, it takes three bites before you reach the meat. The reason this happens is that the burger will shrink as it is being cooked. So make sure you make large patties.

Food Safety

It would be a shame if you were to serve contaminated food. That would basically ruin your party. The CDC reports that one in six Americans will become ill from food poisoning each year. There is a chance you could poison your friends.

You can avoid most food-borne illnesses by following a few simple rules. You should wash your hands several times while preparing food, especially after handling raw meat. You also need to make sure that other food, plates and utensils don’t come in contact with raw meat.

Preheat the Grill

One mistake that many wannabe chefs make when grilling is tossing the meat on the grill before letting it warm up. If the grill is properly heated up first, the meat will cook faster and it will be tender and juicy.

Once the ideal temperature has been reached, between 350 450 degrees depending on what type of meat you are cooking, close the lid so that it remains tender and juicy.

Too Much Heat

If you turn the grill up too high, it will ruin the meat you are cooking. Keeping the heat too high will result in overcooked burgers, burnt chicken and steaks that are overdone on the outside and raw on the inside.

Lifting the Lid

Once you have placed the meat on the grill and closed the lid, keep it closed as much as possible. Opening the lid every 30 seconds to poke and prod the meat will result in dry meat.

Once the lid has been closed, you should only open it to either flip the meat or to baste it with more sauce.

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