Grillmaster ready: The art and science of great barbecue

Ever daydream of being the envy of the neighborhood with a phenomenal, fall-off-the-bone rack of ribs that people can't get enough of?

Ahead of what many people consider the beginning of grilling season, we’re joined by Alex Stelzleni, professor and director of graduate studies for the University of Georgia Department of Animal and Dairy Science. In this short interview, Stelzleni provides quick, expert tips that will help you feel more confident when choosing the right cuts of meat, selecting the best method of seasoning, and preparing to step up to the grill or smoker.

If you enjoy cooking outdoors, this episode from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will help you look like a pro next time you turn up the heat.

Resources:

• UGA Meat Science Technology Center Store
• Grill & Chill: Unleash Flavor Safely with Outdoor Cooking and Grilling

Content from CAES:

• Serving up the facts: Food science and safety

Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.

Transcript

Sound Effect: 0:00

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Jordan Powers: 0:00 

Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives, from what we eat to how we live. I'm Jordan Powers. 

Emily Cabrera: 0:14

And I'm Emily Cabrera. We're from the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Sound Effect: 0:19

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Emily Cabrera: 0:20

We're recording this episode ahead of what many people consider the beginning of grilling season. So if you like to cook outdoors, we hope this episode provides some great advice for preparing the best barbecue all year long.

Jordan Powers: 0:34 

We're joined today by Alex Stelzleni, Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Head of the CAES Department of Animal and Dairy Science for some quick expert tips that are sure to make you look like a pro next time you're behind the grill. Alex, thanks for joining us today. 

Alex Stelzleni: 0:48

Thanks for having me. I've really been looking forward to joining you all. 

Emily Cabrera: 0:51

So Alex, if listeners are looking to keep their setup minimal, what tools do you really need at the grill? 

Alex Stelzleni: 0:58

That's actually a really good question, and one we get quite a bit. We always start it with, it depends if you're looking at actually grilling or smoking and barbecuing. There's also options where you can do both. And so we'll approach it from all different aspects. There's some really good affordable grills and smokers that are on the market. And there's some good options, like I said, that lets you do both. So the first thing is deciding what it is you want and what grill or smoker that you're to decide on. If you're wanting to do both, you have to decide how much you might be grilling or smoking at one time, because that's going to impact the size. And of course, size a lot of times impact the price. A lot of times when we're talking to people, they get grand ideas, but in reality, they're not cooking for 15, 20 people at a time. It's them, a few friends and their family. And so really want to be realistic about what your needs are, especially if you're starting out. 

When we start thinking about some of the options out there for both grilling and smoking, we can think about an offset grill and smoker. And so the offset is where there's a firebox on the side that will allow for smoking, but usually a place in the larger drum that will allow you to put charcoal and actually cook with direct heat on. The other option, and one of my go-tos is the kettle. They allow for both the direct grilling, direct heat, and the smoking in a somewhat offset manner. And it just takes a little bit of time and practice. And one of the really nice things with a kettle style is a lot of different sizes that are out there and they're affordable. You can get some from 16 inches to 18 inches. And then my preference is a 23 to 26 inch diameter, because that's large enough that will allow me to cook and smoke some larger pieces of meat if I want to.

One of the other things you really want to look at, especially when we talk about this, is looking at price of them. If they're just getting into it, you probably don't want to go with a setup that's going to cost you a thousand or $2,000. And so there are some options that can range from about 150 to $200 that can really let you get in and get started. And once you start to figure things out and get to a level where, okay, it's time to expand and increase what I want and get some of the bells and whistles, then you can start looking at some of the other options that are out there. 

Besides the grill and smoker setup, of course you need some other utensils to go along with it. And so some of the ones that we always suggest everybody have are prong fork, and you're going to want some tongs as well to help pick up the meat, handle the meat so you're not touching it with your hands. As a preference, we always have a focus on food safety, and so I always recommend having some rubber gloves or nitrile gloves around so that you can easily dispose of them and stop some cross-contamination. I also suggest everybody start out in getting some heat-resistant barbecue gloves. And that's especially if you're coming in and you're starting to do some of the more barbecue and smoke aspect, where you're going to have to reach and grab a hold of that meat. You'd be surprised how hot it gets in there. And so having some of those that you can throw in the washer or that are rubber so you can throw them in the dishwasher actually helps out quite a bit. 

Probably the second most important thing besides the grill though that I think a lot of people forget about and probably don't actually have at home is a good, reliable, and accurate thermometer. And there's a lot of options on the market for those. You can go really expensive that are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and you can run from anywhere you are to simple pin thermometers that you just stick in the meat and test the temperature. One of the critical aspects with that is a lot of times people will be grilling and they try and do it by feel or by touch. And that's not the best way of doing it. Or they'll come in and they'll actually cut into the meat to have a look at it. And there's some negative aspects to doing that of course.

If we're going to look at setting up more from a smoking standpoint and want to get into some of the barbecue, I also recommend a really good cooler. One of the foundations of making really good barbecue is after the meat is done, letting it rest for a while in a cooler. Kind of letting the moisture and the juice and the fat redistribute through the product.

We want the temperature to come back down a little bit. And so a really good insulated cooler where the product can sit in there for an hour, two hours is really helpful. 

On the smoking side, we also recommend that individuals get what we call peach paper. And peach paper is just an unwaxed butcher paper. Or you can use aluminum foil, depending on your preference. And there's positives and negatives to both of them. But that is almost essential because at some point in the smoking and barbecue process, you're going to want to wrap that meat up. And then you're going to want it to stay wrapped when you put it in the cooler for the rest period. 

Then of course, we also have to decide on something to generate the smoke. It's going to be wood of some kind, but you have options out there as to whether you're going to use pellets, chips, chunks, or would consider logs or whole wood that's out there. And with that, you can also get a lot of different options as far as the flavors you want. If you want to do apple or cherry or hickory or a competition blend, because all of those will influence the overall flavor of your final product.

One that's not necessarily absolutely essential, but will come in handy for everybody out there that's done this a little bit, is a really large pan or a lug. And especially whenever we are doing barbecue and smoking, that large pan or the lug just makes it easier when we're seasoning the product and when we have to carry that product back and forth from the kitchen to the grill or smoker. 

Jordan Powers: 6:07

When we're looking at just kind of a Sunday quick grill out, this may be perhaps the most important and contentious question, charcoal or propane? 

Alex Stelzleni: 6:16

We get this question a lot too, and it is very controversial out there and everybody has their preference. There's positives and negatives to both. When we talk about using gas or propane or natural gas, a lot of homes are going to be piped with natural gas that they can hook up to. The positive is it's quick, it heats up quick, it cools down quick. If you decide at last minute that we want to grill something, it doesn't take a lot of planning because you can go flip the switch, turn it on, and you're ready in 10 or 15 minutes. 

The downside to them that a lot of people claim is a lot of times you might get a little bit of a gas odor and smell on the meat. Doesn't bother some people, some people it does. But they are very convenient and easy to use and a lot of people do enjoy having them. 

With the charcoal, it does take a little bit more time and preparation and planning. It takes longer for the grill to heat up. Eventually, you'll get used to your grill and the amount of charcoal it takes to have a consistent temperature that's out there. The benefits to it are you get more of that natural fire and kind of smoky flavor. 

There's some other things we can throw in as well that can complicate it. Of course, besides just gas and charcoal, we have options that include electric and pellets and natural smoke, which would be just using the wood that's out there. And so, everybody has their preference on what they use and how they use them. 

Jordan Powers: 7:35

That makes a whole lot of sense. Starting with maybe how much time you have to invest, what your preference and flavors are, and then kind of making your decisions from there. 

Emily Cabrera: 7:42

All right. If we're standing in the grocery store at the butcher's counter, what cuts of meat should we be looking for and what qualities are important? 

Alex Stelzleni: 7:49

Really good question. Again, this goes back to how we're going to be handling that product, whether we're going to be grilling it or smoking it. If we're looking at grilling, what we want to look for a lot of times is going to be some of what we call the middle meats. Things that would come from the rib and the loin area. They tend to be thinner cuts. By thinner, I mean anywhere from half an inch to an inch and a half. Easy to handle. They cook quickly, and we're going to cook them over direct heat. 

We want to make sure that especially on the beef side that we get a higher quality type of product. Most of the time, we're going to be looking for something that is at the choice level or higher. We've got three levels of choice. We can go choice or upper two-thirds choice or into the prime category. Most of what we find in the grocery stores is going to be choice. It's perfectly good to put on the grill. That's going to denote by the amount of marbling or the white flecks of fat that are dispersed throughout the product that's there. 

Another preference is a lot of times when we look at products, there's not a whole lot of fat on the outside. As a personal preference, I actually like a little bit of fat on the outside of my steaks and chops when I'm cooking them. There's a lot of argument as to whether that adds flavor directly to the meat, but I think it does because even as that fat renders out, it drips down on the coals, and you do get some flavor from that aspect. 

When we're talking about smoking, those are going to be much larger pieces of meat and products that are out there. We want to make sure that we do have some fat cover on whatever we're going to be smoking because it will help insulate the product as it goes, and it does add some flavor throughout the product that's there. 

One of the differences is in the smoked product, it's going to be more of an indirect heat, and a lot of things that we're smoking take more time. We do that because those are less tender cuts that are out there. It's not the cuts from the loin and the rib usually, and so it does take more time to help make that meat feel more tender and softer. 

Jordan Powers: 9:41

I have to do a little shameless plug here. At the Animal and Dairy Science Meat Store that's right here on campus, we can kind of see it out the window where we're recording, over here on River Road is a phenomenal resource for incredible cuts of meat for all of the categories you just talked about.

Alex Stelzleni: 9:54

Absolutely. We're actually open from 10 to 4 30 every Friday, and our list is online, and you can always reach out and talk to Hamp or Ryan, the two managers that are down there. They tend to help everybody out get what they want from hamburgers and steaks all the way to half and whole hogs.

Jordan Powers: 10:12

They do a great job. Definitely check that out. Again, we will link that in the show notes. But, now that we have our setup, we've gone to the butcher, or we've gone to the grocery store, we've gone to the meat sale, we have our product. Can you break down the different benefits of brining, versus dry rub, versus marinade? 

Alex Stelzleni: 10:26

Brining is going to be a technique that we use where we're going to have a meat product, and we're going to put it in a solution and let it rest in that solution for a couple of hours, maybe overnight. A lot of times the benefit of brining while we're doing it is it's going to be on some of our leaner cuts, and so a lot of times if I'm going to smoke a product, I will use a brine if I'm doing pork loin or chicken or turkey. They don't have a lot of fat to them. We want them to hold on to some of that moisture while they're going through the cooking process, and so that brine, it's usually pretty simple. It's water and then salt, and my preference is I tend to go for just a little bit over sea level salt quantity, and so somewhere between four and four and a half percent salt, and then equal amount of sugar to counteract the harshness of the salt. We dissolve the salt and sugar in the brine, and then we just put the meat in it and let it absorb the osmosis into the product, and you can add some other seasonings and flavors. They might not absorb all the way through. Citrus is another big one that a lot of people use in brining as well. 

The other option we talk about marinade. Marinade is going to be for a couple of hours, but we're not going to pull in the moisture like we do during a brine, and we'll a lot of times have some other flavors and seasonings. A marinade is typically going to be thicker in its consistency, and it's really just to coat the outside of the product and add a desired flavor that we want to get, and a lot of times we're going to use a marinade on something that's going to be more on the grilling side, where it's going to be that direct heat, not take as long to cook. 

When we talk about the dry brining, there's a lot of controversy over what is actually dry brining or not. Some people will dry brine by salting a product, maybe the night before, letting the salt pull some of the moisture out of the meat, and then as it sits there, it pulls the salt back into it. If you're doing that, one of the things you do want to make sure is you pat the meat dry on the surface before it goes on the grill, because we need a dry, tacky surface in order to build the crust on the outside that a lot of us are looking for and desire. Otherwise, we can get a vapor barrier, and it might look more steamed than actually grilled.

My preference is I tend to add salt and pepper and maybe a little bit of garlic powder right before it goes on the grill. 

Jordan Powers: 12:36

So that's the simple seasoning approach that works every time, if in doubt, a little salt, pepper, garlic powder right before it goes on. 

Alex Stelzleni: 12:42

And you can always play with your flavors, but there's kind of a tried and true that's out there, and salt, pepper, garlic powder is kind of the standard that never fails.

Emily Cabrera: 12:50

I love that, and I do think you mentioned something earlier, you know, you start simple, and over time, you kind of come up with your own system. My husband's tried and true recipe is mustard, chicken flavor, and a good lager. And I don't know, he puts it on everything.

Alex Stelzleni: 13:07

Sounds like a good combination. 

Emily Cabrera: 13:09

So we know that good barbecue takes time. How far in advance should you prep the meat, and how much time should be set aside for cooking? 

Alex Stelzleni: 13:16

Great question. And this is one where, if you ask my wife, she would laugh at you. Because I will tell her we'll be ready at seven o'clock, and a lot of times it's nine, ten o'clock at night, and maybe the next day if we're smoking something. 

Jordan Powers: 13:32

Oops.

Alex Stelzleni: 13:33

Yeah, absolutely. If we talk about grilling, it's really not that hard, because grilling is going to be that direct heat, and it's a much shorter amount of time. And so one of the big questions that we have to think about is, is the meat that we're going to be grilling thawed, or is it frozen? And of course, if it's frozen, we have to plan so we can properly thaw that product in the refrigerator, again, maintaining food safety standards. We don't want to just put it out on the counter at room temperature for a long time to thaw. 

And so if you have a product that's thawed, just enough time to put the seasoning on it, and then might take a few minutes to heat up the grill, again, goes back to the gas versus charcoal question that's there. I can usually heat up a gas grill in 10, 15 minutes. My charcoal grill might take about a half hour to get to the temperature that I want it. 

Direct grilling, a lot of the stuff that I grill is going to be about an inch to an inch and a half thick. Knowing my grill and the temperature that I cook at, and the degree of doneness I like my steaks and chops, it's usually less than 10 minutes cook time.

If I'm looking at smoking, we're talking about hours. And so a lot of times if I'm going to do a pork butter brisket, I'm going to be planning somewhere from 12 to 24 hours in advance. 

Emily Cabrera: 14:44

Wow. The commitment.  

Jordan Powers: 14:45

Definitely commitment. So it sounds like to get the product to the table when you want it there, it's collecting your data, right? Of what your equipment is, what your product is, and how your preferred end product is prepared. And then working back from that kind of target eating time. 

Alex Stelzleni: 15:01

Absolutely. 

Emily Cabrera: 15:02

Yeah. There's kind of an art and science to this process of getting everything out with the sides at the same time so it's hot and ready to go. 

Alex Stelzleni: 15:09

And that's one of the things that actually makes it really fun and enjoyable. Even though it does take a lot of time and dedication, why we keep doing it because it is a really good mixture of the art and science aspect. And so even in the classes, we can talk to our students about that. And there's nothing wrong with the fact you get to eat your end product. 

Jordan Powers: 15:27

And that's kind of a win, right? You're doing these little really delicious experiments. So not to dampen the mood, but no one typically wants to think about cleaning up the grill after a fun day cooking out. But what is the most effective way to clean up our space so that it is safe and ready to go for our next grilling session? 

Alex Stelzleni: 15:45

Yeah. So that's a great question because we can even tie this back into the food safety aspects again. One, if we're talking about our countertops, our kitchens, our prep areas, I always keep some Clorox or some bleach wipes around. And anytime we're working on a surface, it always gets wiped down before and after, so we're ready to go for the next time.

The next thing would be utensils. We talked about tongs, a prong fork, pans. We want to make sure that we're not cross-contaminating. And so as I'm going through the cooking process, I'm always washing all the utensils that I've got in between as we go instead of letting them pile up because I'm going to need them again from the raw product when I have to go out and touch the cooked product. 

When we talk about the grills or the smokers, I'd like to go ahead and clean it pretty quick. When that surface is still hot, it's easier to clean off. And there's a lot of different types of scrapers out there from wire scrapers, stone scrapers, and kind of a composite Brillo pad. And so you can go in and knock the surface off, keep it good and clean. And then the heat does a really good job of sterilizing everything else that's out there. If you wait a day or two and then come back, it gets a lot harder to clean. You have to pull it off. You have to let the grates soak in a soap water or some sort of degreaser and then scrub them a little bit harder. And so it's always easier to do it whenever you're done and everything's still hot.

Jordan Powers: 17:03

And we made that mistake once that we let it sit because we were tired, we were over it. And then I was like, oh, never again.

Emily Cabrera: 17:10

Well, I'm going to be sure to flag the minute marker where we talk about this and just gently suggest that my husband jumped to this part in the conversation. 

Jordan Powers: 17:20

Next time he gets in the car, just have it like preloaded. In the meantime, I'm excited. We're still grilling off a little travel grill at home. So now I need to go do my research so that we can have a real grill. Maybe this season is our season. So I'm selfishly very excited about this episode and I hope our listeners feel the same. And in the meantime, Alex, thank you so much for joining us and giving us these tips today. 

Alex Stelzleni: 17:40

Absolutely. It's been great joining you. And one of the really nice things is being in Georgia, we can actually grill and barbecue all year round. 

Emily Cabrera: 17:46

That's right.

Jordan Powers: 17:47

That's been a perk of moving here. I love it. Thanks again.

Sound Effect: 17:50

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Jordan Powers: 17:50

Thanks for listening to Cultivating Curiosity, a podcast produced by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A special thanks to Mason McClintock for our music and sound effects. Find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts.