Both indirect and direct cooking are essential in everyday cuisine. They do much more when cooking outside using natural fuels like charcoal and wood. Indirect cooking is exactly what it sounds like: cooking anything without direct contact with the heat. You have a separate heat source and are using the heat but not the flames. Direct is good since you can immediately see what you’re cooking over the fire. Let’s examine why these two strategies are essential to our trade.
Cooking Outdoors on the Grill
When cooking outdoors on your grill, it is a huge benefit to know where the heat is low and high on your grill. This will be ideal knowledge when trying to utilize indirect and direct grilling. Vents will play a part in air flow to allow oxygen to reach the heat to keep it burning. Prior to starting your grill, be sure to check and adjust your vents for the desired air flow. If you are using charcoal, no air flow can reduce your flame to no flame at all, and too much air flow can create unmanageable heat. If you have used a particular grill, over time you will become very familiar with the hot and cooler areas. When unfamiliar with the grill you are working on, be sure to keep a close watch on foods that will burn quickly or create heat flares, such as fatty proteins. Food that will burn quickly must be kept under surveillance when grilling, especially with charcoal, due to the less easily regulated heat. However, gas grilling heat may be regulated by turning a dial and waiting for the temperature to adjust.
Cooking a Steak on the Grill
Let’s start with examples: a NY steak and a tri-tip roast. When I cook these examples on my charcoal grill, I combine direct and indirect heat. However, the ratios are vastly different. You could grill the roast over direct fire for as long as it takes to cook it, but the result would be a charred mess. Do you want it to cook evenly without burning?
In contrast, you could perfectly cook a steak with indirect heat, but it would lack something. The char flavor is what you’re missing. Every terrific steakhouse I’ve visited has charred its steaks. So, where do you draw the line between steak and roast? That is not the question we should be asking. After I’ve completed cooking, I ask myself how I want the meat to be done. When I think of the flavors I want, wood, smoke, and char are at the top of my list.
Let’s return to the tri-tip roast scenario for a moment. When I make tri-tip, I do the majority of the cooking indirectly. This may be a tedious or uninteresting portion of the cooking process. Still, it is one of the most critical steps for flavor! I’ll heat the kettle to medium and add some smoke to it. The wood smoke is infused into the meat during this period. It doesn’t matter how hot the kettle is to me as long as the core is not directly over the fire.
Steak Grilling Challenges
Cooking steak on the grill can be challenging when cooking for multiple guests. Because there are so many different varieties of ranges to cook a steak to its required level of doneness, it may be best to ask guests prior to removing the steaks from the grill what they would prefer for their level of doneness. You may find some want a nearly rare steak, some are in the middle of medium, and others are on the far end, requesting a well-done steak with a good char. If you have invested in a high-quality steak, then you may have spent a good amount of the meal budget on steak, and it is necessary to get the correct level of doneness for each guest, as once you have reached the level they wish for their steak, you cannot turn back the cooking process.
Grilling Advantage Indirect Heat
Another significant advantage of indirect cooking is that we can cook multiple items simultaneously. Concentrating your fire on one side of your cooker frees up a lot of cooking space to heat other foods. I’ve been known to do this with chicken wings, starting a small fire in one corner and then “reverse searing” them by cooking them 90% indirectly and then switching to direct fire to finish them. Cooking books frequently state that the sear comes first and then the indirect part of the cooking. By infusing your meal with natural wood smoke flavor, reverse sear takes advantage of the flavor component of indirect cooking.
Direct Heat Grilling
Direct cooking, however, is my favorite aspect of grilling. You get to experiment with fire! Grilling meat over a live fire makes me feel more macho. I have the power in my best He-Man voice! Cooking directly over a heat source or fire is known as direct cooking. Direct cooking with charcoal and wood can also generate excellent flavor. Let’s go back to the steak example. Man, I adore a good steak. I like to cook my steaks hot and quick, almost entirely directly, to obtain maximum char from the amazing Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is a bizarre process that uses heat to reduce carbohydrates and proteins. I won’t go into detail, but it’s delicious. It’s probably the flavor you’re looking for when you eat steak.
In Conclusion
This post aims to illustrate why both indirect and direct cooking styles are required in our great world of outdoor cooking. It is most beneficial to learn and try a variety of grilling options to discover your preferences and find out what creates the flavor profile you are seeking when grilling. Numerous cookers are available now that provide various direct and indirect cooking options. At the time of this writing, many pellet cooker manufacturers are beginning to recognize that customers like to use direct heat to achieve that great char. They are beginning to include these alternatives in their cooking packages. Pellet grilling is another alternative in the world of grilling. Pellet grills use small wood pieces to create the heat and smoke flavor you want when grilling. What a fantastic time to be a fan of outdoor cooking! I will be looking for steak-filled, fragrant smoke!