This may be a wildly unpopular opinion, but cooking on a gas grill is cheating.
(Lets be realrelinquishing control can be the hardest thing to do in almost any scenario.)
So now I implore you: Chuck your food in the fire and watch it burn.
Maybe the wind is messing with your airflow, or your wood has more moisture than youd like.
Whatever it is, the best you’re able to do is observe and react.
But the reward is entirely worth it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower did it with his steakaptly called theEisenhower steak.
More and more cookbooks are coming out and calling for this caveman style of grilling.
And no, youre not going to get the same result from a stovetop flame or a broiler.
Break through those crusts and youll find the smokiest, most tender version of each ingredient.
All you need is a fire, good ingredients, and minimal tools.
This heat ishot.Like anywhere from 400F to 1,000F hot.)
Long-handled tongs
Optional:Chimney starter
What youdontneed are briquettes.
You dont want to cook your food in high, licking flames.
You want the dangerously hot, glowing embers that have been reduced down to pure carbon and sugar chains.
These are the beauties that provide the clean, persistent heat we want.
If using hardwood, let your fire burn down into white-hot coals.
Break them up with a fire poker as necessary.
Spread the coal embers out over your lower grate in an even layer.
Once youve got your fire prepped, youre ready to cook.
Here are just seven of my favorite ingredients to get started with.
The protective skin is meant to be blackened and charred, preventing them from cooking too quickly.
Prepare your beets by scrubbing them clean and chopping off the stem and leaves.
Nestle them in the embers, turning often, until theyre evenly charred.
(These are great to throw in at the beginning if youre grilling more than one thing.)
The result is an especially sweet, smoky corn on the cob.
Lay them evenly across the coals, rotating often until all sides are evenly charred.
Ember-roasted peppers
The high heat of these embers will deeply intensify the inherent sweetness in your peppers.
Lay them along the embers and turn them often.
These will cook quickly, so keep an eye on them.
Blistered leeks
Leeks are often the misunderstood stepchild of the onion family.
I was one of those people who refused to cook with themuntil I ember-roasted them.
Now I realize Id just never eaten properly cooked leeks before.
Just like corn, soak your leeks beforehand to keep them from drying out.
Coal-baked potatoes
Another easy entry point for coal roasting is cooking whole potatoes.
Of all of the food Ive chucked in the fire, potatoes take the longest.
If youre working with glowing hot embers, these will take about 35-45 minutes.
Let them cool before slicing into the fluffy innards.
Rake your embers out evenly and lay the clams out among the coals.
Theyre not done until they pop fully open.
If any clams refuse to open, youre working with a dead clam.
Dont eat that clam.
Any embers that stick can be easily brushed off.
As for timing, all I can say is that this steak will cook faster than you think.
A quick way to measure the temperature without a thermometer is withthe hand test.
Place your hand 12 inches over the coals.
With the hand test, I lasted about a second and my temperature gauge was reading it at 800F .
