Cooking outdoors seems to bring out the creative side of most people. There’s something about an open flame and smoke that inspires an ordinary chef to become a culinary genius.

Maybe it’s instinctive. After all, for thousands of years we survived by eating food that was cooked outdoors, over an open fire. Maybe it’s just because of associating cooking outdoors with holidays, but whatever the cause, we love to cook and eat food outside.

The key to maximizing our enjoyment of this pastime is to ensure that we use fresh food, proper techniques and high quality equipment. This site will provide reviews of several outstanding grills and smokers. Snoop around, there are also some great cooking tips and tricks scattered around.

About Barbecue

Cooking over an open fire has, arguably, been one of the few human behaviors practiced over the entire history of human kind. Every culture has developed different methods of cooking meat over flame or coals, all of which constitute some kind of barbecue. The end result is that there are three basic types of this type of cooking, Grilling, Smoking and Barbecuing.

Grilling

This type of cooking is done at very high heat on a preheated grill and for a short duration. Placing the meat on a very hot grill has the effect of searing it and sealing in the natural juices of the meat. Grilling is best done with thinner cuts of meat and great care needs to be taken not to cook the meat too much or drying it out. A common technique to prevent this is to use a marinade which both moisturizes the meat and coats it with marinade which turns into a glaze over the high heat and helps seal in the moisture.

Smoking

Smokers are often different types of cookers altogether. Their purpose is to cook the meat by infusing with smoke. This can be done hot or cold. Smoking takes a lot longer than grilling and results in meat that is rich in flavor. Different tastes can be introduced through the smoking process by using different types of wood chips to create the smoke. The meat is not exposed directly to the flame but is enveloped by wood smoke which both cooks and flavors it.

Barbecue

Barbecue is the most widely used outdoor cooking method. It describes a wide range of temperatures, marinades, flavors, sauces and meats. There are many regional differences to barbecue as well from the Teryaki fusion tastes of the West Coast to traditional Texas beef barbeque or the rich Cajun influenced flavor of the deep south. Barbecue can be simple or complex but the basic principle is to cook meat over a medium heat for a longer time than grilling but not as long as smoking. The ubiquitous propane or natural gas grill has mostly replaced the traditional charcoal barbeque for all but the purists. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Explore some of the different cookers on this site to learn more. Grilling, Smoking or Barbecuing; call it anything you want but it is one of the most rewarding ways to prepare food imaginable. Learning about the different equipment available and how to use it can be a fantastic way to take an everyday chore like cooking and turn it into a fun and exciting pastime with delicious results!