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" Published in the Eat Like a Man cookbook. Click here for more. Charcoal or gas? Gas or charcoal? Charcoal probably gives your food a better flavor. But gas... it&amp;#039;s just so easy. Still, charcoal grills aren&amp;#039;t that hard to get going. Have a drink. It&amp;#039;ll be ready soon. You can grill just about anything over direct heat \u2014 right above the coals or the flame \u2014 but sometimes, indirect grilling is better. Big cuts of meat, entire chickens, anything dripping with fat \u2014 for these, shove all the coals to one side of the charcoal grill and use the opposite side, or, on a gas grill, use less flame and don&amp;#039;t cook the food directly over it. A covered grill is a hotter grill. Food cooked in a covered grill tastes smokier. This is usually a good thing, but not always. Also, it&amp;#039;s easier to overcook food when the grill is covered. Why? Because you can&amp;#039;t see the food. &amp;quot;Barbecuing&amp;quot; usually refers to cooking big things like pork butt, beef brisket, and whole hogs over low heat for a long time. Grilling hamburgers is not barbecuing. That&amp;#039;s grilling. A good way to oil your grill&amp;#039;s grid before using: Chop an onion in half, dip the cut side in vegetable oil, and rub it all over the grid. The resealable plastic bag was made for marinating. Basting meat with leftover marinade during cooking is a good idea. Using leftover marinade as a finishing sauce is not. Because of the raw-meat juice, of course. To clean your grill grate, use a little soapy water at the beginning of the season. Then hit it with a wire brush, when it&amp;#039;s still warm, after each use. That&amp;#039;s it. A pot holder is not the same thing as a grilling mitt. Pot holders are for ovens. To test food for doneness, a cake tester or metal skewer can make you look like a genius. Stick it into the middle of whatever meat you&amp;#039;re grilling, then hold it to your chin. If it&amp;#039;s cool, keep cooking. If it&amp;#039;s warm, you&amp;#039;re at medium-rare. If it&amp;#039;s pretty hot, yank the food off the grill. Careful with tongs. Squeeze too tight and you squeeze the juice out. Same goes for maneuvering using a fork or knife. Spatulas. On gadgetry: Baskets, toppers, rib racks, vegetable holders, drip pans \u2014 all good tools, though not all essential. Only buy what you&amp;#039;ll use. A cool gadget for charcoal grills: the electric charcoal igniter. You plug it in, set it in the grill, top it with charcoal, and within about eight minutes the coals will be on their way to readiness. No lighter fluid needed. But nothing beats the chimney starter. Charcoal is ready when 80 percent of the coals are ash-gray. If the fire gets too weak (you can hold your hand just above the grill for four or five seconds), try pushing the coals closer together. If it&amp;#039;s too hot (two seconds, max), spread the coals out and move your food to the edge. If the coals start to burn down and disappear, add more \u2014 but remember, that brings the temperature down, too. You can put barbecue sauce on just about anything. But only do so in the last ten or fifteen minutes of cooking \u2014 the sugar in the sauce can char. Add just about anything to mayonnaise for a sauce or a spread. Hot sauce, lemon zest, basil, mustard, whatever. Hard not to make it taste good. An interesting steak sauce: Dijon mustard, melted butter, Worcestershire. The basic marinade: an oil (olive, canola, grapeseed, etc.), an acid (vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt, wine, etc.), herbs, and spices. Experiment. And a smashed garlic clove never hurts. If you forgot to make a marinade \u2014 food has to sit in the marinade for a few hours to, you know, marinate \u2014 make a rub real fast. About a half-hour before grilling (or even at the last second), massage it into the meat. Use what you like \u2014 pepper, cinnamon, dried herbs, cayenne, chili powder, brown sugar, cumin, paprika... Always salt beef a good half-hour before grilling. You&amp;#039;re not flavoring. You&amp;#039;re tenderizing, and tenderizing takes time. Don&amp;#039;t overmix or manhandle your burgers. You want them just barely formed into a patty. Otherwise, the meat will get tough. And please don&amp;#039;t press the burgers down with a spatula as they cook. Unless you like a dry hamburger. When to add the cheese: After flipping (obviously), a minute or two before the second side is done. Then close the cover. To grill fresh sausage: First, precook it by poking it with a fork and simmering it in water until just about cooked, ten minutes tops. Then grill it till it&amp;#039;s browned and a little bubbly, probably five minutes. The kebab was a wonderful invention. It&amp;#039;s like a whole meal on a stick. A kebab secret: If you want the meat medium-rare, pack it tight on the skewer. For medium-well, space the pieces out. Don&amp;#039;t forget that skewers get hot. One inch is the best thickness for a steak (including fish steaks) or pork chop. It&amp;#039;s the easiest to get right \u2014 a nice exterior crust, a juicy middle. That goes for lamb chops, too. And there is nothing like a grilled lamb chop. A little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and throw it on over high heat. Chicken is tricky. It dries out, it burns, it&amp;#039;s susceptible to slight differences in grill temperature. If you have a bunch of chicken pieces on the grill, flip them frequently and move them around the grill a lot according to which pieces are cooking fastest and where the grill is the hottest. Don&amp;#039;t forget about vegetables. Toss some thin asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper, throw it on, and it&amp;#039;ll be done before you can go grab another beer. Delicious. Wrap small vegetables in a foil packet and rest it over high heat. Poke a few holes in the foil to let the smoky flavor in. There is no fruit you can&amp;#039;t grill (I don&amp;#039;t think). Pineapples, bananas, cantaloupe, oranges, peaches \u2014 slice or cut in half, brush with melted butter and, if you want, brown sugar, and grill. There are few tastier desserts than grilled fruit, and somehow, it always surprises people. --John Mariani is Esquire&amp;#039;s food and drinks correspondent and the coauthor of Grilling for Dummies. PLUS: More John Mariani on Esquire&amp;#039;s Eat Like a Man Blog and John Mariani&amp;#039;s Official Site "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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