Brining is the process of using salt to season and bring out the natural flavors in meat. Generally speaking, when most people think about brining, the image of soaking a cut of meat in saltwater is likely what comes to mind. However, studies have shown that meat really only absorbs a little bit of salt this way anyway, and it can be messy.

Dry brining, by contrast, is basically just sprinkling salt on the meat a few hours before cooking. Not only is it less messy, but it works just as well as wet brining and is often a bit faster. With dry brining, you just use a small amount of regular table salt on the meat. Generally, you’ll want to use 1/4 teaspoon of salt per pound of meat, then refrigerate it for a couple hours.

When you dry brine, the water gets drawn out of the meat and the salt gets pulled into the meat. Then, the longer you let it sit, that meat get reabsorbed, resulting in a bit of extra moisture near the surface of the meat so when the meat is cooked, it doesn’t dry out as easily.

Although dry brining is one of those things that you’ll get a feel for the more you do it, there are a few rules of thumb to get started dry brining:

• Sprinkle the salt from your hand, not the shaker to control the flow
• Use about as much as you would at the table
• Use more salt on thicker cuts or thicker areas
• Remember that salt will be absorbed through the skin; so there’s no need to remove it
• Use 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound, but 1/4 teaspoon regular table salt per pound of meat
• Let the meat rest for at least a couple hours; thicker cuts may need as much as overnight for maxmium flavor

Keep in mind that many rubs already will have salt in them for this purpose, so be careful adding a rub to something that you’ve already brined–no one likes overly salty food!

If you’re one of those people who has been known to fight over the last bit of the delicious crunchy meat tip, then you’re probably addicted to bark just like the rest of us. Bark is probably one of the best parts of a perfectly-grilled brisket or pork butt. While forming bark on a piece of meat isn’t really rocket science, if you’re a true aficionado and want to increase the amount of bark, there are some easy tricks.

1. Add more surface

The more surface you have, the more chance there will be for bark to form. So, if you’re a huge fan of bark, don’t be afraid to cut a large pork butt in half and remove the bones. This will provide more bark to meat ratio. Yummy!

2. Avoid the Texas Crutch

By its very definition, the Texas Crutch will prevent the formation of bark. Of course, the trade-off here is that you’ll have to weather through the stall, but trust me—the end result is well worth the time.

3. Don’t put it in a pan

You’ll want your meat to have access to maximum air flow so that the bark can form properly on as much of the surface as possible. This means ditching the pan and placing it directly on the grill itself. 

4. Remove the fat cap

The easiest thing you can do to improve the bark is to remove the fat cap from the meat. In fact, you should trim as much of the fat from the surface of the meat as possible in order to encourage the formation of bark.

5. Gash the meat

We’ve talked about gashing before, but if you gash the first 1/2 inch of your meat and get the rub deep in those grooves, you’ll be rewarded with little 1/2 inch squares of almost pure bark at the end. Doesn’t that sound like heaven?

It’s a fact of life that good grilling cannot be rushed. The meat will be done when it’s done, and there aren’t many things you can do to speed it up. But what happens when you have company over and the meat is stalled or is taking too long? Fans of barbecue will be patient because they understand, but some friends and family members may not. For this reason, many cooks attempt to time their meat closely to have it ready by the time company comes. Unfortunately, there are multiple factors that go into figuring out cook time. It’s almost more of an art than a science.

So, here are some things to consider when you’re looking at a recipe and trying to figure out how early you need to start that mouthwatering meal for your barbecue:

The Meat

As you’re probably aware, every kind of meat (beef, chicken, seafood) has different temperature requirements to be safe to eat. However, even within those, the individual cut of meat may have a slightly different cook time based on a handful of factors including:

• Type of meat. Obviously a hamburger is going to cook differently than a steak.
• Thickness of the meat. The thicker the meat is, the longer it is going to take to cook. Be careful that your meat is close to uniform thickness, though, or else you’ll end up charring the thin bits by the time the larger portion is fully cooked.
• Fat content (sometimes). Depending on what you’re cooking, the amount and location of the fat may lower the internal temperature of the grill, resulting in a stall, which can drastically increase cook time. This isn’t necessarily a factor with all cuts of meat, though.
• Meat prep. If you constantly spritz your meat with juice, for example, it will lower the internal temperature and you’ll have to cook it longer. If you utilize the Texas Crutch, it will cook faster.

If you’re looking for a base to start, check out our Ultimate Grilling Temperature Guide and then go from there.

The Grill

The kind of grill and the way that you use it can definitely make a difference in how long you must cook your food. There are multiple different ways to set up a Kamado, and each of them can alter your time formula.

• Cooking method. If you cook over flames and direct heat, then the meat is going to cook faster than if you’re doing indirect cooking. Different grates can also sometimes change the cooking time, and using something like The Texas Crutch can drastically alter cook times as well.
• Cooking temperature. Obviously things will cook faster at higher heats, but things can sometimes be sped up with a combination of the two by searing your food.

It’s also important to make sure you’ve got the grill set up properly for whatever it is that you’re cooking. Direct vs Indirect Heat can be a huge factor in how your food cooks, as can the internal temperature (obviously).

The Weather

Because your grill is probably outside, mother nature can sometimes make the temperature of your grill harder to keep steady, which will in turn increase cook time.

• Weather/outdoor temperature.  Generally speaking, if its cold or rainy, you’ll have a harder time getting the grill to heat up and stay at the right temperature. The same goes with snow. Hotter temperature can also play havoc and you’ll have to take that into account and monitor the temperatures appropriately.
• Humidity. The humidity of the air outside can also affect your grilling if you’re doing low and slow cooks. If it’s dry out, then you may need to boost the humidity inside the grill to avoid having gross, dry meat.
• Altitude. If you’re at higher altitudes, then you have to lower the cooking temperature slightly in order to preserve the moisture in the meat. This can, obviously, increase the cooking times for some meats.

Although you really can grill in literally any weather, make sure you’re taking the outside weather into consideration and properly preparing not only your grill and meat, but yourself. Check out our tips for grilling in winter for some more ideas.

But, when it’s all said and done, the most important thing is that the meat reaches the right temperature. All of the above things can affect how long that takes, but at the end of the day, as long as it’s cooked properly, your guests will be thrilled with the result.

Everyone has different ideas on what makes the perfect barbecue. For some people, it’s that melt-in-your-mouth texture. For others, it’s the crispy bark on the outside contrasted with the tender, juicy meat. Other people are all about the sauces and rubs or the smoky flavor you can taste. However, no matter what it is you prefer, chances are you probably have grilled something that could benefit from gashing.

What is gashing?

Gashing is when you make a series of cuts on the top or bottom of your meat in order to increase the surface area and create cracks and ridges for your marinade, sauce, or rub to sit. Although gashing can be done any number of ways, usually it involves cutting a cross-hatch pattern in the top of the meat. With some meats, however, slashes are the best option; it really depends on what you’re cooking and the 0the surface area.

Whether or not you realize it, you’re probably already familiar with gashing. Some people also refer to this as “crosshatching” which is both misleading and confusing, in my opinion. Gashing it isn’t always done in a crosshatch pattern, for one, and ‘crosshatching’ is often also used to talk about grill marks.

Why should you gash meat?

While I personally think gashing meat properly makes it look absolutely gorgeous and very professional, there’s actually some real reasons why you should try gashing: flavor.

Basically, when you gash meat, you are increasing the surface area and therefore allowing for more flavor. This is especially important when using any kind of marinade, as it will increase the penetration and therefore the flavoring. However, it can also be useful if you’re just planning on saucing your meat as it offers some nice grooves where the barbecue sauce will collect in all is smoky goodness. If you’re a fan of bark, then gashing provides double the surface area for bark to accumulate, and creates some little crispy areas to enjoy. Gashing really is good for everything.

How do you gash meat?

Gashing meat is simple. All you are doing is cutting marks down into the first 1/2 inch of meat or so. To do a traditional crosshatch pattern, cut several rows one inch apart going one way, and then a second set of marks perpendicular to the first ones–again, one inch apart. You should end up with a series of cute little diamonds.

Depending on what you’re cooking, though, you may not have enough space to do an actual crosshatch pattern. If this is the case, simply cut a series of parallel marks into the meat, leaving at least one inch between them. While you can go deeper than 1/2 inch, I personally wouldn’t for most cuts.

That’s it! Nice and simple. My favorite thing to gash is, strangely enough, hot dogs, as it leaves more surface for your ketchup or relish and makes them look really fancy. Delicious!

One of the most important (and often overlooked) things to learn when cooking on a grill is when to use direct and indirect heat. For new grillers, this can be a little confusing as most blogs assume that you already know what indirect and direct heat is used for and how to achieve it. However, if you’ve ever read a BBQ recipe that talks about direct heat, or pondered at the removable deflectors on your Kamado, then this post is for you.

Understanding Indirect and Direct Heat

The primary difference between direct and indirect heat is where your food is placed in relation to the fire. While some people prefer to really only use one or the other, for the best grilling results you’ll want to use a combination and change your setup depending on what it is you’re grilling. We’ll go into more specifics of what each is used for below.

Direct Heat

Direct heat is what most people think of when they think about grilling. The classic setup where you have the charcoal in the bowl, the grill on top, and the flames licking the meat is using direct heat. With direct heat, you can sear and char meat and often get some really nice grill marks on your steaks or burgers. However, you also will have the disadvantage of uneven cooking, and sometimes it will take longer depending on what you’re grilling.

Indirect Heat

Indirect heat is probably the most common way of cooking on a Kamado. With this method, there is a deflector plate between your food and the flame. The heat is diffused around the plate and evenly heats the food. While indirect heat will cook things far more evenly, it has the disadvantage that you don’t want to open the grill or else you’ll lose your temperature and have to reheat the inside.

Should I Use Direct or Indirect Heat?

Like most things with grilling, the answer to that depends greatly on what you’re cooking, how thick the cut is, how much time you have, and what kind of taste you prefer. A lot of people will use a combination of direct and indirect heat to grill. Regardless, there are some basic guidelines to help decide which method words best.

Most people use Indirect heat to cook things that require even heat and slow cooking times. Examples include chicken, ribs, roasts, whole turkey, etc. Think of indirect heat as using your grill like an oven.

Direct heat, by contrast, is often used to cook smaller things which generally can be made in 25 minutes or less. Examples include hamburgers, hotdogs, shrimp, steak, vegetables, etc.

Of course, just about everything can cooked on indirect heat, which is where some of the confusion comes in. The main difference is taste: do you like to sear or charbroil your meat? Then you’ll want to use direct heat. Are you more concerned with smoking or evenly cooking the meat through? Then you’ll probably need to use indirect heat.

Another approach is to use Both. This generally requires stacking your Kamado a little differently and moving items from one section to the other. With this method, you can get the best of both worlds: even cooking with that delicious charbroil taste and grill marks on the meat. Setting up your Kamado for that is a little tricky and often involves additional inserts, but it can be done if you have one of the larger Kamados.