Six Grilling Mistakes Will Fry the Grillin' Guy Sees Every Weekend

If you follow our page, you have met Will Fry the Grillin' Guy. Glasses, tucked-in polo, professor of the Buffalo Barbecue Quest Academy, and the man who spent the spring telling Western New York to stop doing six specific things at the grill.

He is a character. The advice is not. Every one of these six is a mistake we watch people make, and every fix is cheap.

Here they are in one place, with the reasons behind them.

Why should you stop using lighter fluid?

Will's words: quit it. It messes up the flavor and, honestly, it is unnecessary.

Lighter fluid is petroleum. It soaks into the charcoal, and some of it is still burning off when the food goes on. That chemical edge on the first burgers of the season is not the charcoal. It is the fluid.

The fix: a chimney starter. Stack the charcoal in the chimney, put a fire starter underneath, light it, and walk away for fifteen minutes. Faster, cleaner, better tasting. We sell fire bundles, including our own Quest Starters, which burn clean and long and cost less per fire than the name brands. Match-light charcoal is the same problem in a different bag. Skip it too.

Why does a cold steak cook unevenly?

Are you throwing steaks on straight from the fridge? That is a problem.

Fridge-cold meat cooks faster on the outside than the inside. By the time the center reaches temperature, the outer half inch is gray. That is where overcooked edges and an undercooked center come from, and no amount of grill skill fixes it after the fact.

The fix: let the steak sit out for 20 to 30 minutes before it hits the grate. Simple fix, big difference.

How many times should you flip a burger?

Once. Will's exact instruction was to stop flipping your burgers a trillion times, because it is not doing anybody any favors.

Every flip resets the crust. The surface that was building color goes back to steaming on the cool side. A burger flipped once gets one hard sear on each face, which is where the flavor lives.

The fix: patty on, leave it alone until the edges change color and the top starts to sweat, flip it once, and let the grill do the job.

Why should you rest meat before cutting?

Will had a dream that he cut his meat too early and all the juices disappeared. It is not just a dream.

Meat straight off the fire is tense, and the juice is pushed toward the center. Cut it now and that juice runs onto the board. Give it a few minutes and it settles back through the whole steak.

The fix: five to ten minutes on the board before the knife. Will calls it a power nap. Steaks and chops on the short end, big roasts on the long end.

Always let it rest five to ten minutes. Give it a power nap before you cut into it.Will Fry the Grillin' Guy

Do you need expensive gear to grill well?

No. You do not need a thousand dollars to get set up right.

Will's list is three things: a good set of tongs, a thermometer, and some time. Tongs so you stop stabbing meat with a fork and letting the juice out. A thermometer so you stop guessing. Time because every mistake above is a shortcut somebody took.

The fix: buy the thermometer before the gadget. A probe thermometer with a couple of wireless probes turns a nervous cook into a relaxed one, and it costs less than the cover for most grills.

Charcoal or gas: which one is right?

People argue about this way too much, and Will's answer is that it depends on your goal.

Charcoal gives you better flavor. Gas gives you speed and convenience. Neither is wrong. What is wrong is running charcoal on a Tuesday when you have forty minutes and three kids, or lighting the gas grill for a Saturday steak you want people to remember.

The fix: use gas on the busy days. Use charcoal when you want to impress. Own both if you can, and stop picking a team.

What all six have in common

Every one of them is a shortcut. Fluid instead of a chimney, fridge instead of the counter, flipping instead of waiting, cutting instead of resting, gadgets instead of a thermometer, arguing instead of choosing.

Will's whole curriculum comes down to patience and a probe. Get those two and the rest of the Academy is extra credit.

Class dismissed. Bring your questions to the counter inside the McKinley Mall, and watch the page for the next lesson.