Tips and Techniques for Great Grilling

Cooking steak? Try to flip it only once. Excessive flipping will cause your steak to lose its juices, and will prevent searing.
Keep a foil pan handy to cover food, particularly if it takes longer than 45 minutes to cook. This will help prevent your food from developing a "tinny" taste.
Baste meats during the last 5 to 10 minutes of grilling to maximize flavor. Basting too soon with any high-sugar sauce may cause burning.
Choose thick-cut steaks and chops for grilling. Trim visible fat from meat to reduce drippings and flare-ups.
Let meat rest for 5 minutes before serving to allow juices to settle.

Marinating Made Easy

Marinating meats before cooking helps to tenderize them and adds more flavor.
Marinate tender cuts like sirloin for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours before cooking. Less tender cuts of meat like flank, skirt or round steak may require 6 hours or more of marinating time and will benefit from the addition of an acid to the marinade.
Always keep meats refrigerated while marinating and marinate in a resealable plastic bag or a plastic or glass container.
Chicken should be marinated for 1-2 hours and fish for at least ½ hour.
Use about 1-2 cups of marinade for every 1½-2 lbs. of food.
Piercing the meat or seafood with a fork will allow the marinade to penetrate the food better, enhancing the flavor.

When grilling corn, soak unshucked in water for ½-1 hour before grilling. Kernels will steam inside the stalks on the grill and the cooked corn will have a smoky flavor.
To grill whole peppers, coat with olive oil, then place on a hot grill. Turn the pepper as it blackens and place in a paper bag when done. This will steam the pepper, making it easier to remove the peel and seed. Season grilled peppers with garlic and salt and use as a topping on pizza, grilled sausage grinders or bruschetta.
Make dessert on the grill! Grilling caramelizes the natural sugars in any fruit and gives it a sweet, smoky flavor. Try mangoes, pineapples, bananas and stone fruits on the grill, but keep in mind that softer fruits will cook much faster than harder fruits. For even more flavor, skewer wedges of fruit with cinnamon sticks before grilling.