A Word on Heat - Heat Zones on Your BBQ

A Word On Heat...

Direct Cooking VS Indirect Cooking and a word on heat zones…

At inLusso, we’re serious about barbequing! Flame, food and entertainment are at the core of our values, and one of the most important elements in barbequing is understanding heat and flame and how they work together.

So let’s take a look at what you can do on your inLusso barbeque.

Heat Configuration - Direct Heat vs Indirect Heat

There are two main types of heat when it comes to cooking on a BBQ, and once you’ve mastered direct cooking and indirect cooking, your BBQ game will change forever.

The concept is exactly as it sounds; direct cooking means your food goes directly over the heat source on the grill or plate.

Indirect cooking means the flame is not directly under the food. Once you close the BBQ hood, you’ve created an oven-like environment that will cook anything your heart desires!

Your inLusso outdoor kitchen BBQ comes with precise temperate controls, giving you the perfect temperature every time.

Direct Cooking

Direct heat cooking is the most common form of barbequing and where most people start.

It’s important to consider how high or low you need your flame when direct cooking. You don’t want to BBQ a whole chicken over high heat for example, or the outside will burn before the inside cooks.

Another factor with direct heat cooking is flare-ups.  If you are barbequing a very fatty piece of meat or chicken with a heavy marinade, then flare-ups can happen. Multi temperature zones are a great way to navigate flare-ups if they happen. (See below)

Indirect Cooking

You have a few options when it comes to indirect heat cooking on your gas BBQ. This is where we create an oven-like environment and where your built-in thermometer comes into play. Just like the oven in your house, the more you open the door, or in this case open the hood, the more heat you will loose, so try to lift the lid as little as possible.

Keep an eye on the temperature gauge in the window so know what’s happening heat-wise inside.

Once you’ve used your alfresco BBQ this way a few times you will come to know where to set the burners so the end result is a consistent heat.

And if you keep that little glass window clean you’ll be able to see exactly what’s happening inside and won’t need to lift the hood constantly!

There are a few methods you can use to cook with indirect heat.

-An Oven Rack

-A Roasting Dish

-Directly On Grills, but away from the heat source

Indirect Cooking on your inLusso Outdoor Kitchen BBQ Example…

Let’s say you want to slow roast a side of beef.  We’re going to use three burners here.

To prepare your BBQ, turn on all of the burners and let the BBQ heat up until it’s very hot.

Season your beef and seal all sides on the grill.

Once sealed, place the beef in a roasting dish.

Leave the first burner on high heat, and turn the middle burners off, and two burners on the other side on low heat.

Close the hood and heat the BBQ up to 150°C.

Place the baking dish in the middle of the grill where there is no direct heat source and let that baby slowly roast in your new alfresco BBQ oven.

If the heat starts to rise over the 150°C reduce the heat of the high flame until it settles to a constant temperature.

NOTE: You can also place the beef directly over the middle of the grill but keep eye on it.

Grilling and Barbequing - Heat Zones – One vs. Two

It’s a good idea set up two heat zones, one with a higher flame and one with a lower flame.

This way, if food cooks quicker than you want it too you can slide it over to a lower temperature heat zone and slow the cooking a little. It’s much better than moving it to a section that has no flame burning at all and still keeps the cooking moving along.

If you have any questions head over to our inLusso social pages or shoot us an email!