This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Get Your Grill in Gear

Local experts share their grilling tips to ensure a sizzling—and safe—start to summer.

Grilling seems simple enough. Fire meets meat, and voila! Dinner.

But grilling veterans know there’s more to it than that. To achieve that perfect, juicy slab of steak—as opposed to a chewy piece of chuck—there are a slew of decisions to make: what kind of grill to use, how long to marinate the meat, and what steps to take to ensure your meal is finished without a fire flare-up. 

With Memorial Day just around the corner and grilling season fully underway, local experts have offered up some advice on how to get your summer off to a sizzling start.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Food

Grills don't discriminate. You can throw just about anything on an open flame. Just ask chef Marco Chirico of Enoteca on Court and Marco Polo Ristorante. One of his favorite foods to grill is octopus. His trick? The marinade: a combination of olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and fresh thyme and oregano. He uses a rosemary stick as a brush. He lets the octopus soak for 10 minutes before tossing it on the grill. He offers one warning: don’t use extra virgin olive oil because it could cause the flames to flare up.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

John Esposito of opts for the more traditional route. Hot sausage and skirt steak top his grilling menu. “Grilled hot sausage with a cold beer is perfection,” he says. He grills the sausage for 15 minutes on a medium flame. He uses a higher heat for his skirt steak, which he grills for seven and a half minutes on each side. He uses a gas grill, although he admits that charcoal gets the best flavor.

Dallas Jones Bar-B-Q’s chef and owner Sam Bahri is a fan of grilled fish; she favors bronzino or sea bass. Her fish requires just a bit of seasoning and a marinade of sea salt, provencal herbs, and olive oil. To get it right, she says, the grill has to be hot and clean. She usually wipes hers down with an oiled cheese cloth, but half a lemon will work too. This way, the fish won't stick, she says.

Grilling is considered an outdoor activity, but Ryan Angulo, chef at Buttermilk Channel, is an advocate of grilling indoors with a iron grill on a stove. That’s what he does. “I get great results all summer long,” he says. His favorite item to toss on the fire? Charred pole beans, with a squirt of lemon.

Equipment 

The consensus among hardware store owners and employees in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill is that small, portable grills are the area’s most popular because of their convenience. “People put them on their balconies, their front stoops, and their back patios,” says Matt Mazzone of Mazzone Hardware. The big seller at his store is the Weber Smokey Joe for $35. At Bruno's True Value Home Center, a small gas grill, the Weber Q 120 for $200, is one of the store's hottest items. It's a gas grill but is still small enough to tote to the beach or on a camping trip, says Nick Mohabir, who’s worked at the store for 14 years. Raphael Contreres of Tony's Hardware Store on Smith Street says that customers this season have also shown a preference for all-natural charcoal. Tony's sells 10-pound bags of chemical-free Frontier Brand Lump Charcoal for $10. 

Safety 

The New York City Fire Department says that barbecue grills cause 1,500 structural fires and 4,200 outdoor fires each year. Here are some tips from the NYFD on how to grill safely:

- Never use a barbeque grill in a trailer, tent, garage, or any place where carbon monoxide can accumulate.

- Position grills at least 10 feet away from buildings and deck railings.

- Have a charged garden hose or bucket of sand nearby to extinguish small flare-ups.

- Don't use a charcoal grill on the roof of any building. It's illegal, as is the use of a propane grill on the terrace or balcony of an apartment building.

 - Inspect propane hoses for leaks before using.

- Never store a propane tank indoors or below ground level.

Easy enough? It’s grillin’ time. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill