Top Five Winter Grilling Tips for Evergrillers

Some grill to socialize. Some grill because they love that smoky flavor. Some grill to get out of the house and enjoy nature. Some grill for all of these reasons which are all great, but sometimes I wonder if we grill out of a more primal need. Maybe it’s as simple as it this: Grilling is ingrained in our souls. Humans have been grilling since the invention of fire. It was essential to our survival. Not our survival only in the summer or a warm autumn day. Our ancestors grilled every single day to survive. We are borne of Evergrillers and Evergrillers we are.

What’s an Evergriller? It was a term coined by Kraft Barbecue Sauce to launch their newly revamped line of sauces that use high-quality ingredients like real tomatoes, sweet molasses, cider vinegar and cane sugar as well as new packaging:

I’m extremely proud to be partnering with Kraft Barbecue Sauce on this endeavor, particularly since they also devised some over-the-top grilling innovations that help Evergrillers like us brave all weather conditions such as the Evergriller Grill ‘N’ Flip Mitt. The fire resistant mitt has an opening at the top that has a cloth pouch inside. Slide the handle of just about any grill utensil in there and the mitt and the cloth pouch shields the hand from the cold weather or hot fire. It’s brilliant:

Why is Kraft Barbecue Sauce doing this for Evergrillers? Because the Evergriller doesn’t mothball the grill from Labor Day to Memorial Day. The Evergriller knows it makes more sense to grill in the winter anyway. Hang with me here. When it’s 95 degrees outside with 90% humidity, standing next to a hot grill is brutal. On a cold, blustery day we slide in closer to the grill and revel in the heat it provides both our food and our bodies. Simply put, the Evergriller takes pride in grilling year round.

To help with year round grilling, I offer you some tips for grilling in the depths of winter which poses a few problems that aren’t as prevalent in the Summer. When the weather looks like this, here are some of the problems we face:

1. The outside temperature could be close to 100 degrees colder and thus the grill has to work harder to keep the target temperature.

2. The colder months tend to be windier and wind can be the enemy of a consistent cookout. It can be particularly bad in whisking away the heat from the grill when the lid is opened making the grill work even harder as it will take much longer to get back to temperature

3. Cold and wet conditions can impact more than just the grill. If water gets into your thermometer, the thermometer may not give an accurate reading.

So what can we do to counter the affects of wind, cold and precipitation?

1) Time Out. Your grill has to work harder to maintain the correct temperature during colder months so plan to give yourself extra time to prepare your grilled goodness.

2) Opening Drive. You can’t avoid opening the grill but you can make the most of each opening by having all of the essential tools in place to add coals or smoking woods, apply barbeque sauce and flip your food in one shot

3) Turn Up The Heat. Consider increasing your temperature by up to 25 degrees to counteract any heat lost when opening the grill. It can take up to 20 minutes during colder months—versus five minutes in the summer—to get the grill back up to optimal temperatures after lifting the lid so plan for extra fuel accordingly.

4) Get An Accurate Read. Validate the grill’s thermometer with a probe thermometer to avoid false readings caused by rain or cold weather.

5) Block Effectively. On windy or rainy days, create a weather-resistant barrier by moving the grill to a better location, such as the side of a building, to give yourself optimal conditions for grilling perfection.

Since this is part of a series that I’m writing in partnership with Kraft Barbecue Sauce, check out my Ultimate Guide to Grilled Chicken. Many are thinking right now, “I’ve been grilling chicken for years. I know how to grill chicken.” 90% of all pitmasters make one of two significant mistakes when grilling chicken. I’ll reveal those mistakes and make sure you fall in the 10% who get it right:

Also, I’ll show foolproof tips on how to grill fall off the bone ribs. There is a huge debate on whether or not ribs should be fall off the bone. I find that most people I know are evenly split. I prefer them short of fall off the bone, but I can enjoy fall off the bone ribs a great deal:

One note on the giveaway. Kraft Foods is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me.  This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by Scott Thomas of GrillinFools.com.

Full disclosure, I received compensation and product samples from Kraft Barbecue Sauce for this post, but as you know, I wouldn’t back anything I didn’t absolutely believe in. The opinions expressed above and recipes are my own and I stand by them.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email. Here’s my email address.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube feeds

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: January 19, 2015