Comparisons · Two ways of cooking
Grilling or Indirect roasting
The first technique decision in any cook, and the one that most often goes wrong: it is settled by the thickness of what you are cooking rather than by preference.
What each one is
Grilling
Fast cooking over direct heat. What most of the world means by barbecuing, and what American barbecue specifically does not mean — a terminology collision worth knowing about before reading any recipe.
Indirect roasting
Cooking with the lid down and the fire to one side, turning the barbecue into an oven that happens to smell of woodsmoke. The default for anything large.
What actually differs
| Aspect | Grilling | Indirect roasting |
|---|---|---|
| The fire it needs This is the difference. Everything else about the two techniques follows from where the fire is relative to the food. | Direct heat | Indirect heat |
| What it suits | Thin cuts that cook through before the surface burns; Anything wanting a hard surface char | Whole birds; Joints and thick cuts; Anything where the centre has a long way to travel |
| What it does not suit The more useful half of the comparison, and the half most published guidance leaves out. | Anything thicker than roughly 4 cm; Collagen-rich cuts, which need time rather than heat | Thin cuts, which will dry before they colour |
| Cookers that can do it | 7 of the 11 modelled | 10 of the 11 modelled |
Which one, for what
Conditions rather than a verdict. Each line below is a thing one of them can do that the other cannot, or does without arrangement where the other needs it — taken from the what each cooker is documented as doing, rather than from a preference.
Grilling, if:
- Thin cuts that cook through before the surface burns.
- Anything wanting a hard surface char.
Indirect roasting, if:
- Whole birds.
- Joints and thick cuts.
- Anything where the centre has a long way to travel.