Dense whole vegetables never getting tender

Each cause below lists the signs that point at it rather than at the others. Start with the signs, not with the fix.

1. It was grilled when it needed to be baked.

   common

   Signs it is this one

   • The outside is genuinely charred, not merely dark.
   • It is a whole vegetable rather than a cut one.
   • Adding time made the outside worse without changing the centre.

   Why it happens: The distance heat has to travel to the centre of a sixty-to-ninety-millimetre root is several times that of any slice on the same grate, and heat moves through dense wet vegetable tissue slowly. Direct radiant heat delivers energy to the surface far faster than the interior can conduct it away, so the surface reaches carbonising temperatures while the centre is still climbing. Lowering the fire does not fix the ratio; it just makes both halves slower. What fixes it is putting the food where there is no radiant source under it, so the whole thing is surrounded by moving hot air instead — the same arrangement, and the same reasoning, as a pork shoulder.

   What to do

   • Move it to the indirect side with the lid down and treat it as a bake rather than a grill. An hour or more is normal for beetroot and a large potato. — during cook, reliable
   • If you want char as well, do it the other way round — indirect until a skewer meets no resistance, then a short spell over the fire for colour. — next time, reliable
   • Or cut the distance instead: halve it lengthways so it has a flat face and half the depth, which turns it back into a grilling food. — next time, reliable

   Next time

   • Judge by thickness before lighting. Anything more than about thirty millimetres through, whole, is going on the indirect side.

2. It was taken off at a remembered time rather than at the cue.

   common

   Signs it is this one

   • It was taken off because time had passed, not because it was tested.
   • Different pieces from the same batch came out differently.

   Why it happens: BBQHQ publishes no duration for any of these foods, because the two extension-service documents it holds cover none of them — and the spread of real cooking times here is enormous, because it depends on the size of the vegetable and the temperature of a barbecue that nobody measured. A hundred-gram beetroot and a two-hundred-gram one are not the same cook. There is no number to remember, which is why every workable description of these foods ends in a cue instead.

   What to do

   • Test with a skewer at the thickest point. Tender means no resistance at all — any firmness in the centre means it is not done. — during cook, reliable
   • For a garlic head the cue is different: a clove should give completely to gentle pressure and squeeze out as a paste. — during cook, reliable
   • For a whole aubergine it is different again — it is done when it has collapsed and holds no shape. — during cook, reliable

   Next time

   • Sort by size before they go on, so the batch finishes together rather than piece by piece.

This is BBQHQ’s diagnosis for still raw in the middle, burnt outside, underdone inside, on the foods below.

• whole beetroot
• whole jacket potato
• whole garlic head
• whole aubergine
• whole carrots
• whole cauliflower
• halved artichokes