16
Covered Cooking
Cooking with the Hood Closed
Using the roasting hood traps heat, moisture and flavour that is normally lost on an open
top barbeque. The Ziegler and Brown Twin Grill is designed with plenty of power to heat
up quickly and cook lots of food with the hood either open or closed. With the hood closed
and the barbeque already pre-heated, its important to then turn burners to
LOW
and to
OFF
as required, in order to not overheat the barbeque which could result in increased
temperature hazards and burning your food.
For covered cooking, there are two basic ways to cook:
(A) Direct Cooking and (B) Indirect Cooking
(A) Covered Cooking-Direct Cooking Method
This is when you place the food directly over the lit burners, either on the grill or the
optional hotplate.
This method is great for frying, searing and grilling, especially with thinner cuts and foods
that require shorter cooking time. Cooking takes less time than with the hood open, and
the results are more tender and juicy. Preheat the barbeque with both burners on
HIGH
and the hood closed until the hood thermometer reads around 200ºC. Importantly, once
the barbeque is pre-heated and the hood is closed, heat is trapped around the food, so the
burners will only need to be on
LOW
and in many cases, one of the burners
OFF
. Heat from
the lit burner(s) will circulate all through the hood cooking quite evenly. Very fatty foods
like sausages, can be cooked completely above the
OFF
burners, retaining juiciness and
flavour without risk of flare-up that results only in burning. Quite close attention needs to
be paid to the food, and the burners frequently reset to
LOW
or
OFF
as required to prevent
overheating.
Don’t be afraid to open the hood often to check progress. You are in full control of the
temperature by turning burners higher, lower or
OFF
as required. The gas burners
will respond instantly and powerfully to your control. Most importantly, use the hood
thermometer as a warning guide that the barbeque is too hot. For grilling most foods,
aim to keep the thermometer below around 200ºC. Never let the temperature on the
thermometer reach over 250ºC or the barbeque may overheat and burn your food. A
separate probe thermometer is available as an accessory from all Barbeques Galore
stores. This takes the guesswork out of knowing when your food is cooked.
Always remember to switch the barbeque OFF once you are finished cooking
