Girl at the Grill: Elizabeth Karmel

  • Keep it clean. Use a brass-bristle cleaning brush to clean your grill without damaging the grates.
    • Clean the grates after use by heating the grill with all burners on high to burn off any cooked-on residue.
    • Preheat a gas grill on high. For a charcoal grill, preheat until charcoal is covered with a white ash.
    • When using charcoal, use fire starters, a chimney starter, and long wooden kitchen matches to start the fire.
  • Tongs, tongs, tongs. Always use two long-handled locking tongs—one for uncooked meats and the other for cooked meats—to avoid cross contamination. Color code your tongs with red and green duct tape so you can tell them apart. Red means STOP; raw food touched these. Green means GO; cooked food touched these.
  • Use the best quality ingredients.
  • Oil the food with a light coat of olive oil and season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
  • The key to making hot dogs that are perfectly caramelized on the outside and done on the inside is to control the heat! The best hot dogs are cooked on medium to medium-low heat.
  • Always use an instant-read thermometer to test for doneness.