Summer is a fun time for everyone. One of the fun things many families do is grill outdoors. It’s a great excuse to spend time together and eat some tasty food. Sometimes these barbecues turn into huge events that the whole neighborhood attends. However, grilling is a skill. It needs to be learned. It’s not something people know how to do competently on their own. If you are new to grilling, there are some tips and tricks you should learn to make your barbecue a huge hit. Below are four.

Choose the Right Kind of Meat

The saying, “garbage in, garbage out,” used for scientific data also holds true for barbecue. If you want to make delicious grilled food, you need to start with high quality meat. For steaks, choose ribeyes. Ribeye steak has a higher fat content and is therefore tastier than other cuts like sirloin. Ground beef marked as “80/20” also has higher fat content and makes tastier burgers as a result. For hot dogs, choose those with natural casing so you get that nice “snap” when you bite into them.

Go for Higher Quality Buns

Of course, the meat is only part of the dish when it comes to burgers and hot dogs. The bun chosen is also quite important to the taste and texture of dogs and burgers. For burgers, consider choosing Kaiser Buns. These can really make larger burgers quite delicious. For hot dogs, try to find poppy seed buns, the bun used on the Chicago dog. The poppy seeds add a more earthy taste and some great texture to otherwise boring hot dog buns.

Choose the Right Seasonings, Rubs and Marinades

Without seasoning, most food can taste rather underwhelming. Definitely be forward with adding extra flavor to your meat before you grill it. Some may be removed by the flame, but what remains is critical to how that piece of meat tastes. Salt and pepper everything. Buy steak seasoning and even hamburger seasoning. Add some garlic butter to one side of your stakes. Marinade chicken over night before you put it on your grill.

Count Out Cook Times

The biggest mistakes amateur grillers make is either undercooking or overcooking their meat. To avoid this problem, count out cook times or even use an actual timer if you must. Certain kinds of meat, like shrimp, should be on the grill for a very short amount of time if you want to keep it moist and tasty.

Learning how to grill great food takes some time. Don’t give up if you make some initial mistakes. It’s part of the learning process. Eventually, however, you should be able to barbecue great food everyone can enjoy.