On the surface of things, tailgating seems pretty simple. When all you need is your buddies, the backs of their cars, a grill, some delicious food, and a cold case of beer, how hard can it be? Unfortunately, tailgating is slightly more complicated than it looks. While its basic elements are accessible to everyone, figuring out how to optimize your experience and make the best tailgating recipes possible is highly dependent on how good your grilling game is, and certain mistakes can make things go wrong pretty quickly.
As with any type of outdoor grilling, the positioning of your equipment and how you attend to it is crucial, and can make or break a tailgate. Failing to prepare your food properly for your grill can also have a significant impact, and decisions about how to store your meat before it hits the grill can result in serious consequences to health. With so many potential mistakes at play, we knew we had to ask the experts.
We checked in with Dustin Green, head grill master at Weber ; Steven Ross, chef and culinary scientist at Tyson Foods ; and John McLemore and John McLemore Jr., also known as The McLemore Boys , a father-son barbecue pit-master duo and authors of "Gather and Grill." They all shared their tailgating expertise with us, and advised us on how best to avoid those classic tailgating errors.
1. Mistake: Trying to cook too many bulky foods The one thing that will ruin your tailgate is keeping your friends waiting for their food — and this can easily happ.
