Tips for Grilling Fruit

Getty Images1. Always begin with a clean, freshly oiled grill grate when grilling fruit (or anything!). You know my mantra: Keep it hot, keep it clean, keep it lubricated.

2. Select fruit that is ripe, but still firm enough to hold its shape when exposed to the searing heat of the grill. My short list of favorites includes apples, apricots, bananas and plantains, fresh figs, mango, papaya, peaches and nectarines, pears, pineapple, plums and pluots.

3. Choose the proper grilling method depending on the texture, size, and shape of the fruit. Pineapple, for example, can be spit-roasted if whole (see the recipe), direct grilled if in slices or chunks (check out my recipe for grilled sugar-dipped pineapple), or indirect grilled if halved, hollowed and stuffed. Smoke-roasting is an option for some fruits. Dense, whole, round fruits, like apples and pears, do well indirect grilled or smoke-roasted whole in the skin (I like them stuffed with butter, brown sugar, and cookie crumbs -- like these fire-roasted apples). You can use grill rings to hold the fruit upright.

4. Soft, succulent fruits, like figs, peaches, plums, and pineapple, are better suited to direct grilling over high heat. Cut them in half to maximize the surface area exposed to the smoke and fire.

5. Butter, sugar, and alcohol-based mop sauces tend to spark flare-ups, so maintain a safety zone on your grill where you can move the food to keep it from burning.

6. If the fruit is small (strawberries, kumquats, figs, cherries), thread it on bamboo skewers or use a grilling grid to prevent pieces from falling into the fire. Or, you can load up my flat skewers or telescoping fork, both of which prevent fruits from spinning.

7. For grilled fruit desserts, brush cut fruit with butter, thinned honey, simple syrup, coconut milk (sweetened or unsweetened), fruit liqueur, eau de vie (fruit brandy), fruit juice, maple syrup, molasses, wine, port, and/or corn syrup. One super easy, slam-dunk great dessert is to brush slices of your favorite fruit (bananas, peaches, pineapples) with melted butter, then sprinkle with sugar and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. To make your life easy, use my Best of Barbecue Dessert Rub ($12.99 at amazon.com).

8. Sweet stuffings for round fruits, like hollowed apples and pears, might include toasted chopped nuts, coconut, candied citrus peel, cream cheese, whipped cream, or warmed jam, and of course, butter and brown sugar.

9. For savory preparations, brush cut fruit with olive oil or melted butter, dust with chili powder or your favorite barbecue rub, stuff with cheese, and/or wrap with bacon, pancetta, or prosciutto. There are many possibilities. Some fruits, like figs, pair well with mustard.

10. Most berries are too fragile to grill directly, but make wonderful smoke-roasted crisps and cobblers.

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Steven Raichlen, America's "master griller" (Esquire), is the premier teacher, evangelist, and all-around expert on the art of live-fire cooking. His eight Barbecue! Bible cookbooks include three national-award winners, two that have sold over a million copies, and six chosen as Main Selections of The Good Cook. The third season of his show, Primal Grill, seen in 95% of PBS markets, is scheduled to run in Summer 2010. Previously he hosted four seasons of PBS's popular series Barbecue University at the Greenbrier, now available on DVD, and now teaches seasonal sessions of Barbecue U at the Broadmoor in Colorado. Articles by him appear regularly in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and other magazines and newspapers. He lives and grills in Coconut Grove, Florida, and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.