11 Grilling Mistakes Every Guy Makes

11 Grilling Mistakes Every Guy Makes

By David Joachim, Posted Date: May 4, 2012

Read more at Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/grilling-mistakes-0#ixzz1y42B8aCH

When the average guy throws down the first steak of the summer, he expects  everything to go just right. But while we might imagine ourselves as Bobby Flays  of the backyard, the reality is that most of us routinely make dozens of minor  mistakes that can detract from ever reaching grilling perfection. Here are 11 of  the most common errors, courtesy of David Joachim, author of Mastering the  Grill.
1. Never cleaning your grill. Ever lift a  friend’s grill lid to find a mess of spider webs and burnt-on burger bits? Not a  pretty sight. And it makes it grilling anything decent next to impossible. Think  of your grill grate like an open sauté pan. It should be clean before you cook  on it. Brush the grate immediately after you take off the food. A hot grate  cleans easier than a cold one.
2. Not oiling her up  first. Just like a sauté pan, a grill grate needs a little oil to help  transfer heat and keep food from sticking. Keep a jar of cheap cooking oil near  the grill. Wad up a paper towel, dip it in the oil, and rub it over the hot  grill grate just before adding food. Like magic, fish doesn’t stick! Grilled  pizza crust browns beautifully! Steaks get deep grill marks!
3.  Not getting her smoking hot. A red-hot grill helps prevent sticking,  gives you professional grill marks, and cooks food faster. Preheat your grill  grate, preferably with the lid down, for at least 15 minutes before adding food.  The metal should be hot enough to sear on contact.
4. Grilling  cold food. Ever wonder why your steaks take so long to cook? Maybe  they’re ice cold! If you take a nice thick ribeye from fridge to fire, it burns  on the outside before the inside reaches doneness. Let your steaks, chops,  roasts, and even vegetables rest out of the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to take  the chill off. That’s as long as you should preheat the grill  anyway.
5. Grilling wet food. It’s a great idea to rinse  chicken breasts clean. (Dirty birds!) But pat the meat dry before you toss it on  the grill. Food doesn’t start to brown until the surface gets to about 250  degrees—but water can only get to 212 degrees before it evaporates. If the food  is wet, it’ll steam before it grills. Bottom line: dry food = better browning =  better flavor. Oiling the food also helps because the fat speeds heat  transference.
6. Marinating in sweet barbecue sauce.  Marinating is good. But not in barbecue sauce. It’s loaded with sugar and burns  faster than a marshmallow in hell. No wonder your barbecued chicken always comes  out black! Try marinating in a vinegar- or oil-based marinade. Save the sweet  barbecue sauce for slathering on during the last 5 minutes.
7.  Walking away from the grill. Step away from the fire and the chicken  ignites. The pork chops turn to hockey pucks. The burgers incinerate. Here’s a  solution: screw a cupholder onto your grill so you have an incentive to stand  there. Or just drag your beer cooler to the grill so everyone will hang out with  you. Once you get reeeally comfortable with cooking on your grill, experiment  with walking away for brief periods.
8. Pressing on  burgers. “My burgers always come out dry, not juicy.” Well, pressing  all the juices out into the fire aint gonna help. After you toss burgers on the  grill, let them sit there without touching them until they’re deeply grill  marked. Then, and only then, flip them. Once. You’ll also get a juicier burger  by adding 2 tablespoons ice water per pound of burger mixture. And it helps to  use hamburger meat with at least 15 percent fat.
9. Guessing  doneness. Don’t mess with bacteria. They can kill you. That’s doubly  important with hamburgers because grinding meat spreads surface bacteria  throughout the meat. Don’t just guess how done your burgers, steaks, and chicken  breasts are. Stick an instant-read thermometer in them and find out for  sure.
10. Not resting. The steak is cooked to  perfection, and the beer-can can chicken has browned up beautifully. Now, get  them off the grill and have a beer! The food needs time to rest. Ideally, you  want to let food cool to an internal temperature of about 120 degrees before  cutting into it. (That’s anywhere from 5 minutes for a thin pork chop to 20  minutes for a whole chicken.) During that time, the meat proteins firm up and  they become better able to hold onto the meat’s juices. Every slice of rested  meat tastes juicier.
11. Being a boring grill man.  Everyone grills burgers and steaks. Think outside the beef. You can grill pizza,  fruit, French toast…you name it. If you love burgers, try a bison burger. Want  grilled dessert? Toss on some pineapple or pound cake.

Read more at Men’s Health: http://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/grilling-mistakes-0#ixzz1y42wAPc8

June 17, 2012 Posted by hughharrisfca | Education, Uncategorized | Leave a comment