Stop Making All Those Grilling Mistakes
Most home cooks aren’t five star chefs with the papers to prove it. We like to play, enjoying our stove and our grill by just putting recipes together that have been passed down through our families or earned by trial and error. There are no television shows based around us, no cookbooks with our faces plastered all over them, and no rabid fans clamoring for our autographs. We do all right for ourselves anyway, but how many mistakes are really made because we just don’t realize we are even making them? If you have experienced the disappointment putting a barbecue together and slaving over a smoky grill all day just to have your meat turn out dry, tough, burnt, or overcooked I can sympathize. I have definitely been there. Thankfully, not for a long time, though. There are a few things that I have learned over the years that keep me well away from those common errors around the grill.
Let it thaw – If meat is still frozen inside, it is almost impossible to cook it through without burning the outside of it. This is why you have to make sure that it is completely thawed before you begin.
Lighter fluid is the enemy – The taste of it will always seep into the food even if you try to avoid it. Some of you may think that you can just cook the coals down before you begin. Don’t do it! If you cook on a charcoal grill, invest in a chimney starter.
Let it cook in peace – Do not prod at it with a fork. It is probably the most common mistake people make, and it will cost you. If you puncture the meat, juices will run out and into your grill. Exactly where you don’t need them to be. As a result, what you are cooking will turn out dry and less tender than it should be. Don’t even use a fork when it is time to turn it over. A long set of tongs does the trick perfectly.
Lower the fire – Cook with low to medium heat. Slow cooking results in meat that is tender and juicy.
Stop peeking – When you lift the lid on a barbecue grill it changes the temperature inside of it. Air gets in and will dry your meat like a sponge run over it.
Change your plates – Never put meat that you have finished cooking back on the same plate that it was on when it was raw. You will make someone sick doing that. Possibly yourself. And nobody likes booby trapped food.
The meat must stand – After you take the meat off the fire, be sure to allow it to rest for about ten minutes. If you cut into it as soon as you pull it off the grill, the juices will trickle out of it.
And there you have it. Those aren’t the only mistakes that cooks sometimes make, just the most common ones. Making sure that you aren’t guilty of any of them is a great start to eliminating a barbecue catastrophe. Your guests may even wonder what your secret is.
