Tips for Cooking Meat - The Basics

There are many fancy ways of cooking meat on the grill but you need to get the basics right. Smart grillers will always seek to learn from the more experienced and successful grilling chefs. The Grilling Coach has many years of experience and even better, is willing to share his meat cooking tips with YOU! So when you have read this page, wise-up and sign up to his newsletter NOW for regular tips delivered right to your inbox.

• Use the right temperature with the right meat.
• Tender cuts on dry heat and tougher cuts with moist heat.
• Use kosher salt and cracked pepper. Sprinkle generously, it adds flavor and aids in the best cooking for your meat.
• Sharpen up the flavour by rubbing mustard powder over the meat the day before it is grilled.
• Get to know your butcher since good quality meat is the most important ingredient in cooking it.
• Sear the meat for a little longer than what you might think, creating a brown hue on the outside, not just golden. Searing seals the juices and flavors into the meat. Always use tongs for turning the meat as forks will poke holes in the meat, allowing more of the juices and therefore flavors to eascape than would otherwise be the case.
• Check your meat for doneness well before it is actually time for it to be done. This way you can make any necessary adjustments to cooking time and/or add ingredients, spices, or herbs.
• Marinade the meat overnight, it adds flavor and can tenderise the some tougher cuts of meat. You can add the marinade to the meat when it is served BUT ALWAYS make sure that the marinade is cooked as it could contain bacteria from the raw meat. Remove the meat from the marinade before cooking and dry it off on a paper towel or similar before cooking as the marinade could inhibit browning.
• Cook on a medium temperature, you will get a fuller flavor and avoid charring. It also helps you to avoid poisoning your guests with undercooked meats.
• Choose lean cuts of meat.

Both of the latter two meat grilling tips are good healthwise. Cooking meat and poultry at high temperatures is thought to produce chemicals, particularly withing any charred sections, that can cause cancer, however the results are not yet fully researched but is it worth the risk? So what is the science behind this idea? The Grilling Coach explains ...

"Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are compounds formed from overcooked protein that are located in the charred portion of meats. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are compounds of fat drippings that form when fatty meat is cooked over open flames. The fat produces smoke and the undesirable chemicals are deposited on the surface of the meat. But also remember that it is not just an issue for grilling. HCA and PAH formation can occur in any protein (poultry, meat or fish) that is burned or even just overcooked with any cooking method, it is the high temperatures that cause the problems."

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