I love meat

I am not a huge fan of marinating meat. I prefer to use a good tender cut from the start. New York Strips, Porterhouse and Rib Steaks are my personal favorites. Steak should always be well seasoned. Don’t be afraid of salting your steaks. Don’t use regular iodonized table salt, its bad for you. Pick up a box of kosher salt. You can get a 3 pound box at Safeway for about $3, has no iodine or other chemicals in it and IMO tastes so much better.

Salt and pepper your steaks. In addition you can use a good quality rub. A rub is just a collection of dry ingredients, herbs, spices for seasoning the meat. Again, these can be found cheaply in any grocery store or use your imagination and grind your own in a mortar or coffee grinder.

Lightly oil your BBQ by pouring a bit of oil onto a paper towel and rubbing it on your grill. Turn your BBQ on high; let it get really hot before you put your steaks on. Once the BBQ is good and hot drop your steaks on. Now don’t start poking at them, walk away, leave them alone.

Depending on the thickness let them cook about 4 minutes. Take a pair of tongs and try to lift them. If they stick, leave them alone; they are not ready to flip yet. When meat is ready to flip it will release itself from the hot grill. Never poke your steak with a fork to turn it, the juices will run out making it dry. To get the cool grill marks you can give it a ½ turn if you like. Once you flip it let is cook another 4 minutes. Now its time to start checking it for desired wellness.

See that fleshy part between your thumb and forefinger? Poke it. See how soft it is? Now make a loose fist and poke it again…see it’s a little firmer? Now clench your fist and give it one last poke, much firmer..yes? Meat is very similar to this…soft like the first poke is rare, closed fist softness is medium and clenched fist is well. This is a good rule of thumb…no pun intended.

If you like to put BBQ sauce on your steak I recommend doing it towards the end so it doesn’t burn. I like Bullseye BBQ best. Mushrooms and onions into a foil pouch and thrown onto the BBQ at the same time as the meat is all the veggies you need. Maybe a green salad too. Baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits rounds it out.

Letting meat rest:

There is a VERY good reason why NOT to cut into meat as soon as you think it is ready to eat. Proteins in meat are affected by the cooking process. Simply, you can look at them as sponges. When the heat is applied to the meat the proteins clench and squeeze juices out into the surrounding muscle tissue. When you remove the meat from the heat these proteins relax and during this process they suck the moisture back in.

If you cut the meat without letting it relax, the juices released from the proteins run out all over your plate making your meat not as juicy as it should be. This is why it is important to let your meat rest about 5 minute before serving. Also keep in mind that meat continues to cook even after it is removed from the heat. Always remove your meat when the internal temperature is approximately 5 degrees lower than the “doneness” you are looking for.

Cooking is VERY simple. Its all about fun and experimenting. Just grab a cookbook and give something a try. If it tastes like crap, throw it out and try something else. I will be posting more recipes and tips soon. I will throw in a vegetarian recipe or two as well.