A Work In Progress: Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong

A Work In Progress: Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong

Tuesday night, I came home from work to find a set of pork chops marinating and some spicy buttered corn ready for the grill. Janet had done all the prep work and I would just get to have the fun. The chops were well seasoned, but were oddly chewy. I think I didn't flip them often enough (I was trying to clean the house and do laundry at the same time).

"1. Flip Early, Flip Often. This is the big shocker. It was hard to imagine doing this at first, and when I told people, they thought I was crazy. Think about it this way: you want a juicy steak, right? Or juicy chicken, or hamburgers, or whatever. The juice is nothing more than the blood in the meat. When you put the meat on the grill, there is more heat below the meat than above. The heat forces the liquid up, through the meat. Ever see a big pool of liquid on top of the steak when you lift the cover off the grill? It's been on too long. You don't want it to come out of the steak, you want it to stay in the steak. So you flip every four or five minutes. Sometimes I flip every two or three, depending on what else I'm doing. Flip it before any liquid has a chance to escape out of the top. Repeat often. Flip, flip, flip. It really works. And if you think this takes a lot of time and concentration, you're right. There's time enough for socializing later. Do you want to grill an excellent steak or not? Okay, then. Concentrate."

BTW, the corn was awesome. I'll have to put the spice butter recipe up sometime. In the past I have always grilled corn in the husk, or husked but wrapped in foil. Turns out this isn't necessary (at least if the ears are covered in butter and then left in the fridge before grilling). They cook a lot faster that way also.