I love truly great, but also really, really simple food. Three ingredients? Perfect. Less? Even better. In that type of cooking the preparation, or technique, is more meaningful than a recipe. In those cases, there really is no recipe. In summertime, the grill can be your gateway to super-simple and spectacular eating, but only if you master the technique.
I’ve always considered myself a better-than-average home cook and I’ve learned a lot from the chefs and cooking instructors that come to Hillsdale to teach. Sometimes we all just need someone to open our eyes about certain things we thought we knew. Supposedly, guys know how to grill, right? Maybe we just think we do and have stopped learning, like we used to be accused of never consulting a map on road trips in the old days before GPS.
Enter Meathead Goldwyn. You serious grilling enthusiasts probably have heard of him, but I hadn’t. That is until a mutual friend connected us and got him to come to HGS Home Chef to talk about his techniques on the grill. Each of our classes attract a certain type of crowd, but his followers are truly specific–guys of a certain age who love meat.
I’m not exactly in that contingent, as I eat a lot less meat these days, but sometimes I have a hankering for a burger or a lamb chop. What I learned from Meathead was so simple, and so obvious, that I couldn’t believe I spent decades making the same mistakes at the grill every summer. Sure, I occasionally grilled a great meal, but they were inconsistent, and what makes a good cook better than good is consistency.
In a nut shell, the secret to great grilling is this: have a cool side of the grill and basically do all your cooking there, with the top closed so you have a nice even heat. I understand that it feeds some primal hunger to have flames lapping at your steak or lamb chop. And yes, those visually satisfying charred stripes may make you feel like you did your job, but they are actually just decorative proof you grilled, nothing more. What you really want that steak or lamb chop to look like is evenly and richly colored mahogany.
The second secret is to have a reliable instant-read thermometer, so you know exactly when the chop is ready to plate. Like anything, it will take some trial and error to find out what that means for your taste, but once you do, mark it down and stick to it. You’ll never have to guess again.
That whole trick of pressing the flesh between your forefinger and thumb and comparing it to the firmness of a cooked steak is silly, and totally not scientific. Thermometers don’t lie. Experiment with your preferred cut of meat, do the math, make notes and you too will become be a grill master. Once you’ve figured it out, keep those notes for the following summer so you aren’t ruining food to relearn what you may have forgotten.
At our summer grilling classes, we use charcoal grills, very old-school. At home I have a gas grill. Both are fine, but the same technique applies. Cook on the cooler side, drop the lid and let the grill work its magic. Sure, you can throw in a bit of hickory or mesquite for that smoky flavor. But in essence the surrounding heat will evenly cook the meat when the cover is down, rather than cooking over extra-hot coals and torching the underside while not allowing the center to cook properly.
To review: Have a hot grill and cook on the cooler side. Have your meat thermometer at the ready, and your own notes about the doneness of red meats that suit your taste. By the way, this technique also translates to chicken or fish.
Back to the notion of single, or limited-ingredient cooking–all you need for a great grilled dinner is a good steak or chop, salt and pepper. The smoke does the rest. Throw on a few corncobs (again cooked on the cooler side of the grill). These can be grilled bare, wrapped in foil or even in the husks. Then a nice green salad. There you have it–a perfect summer meal that uses maybe 10 ingredients, even with a solid vinaigrette recipe in your back pocket.
You can always experiment with marinades and sauces, but it’s pretty hard to beat a great cut of meat grilled to perfection. My advice, always, is keep it simple, master the technique and you’ll eat like a king.–Matthew White
Listen in
Use the player below to listen to the audio version of this edition of “The Taste of Things,” from HGS Home Chef Matthew White’s show on Robin Hood Radio in Sharon, CT, the smallest NPR station in the nation: