Grill Maestro

My good friend Scott, one of the masterminds behind the Ghent Bar Tour, which, through their charitable efforts, recently reached $50,000 in total donations to the Make A Wish Foundation; sent me a package of cedar grilling planks as a wedding gift. That’s a true friend right there. While I haven’t had the opportunity to [...]

It always pains me to see someone flip a steak with a fork when they could just as easily use tongs. You never want to pierce a piece of meet on the grill because it gives the meat’s juices the opportunity to escape! That leaves a piece of meat that’s less juicy and less tender [...]

Woah! Did I just recommend that you don’t cook food thoroughly on the grill!? Hold your horses, I did just say that in the title but let me clarify and explain why I wrote that. When you cook something on the grill, you’re heating it up right? When you pull something off the grill, it’s [...]

The point of searing a steak is to trap the juicy juiciness inside and keep it there so that you can enjoy it after you’ve plated your dish. With that in mind, here are a few steak tips that help maximize that flavor and may keep you from messing things up!

If you start with your [...]

That’s right, the ideal thickness for a steak, when you’re grilling, is one inch. This will allow the outside to get nice and seared while keeping the inside juicy and moist. The added thickness will also give you a bit of leeway when it comes to cooking. If you overcook it a little, no big [...]

The New York Times has a great article on the power of fire and heat with respect to cooking and throws around a few tips for us aspiring grill maestros. They tackle a problem many grillers face, which is how to get that nice crisp char on the outside while cooking the inside. Their solution? [...]

If the temps are rapidly dropping in your area and you are ready to shut down the grill for the winter (you can always grill in the snow!), be sure to give it a good cleaning before you throw on the tarp and let her rest for a few months. If you allow grease and [...]

I know that this might go without saying for grillers with more experience but last night I tried starting my grill in pretty window conditions. First of all, unless your grill is sturdy enough and heavy enough that it can stand a gust or two or five, don’t bother grilling. If the wind can tip [...]

This tip is helpful for those of us who are novices to smoking and aren’t very good at gauging how much charcoal to burn to hit the sweet temperature spot. The tip is to keep a second grill ready on the side so that you can light additional charcoal without disturbing the peace that you [...]

Working with lighter fluid can be especially tricky because most people misuse it so often, from both a safety and from a general cooking perspective. Ever have a burger that tasted like lighter fluid? Yeah, I have too. Have you ever seen someone spray lighter fluid directly into the fire? Yeah, me too and I [...]