1. Clean the grates, take them inside to the kitchen and give them a good cleaning. You can also put them in the oven and use the cleaning cycle. Start the season fresh.
2. Oil the grates. Take a paper towel and apply a liberal dose of oil to the grates before grilling. The cleaning probably removed some of the natural lubrication.
3. Buy a new brush, Your old one is probably really grody. New brushes are $3 at Rainbow.
4. Check your hoses. Turn the gas on at the tank first and listen for any leakage before opening up the burners. If you hear gas escaping but haven't opened up the burners, turn off the tank and replace your hoses.
5. Buy a meat thermometer. Make a deliberate effort to not over cook you rmeat this summer. Meat thermometers are $29 at the Kitchen Store in the Eden Prairie mall and really help take the guess work out of grilling meat. This especially helps with thicker cuts of meat. Chicken is the most likely to be over cooked. Remove chicken when the thickest part is at 165 degrees.
6. Whenever possible, try to use only fresh meat. Frozen steaks never get their texture back due to cellular damage from the freezing process. Buy steaks the day you need them and avoid freezing them. If you must freeze them be sure to squeeze out any air before placing the bags in the freezer.
7. But grown up salt - coarse kosher salt. The taste is much cleaner than iodized salt and do you really need more iodine?
8. Get a good pepper grinder. Most meats need nothing more than kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Try one of the dual slat and pepper grinders from Chef'n.
9. Get some firewire. The flexible grilling utensils are great for marinating meat in.
http://www.firewiregrilling.com/
10.Learn at least one new recipe a month. Here's my favorite.
1 - 1.5 lbs flank steak
1/2 C soy sauce (2/3 C)
1/2 C canola or vegetable oil
4 spoonsfuls molasses
2 spoonfuls fresh ginger
2 spoonfuls mustard
1 spoonful sugar
6 garlic cloves, chopped
Mix together all the ingredients. Marinate flank steak for up to 24 hours but at least 1 hour. Grill over high heat for 3 minutes each side. Let rest and then cut across the grain and on an angle.
© 2008 Cooking for Dads
Cook well, It's worth it.
Rob Barrett
Cooking for Dads
