Grilling Tips
Friend of Serious Eats Matt Haughey, who happens to be Grand Poobah of the community weblog MetaFilter, bought a new grill for his backyard recently and asked his loyal followers for tips on learning how to use it.
There are lots of recommendations of books to buy in the thread, many of which don't just have chapters on grilling but are all about it, but the best thing is that people are also sharing both their favorite recipes and their best tips. Here's a bit from my favorite response, from Mr Gunn:
One method taught to many people when they're just starting out is to hold your hand out flat, palm down, fingers and thumb parallel. Feel the firmness of the muscle between your thumb and first finger. Close to the bone of the first finger is the firmness of a well done steak, and as you move out to the side of the muscle, it gets softer. Medium is about half-way out. I don't know if this helps, because you still have to get a feel for it, but some people use it.
Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
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3 Comments:
Well, my first recommendation would be to clean the thing. The grates in the picture above are disgusting, and I would never grill anything on that. =)
casperOne at 5:27PM on 04/24/07
I've seen Gordon Ramsay explain it this: your cheek is rare; your chin is medium, your forehead is well done.
Berry at 5:35PM on 04/24/07
Here's the trick as I learned it (and I've used it to good effect):
Touch the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb (like an "ok" sign):
touch the big fleshy muscle on your palm that that's just below your thumb. That's rare.
Touch the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb. Fleshy area below the thumb = medium rare.
Same with the ring finger = medium.
Same with pinky = well.
ren at 9:29PM on 04/24/07