10 Grilling Myths

[The Late Night Gourmet]

A renowned grilling expert sets the record straight about a number of things, most of which I knew, but some that I didn't:

https://food52.com/blog/16826-10-grilling-myths-that-must-go-away

Here are the tips, with a summary of each:

1. MYTH: You can tell the temperature of your grill by holding your hand over it.
Each of us reacts differently to heat and the heat 1 inch above the grate can be significantly different than 6 inches above.

2. MYTH: Get your grill really hot and sear the meat first.
You want a grill that has enough cooking surface that you can set up two heat zones: one side hot, one side not. One side is heated by direct radiant heat, the other by indirect convection heat. On a gas grill, turn the burners off on one side. On a charcoal grill, push all the coals to one side. Now you have temperature control.

3. MYTH: Searing meat seals in the juices.
Meat is about 70% water and most of that is locked in thousands of long thin muscle fibers. Heating meat always squeezes out juices. Some juices drip off during cooking and some evaporate, and nothing can stop the process. Hear that sizzle? That’s water on hot metal.

4. MYTH: Marinades penetrate deep into meat and tenderize it.
Marinades are primarily a surface treatment, especially on thicker cuts.

5. MYTH: The pink juice from a steak is blood.
Meat juices are simply water tinted pink with a protein named myoglobin, and myoglobin is never found in the blood stream.

6. MYTH: Cook chicken until the juices run clear.
Color is not a reliable guide in any meat. Only temperature is.

7. MYTH: Lookin' ain't cookin'.
In other words, if you keep checking the grill, heat escapes and the food doesn't get cooked. But, a minute here or there to baste the meat, rotate positions for uniformity, or to insert a thermometer, is time well-spent. No harm, no fowl foul.

8. MYTH: The more smoke you see the better.
Actually, the opposite is true. Billowing white smoke may be great if you’re electing a Pope, but a faint wisp of blue smoke is the holy grail of low and slow pitmasters.

9. MYTH: The higher the BTU rating, the hotter the grill.
BTU is derived from a calculation based on gas pressure, the size of the opening in the gas valve, and the type of gas. The more BTU, the more fuel used, not the higher heat. If you were shopping for a really fast car, the miles per gallon would not be a useful guide to how fast the car goes. It's kinda like that.

10. MYTH: Oil the grill grates to keep food from sticking.
The best way to keep food from sticking is to oil the food. The cold food keeps the oil from burning and cracking.

 

[Ken Natton]

5. MYTH: The pink juice from a steak is blood.
Meat juices are simply water tinted pink with a protein named myoglobin, and myoglobin is never found in the blood stream.

I have to challenge you on that one, @The Late Night Gourmet. Buy a good steak and leave it on a plate for a few minutes, then remove it. What's left on the plate ain't pink, it's a deep red, and you're going to struggle to convince me that it isn't blood. The red in red meat, is blood. How do they make veal so pale? By draining the blood from the slaughtered animal. The meat you eat is muscle. To do its job, muscle needs oxygen. What's the body's transport system for oxygen?

 

[classic33]

A renowned grilling expert sets the record straight about a number of things, most of which I knew, but some that I didn't:

https://food52.com/blog/16826-10-grilling-myths-that-must-go-away

9. MYTH: The higher the BTU rating, the hotter the grill.
BTU is derived from a calculation based on gas pressure, the size of the opening in the gas valve, and the type of gas. The more BTU, the more fuel used, not the higher heat. If you were shopping for a really fast car, the miles per gallon would not be a useful guide to how fast the car goes. It's kinda like that.

The British thermal unit (Btu or BTU) is a traditional unit of heat; it is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

One pound of air-dried wood generates about 7,000 Btu, a
One gallon of liquid propane (a hydrocarbon) about 92,000 Btu
One gallon of fuel-oil about 140,000 Btu

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/British-thermal-unit-Btu.html

Did you know...
One Btu is approximately equal to the energy released by burning a match.
You'll need a bigger box of matches next time!

 

[classic33]

I have to challenge you on that one, @The Late Night Gourmet. Buy a good steak and leave it on a plate for a few minutes, then remove it. What's left on the plate ain't pink, it's a deep red, and you're going to struggle to convince me that it isn't blood. The red in red meat, is blood. How do they make veal so pale? By draining the blood from the slaughtered animal. The meat you eat is muscle. To do its job, muscle needs oxygen. What's the body's transport system for oxygen?

It's one of those that's both true and false.
"Myoglobin is found in your heart and skeletal muscles. There it captures oxygen that muscle cells use for energy. When you have a heart attack or severe muscle damage, myoglobin is released into your blood."

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=167&ContentID=myoglobin_blood

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I have to challenge you on that one, @The Late Night Gourmet. Buy a good steak and leave it on a plate for a few minutes, then remove it. What's left on the plate ain't pink, it's a deep red, and you're going to struggle to convince me that it isn't blood. The red in red meat, is blood. How do they make veal so pale? By draining the blood from the slaughtered animal. The meat you eat is muscle. To do its job, muscle needs oxygen. What's the body's transport system for oxygen?

The expert does go on to say:

If it were blood, it would be dark red, the same color as your blood, and it would coagulate. Every time we call it "blood", somewhere a teenager becomes a vegetarian.

This doesn't totally answer the question, so I found this elsewhere. It's from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true Still, please note the British spelling, which lends an air of authority to this passage:

Myoglobin contains hemes, pigments responsible for the colour of red meat. The colour that meat takes is partly determined by the degree of oxidation of the myoglobin. In fresh meat the iron atom is the ferrous (+2) oxidation state bound to an oxygen molecule (O2). Meat cooked well done is brown because the iron atom is now in the ferric (+3) oxidation state, having lost an electron. If meat has been exposed to nitrites, it will remain pink because the iron atom is bound to NO, nitric oxide (true of, e.g., corned beef or cured hams). Grilled meats can also take on a pink "smoke ring" that comes from the iron binding to a molecule of carbon monoxide.[10] Raw meat packed in a carbon monoxide atmosphere also shows this same pink "smoke ring" due to the same principles. Notably, the surface of this raw meat also displays the pink color, which is usually associated in consumers' minds with fresh meat. This artificially induced pink color can persist, reportedly up to one year.[11] Hormel and Cargill are both reported to use this meat-packing process, and meat treated this way has been in the consumer market since 2003

Other authoritative pages of various repute also agree with this assessment.

 

[sidevalve]

Afraid I must question 3. [Yes we have been here before] I DO NOT LIKE RAW MEAT and I fail to see why an incompetent chef should be able to get away with telling me that a well done steak is ruined just because he or she can't [or can't be bothered] to cook it properly. A sudden burst of high heat does seal the meat and then a steak can be cooked through without the 'boot leather' result usually obtained by those who don't want to know. As for the chemistry, it's very interesting and may be useful at a pub quiz one day but - who cares ? I'm eating it not experimenting on it.
{OK rant over]

 

[classic33]

Afraid I must question 3. [Yes we have been here before] I DO NOT LIKE RAW MEAT and I fail to see why an incompetent chef should be able to get away with telling me that a well done steak is ruined just because he or she can't [or can't be bothered] to cook it properly. A sudden burst of high heat does seal the meat and then a steak can be cooked through without the 'boot leather' result usually obtained by those who don't want to know. As for the chemistry, it's very interesting and may be useful at a pub quiz one day but - who cares ? I'm eating it not experimenting on it.
{OK rant over]

Person behind it/them seems to have had their book recently re-issued.

Probably no connection between the two.

 

[Cinisajoy]

Afraid I must question 3. [Yes we have been here before] I DO NOT LIKE RAW MEAT and I fail to see why an incompetent chef should be able to get away with telling me that a well done steak is ruined just because he or she can't [or can't be bothered] to cook it properly. A sudden burst of high heat does seal the meat and then a steak can be cooked through without the 'boot leather' result usually obtained by those who don't want to know. As for the chemistry, it's very interesting and may be useful at a pub quiz one day but - who cares ? I'm eating it not experimenting on it.
{OK rant over]

A good grill chef should be able to cook your well done and my rare equally. A really good one will have various thicknesses of the same steak so if we are eating together, they should be done at the same time.

 

[buckytom]

I prefer to call the red juices from meat intracellular fluid. But I have no problem ingesting animal blood if the recipe calls for it.

 

[classic33]

I prefer to call the red juices from meat intracellular fluid. But I have no problem ingesting animal blood if the recipe calls for it.

Make certain it's from an animal younger than you(Taking into account how they age compared to us).

Recent research has shown old Vlad, and Dracula, were onto something.

 

[buckytom]

Well, I do curse the sun when I leave work some mornings.

 

[epicuric]

Afraid I must question 3. [Yes we have been here before] I DO NOT LIKE RAW MEAT and I fail to see why an incompetent chef should be able to get away with telling me that a well done steak is ruined just because he or she can't [or can't be bothered] to cook it properly. A sudden burst of high heat does seal the meat and then a steak can be cooked through without the 'boot leather' result usually obtained by those who don't want to know. As for the chemistry, it's very interesting and may be useful at a pub quiz one day but - who cares ? I'm eating it not experimenting on it.
{OK rant over]

That's a bit unfair. Almost like saying I DO NOT LIKE RUNNY EGG YOLK then having a go at the judgement of anyone who dares to suggest that an egg might be better enjoyed with a yolk that's not totally solid. It personal preference. As to the "can't (or can't be bothered) to cook it properly", do you really think it takes more skill or effort to cremate a steak than it does to cook it medium rare? Or more skill to hard boil an egg as opposed to cook the white through but leave the yolk runny? And you have no interest in the chemistry involved in cooking? The clue is in the name of the forum.

 

[classic33]

That's a bit unfair. Almost like saying I DO NOT LIKE RUNNY EGG YOLK then having a go at the judgement of anyone who dares to suggest that an egg might be better enjoyed with a yolk that's not totally solid. It personal preference. As to the "can't (or can't be bothered) to cook it properly", do you really think it takes more skill or effort to cremate a steak than it does to cook it medium rare? Or more skill to hard boil an egg as opposed to cook the white through but leave the yolk runny? And you have no interest in the chemistry involved in cooking? The clue is in the name of the forum.

How many BTU's does it take for each method?

Assuming gas(natural) is used.

Can you hard boil an egg, if no liquid is used?

 

[buckytom]

I remember seeing an episode of Masterchef where the challenge was to cook different cuts of steak to 3 different temperatures: medium rare, medium, and well done.

Well done was the most difficult to achieve. Gordon Ramsay made a point of it that well done should be cooked through, but still moist and not tough.

I prefer rare to medium rare meats, but many of my Irish friends order their steaks well done. When I've asked why, the answers were split between simply just their preference or always have eaten it that way, to mistrust of the cook and kitchen, feeling it's safer to eat fully cooked meats from a restaurant.

 

[epicuric]

How many BTU's does it take for each method?

Assuming gas(natural) is used.

Can you hard boil an egg, if no liquid is used?

I have never encountered the use of BTU's in cooking. It is a measurement of heat, not temperature, thus totally irrelevant to the cook, apart from comparing the efficiency of your oven perhaps.

I think the term "boiling" generally implies the use of a liquid.