The Grilling time table:
-2 hours: have the food and equipment at hand
+ prep the meat
-1.5 hours: Prep the potatoes and put in the oven to bake
-1 hour: Start the charcoal
- 0.5 hours: Check the coals, they should be ready to spread.
+ Spread the coals out in a flat even layer
+ Place the grill over the coals to preheat and
clean
-0.3 to -0.25 hours: Grill the meat
0 hour: Pull the potatoes
+ set out the sides
+ throw the French bread on the grill with the garlic
butter on it, this will not take long!
+ Remember to let the steak rest a few minutes before
cutting it.
Grilling:
The devil is in the details. At least two hours before you want to start eating you will need to have on hand, a Bar-B-Q grill, enough charcoal and lighter fluid to do the cooking (3 or 4 pounds of charcoal will cook enough for a family of four), the ingredients for the side dishes, the ingredients for any drinks, the steak and the equipment you will need to cook on the grill.
As for the steak:
First you need to select a good cut. Personally, I prefer a Rib
eye or a New York Strip. If I am splurging, I'll get a Porter House,
but in general a Rib eye is perfect. Choose one that is well marbled
(meaning traced with fat) without having too much gristle. The flavor
is in the fat, and most of it will cook out leaving the flavor behind.
The second thing is thickness. The more rare you like them, the thicker
it ought to be. I like my steak to be at least an inch think.
I like to think that with proper care one of my steaks could be rushed
to vet and cured. In 99.99% of all cases, if you have the meat done
through the first 1/4 inch or so, the risk of disease is almost nothing.
Note: Do not serve rare meat to small children or the very old. A
person in average health can shake off bad germs, the very young and the
very old are not so lucky - Serve their steak well done.
OK. Now we have our steak and we want to grill it.
There are three main issues in this process.
1) The preparation of the meat.
2) The preparation of the grill.
3) The actual grilling (about 10% of the effort)
A good steak is great right out of the steer. However, if you are not a purist, try this method. Season your steaks with a no-salt, or low salt Greek seasoning. I recommend Konriko's from New Iberia, Louisiana. Don't be stingy, but don't be ridiculous about it either. Cover your steak well with the seasoning and put it in the fridge. You could also add some Italian salad dressing to the meat as a marinade. You can put the dry seasonings on the night before, but do not leave the meat in a liquid marinade for more than an hour or two. The acid will begin cooking the meat and something as tender as a steak does not need that. You are halfway done with the meat, but you haven't started the side dishes or the grill.
A good steak needs good potatoes. A decent baked potato takes about an hour to an hour and a half at 350 degrees. Now is when we start the potatoes. Turn the oven on now to 350 degrees. It depends on whether you are serving a group, or a few people. If I am serving a lot of people I tend to fix enough for most people to just have the stuff I prepare and leave one or two for the purists. For the baked-all the way, get one decent (fist sized) potato for each one and one third people. Or, four people can usually consume three potatoes, especially if there are any kids. You will need at least one clove of garlic, one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt for each potato. For the single potato, slice the skin shallowly so that you have plenty of well-spaced slits in the hide. Rub the potato with the olive oil. Place on a piece of foil large enough to wrap the potato well and crush one of the garlic cloves and scatter the pieces onto the potato. Sprinkle the potato with salt and wrap tightly with the foil. Perforate the foil in a few places to let the steam out and place directly on the center rack in your oven at 350 degrees. For a group of people, I slice three or four potatoes into quarters and rub the pieces with the olive oil. Then I scatter the three or four cloves of garlic and the salt in and fold all the pieces up in one flat bundle of foil and place that on the center rack of the oven. You can put some onions and hot peppers in with them too. Now, those are fine for the next 90 minutes. Have a beer, or a shot of whatever, but keep an eye on the clock. In thirty minutes you need to start a fire.
When the potatoes have been cooking for thirty minutes, you need to start the grill. Don't waste your money on the match light or cheap charcoal. Buy the decent charcoal and a decent lighter fluid. You need enough coals to make an even packed layer under the meat. Not much meat, not much coal. Plenty of meat, you need enough coals to fit the meat. This is not rocket science. Once you have spread the coals out to be sure you have the right amount, mound them up as best you can because they light better that way. Douse them well with lighter fluid and light them carefully. Remember, I said one beer. If you have had one too many, let someone sober start the fire. Remember, it is not a fun day outside for the little ones if daddy or mommy immolate or maim themselves. Stupid is as stupid does.
Fire lit? Nice bright flames? No rain? Flames not too close to the house? OK, go get a beer. (Remember some states require a fire extinguisher and someone near the fire at all times. Check with your local police to avoid breaking any laws.)
The potatoes have been in the oven for about forty to forty-five minutes now. They should smell pretty good. If not, check the oven, someone may have turned it off. If so, find them and eject them from the premises. Now would be a good time to think about salad, garlic toast, shredding cheese and whatever you like in your spuds. You have about twenty minutes and that is not as much time as it sounds like. Unless it sounds like 1200 seconds, then it is exactly as long as it sounds, but you will be busy regardless.
Pound up some more garlic, mix it with some butter for the bread, and shred enough cheese for the potatoes and the salad. Put the ranch style beans on or whatever you like as a side. Now is the chance to make the side dishes,
OK, the potatoes have been cooking for slightly over an hour. Go check the coals.
The coals should be mostly white at this point. If some of them do not seem to be as ready as the others that is OK, we are not cooking yet. Spread the coals out evenly, I use long tongs for this. Keep the ones that are not quite ready surrounded by the white ones and they will catch up soon enough. Place the grill over the coals. If, like mine, your grill still has some crass on it from the yesterday when you were grilling, let the fire get it good and hot before you attempt to clean it off with the long-handled wire brush. This step was critical. An even heat six or seven inches from the grill is what we need. Less is OK, but not less than three inches. The heat at the grill should be too intense for you to hold you hand near it for more than a second or so. OK, the grill is set for now. Go get the steaks out.
A word of caution about the unwelcome guests at the Bar-B-Q: Flies and other insects. The time to spray poisons and place smudge pots was well before you started cooking. If you have not done so already, it is too late now. Insecticides in the food do nothing for the flavor. Regardless of the prior precautions, keep the food covered unless serving or eating. Have something ready (aluminum foil is perfect) to cover the food when you take it off the grill.
OK, now. If your grilling is like mine, someone always wants burned meat. Start the steaks that need to be well done first, unless you have had them cut thin, which is a better idea. When those steaks are medium rare, start the rest of the steaks.
A word or twenty about how to tell if the steak is done. I suggest a meat thermometer for exactness, but after a few times at the grill you can tell by the feel of the meat.
I do not like steak sauce. A well-cooked, properly seasoned steak should not need a sauce. I do however like to baste with a Bar-B-Q sauce. I like the Jim Beam Bar-B-Q sauce and I can make one I like out of almost any of them by adding salsa (and a few other things) to the standard sauces. I usually mix the Hunts, or whatever about half and half with Pace Picante sauce. I sear both sides of the steak and then start the basting. This sauce is not real thick, and I like my steaks rare, so the sauce does not burn on the meat. If you are cooking well-done steaks, you just need to baste on the last couple of turns.
When you put the steaks on the grill get rid of the platter you carried
them out on. It needs to be washed before you can use it again.
You can count on at least six minutes per side for a thick steak to be
rare to medium rare. Once you have them cooked place them on a clean
platter and cover loosely with the aluminum foil to keep them warm and
to keep the creepie-crawlies and winged-whatsits away from them.
That's it. You should be ready to eat and enjoy.
courtesy of www.dougriddle.com
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