A professional meat cutter of 26 years, Todd Payne cooks roughly five or six nights a week—even in the dead of winter. Over the years, he’s discovered some helpful tips. Here are just a few for the next time you fire up the grill.
GENERAL TIPS
Don’t just buy what’s pre-packaged in the meat department. Ask the butcher to cut the meat to your liking. For a rib eye, for example, ask to make it no thicker than 1 ¼ inches thick.
Keep your grill clean so grease won’t cause flare-ups. If a flare-up does occur, move your meat away from the flame.
Before grilling, make the grill extremely hot by keeping the lid down. Then, turn down the heat just before you throw on the meat.
Never turn your meat with a fork because it releases the juices. Instead, use a spatula or tongs.
Try Texjoy or Bad Byron’s Butt Rub if you prefer a dry rub, which typically sears better than the wet variety.
Cook sides for about a half hour in a foil packet on your grill’s top rack while cooking your meat.
SELECTING MEATS
Buy USDA Choice steaks. It might be a little pricier, but it’s well worth it; USDA Select meat dries out when it’s even slightly overcooked.
Select a rib eye if you’re not weight-conscious. It’s the easiest to cook because of the fat content—tender, juicy, and tasty.
Try a Kansas City strip, with a decent wall of fat, because each bite is a consistent, beefy taste. It can dry out, though, so watch it on the grill.
A porterhouse or T-bone is the same cut as the KC strip, but it has the backbone and part of the filet on the other side. Serve the steak on its own plate, with sides plated separately, because the cut is so big.
Filet mignon is the healthiest cut because it’s lean, but it’s pricy for USDA Select. It’s very tender and low on fat, but filets tend to dry out so don’t cook beyond a warm, pink center.
Top sirloin is considered the lower end of cuts because it’s not as tender and tends to dry out easily.
For burgers, buy ground round because it has the ultimate quality and is 85 percent lean. (As a rule of thumb, ground chuck is 80 to 81 percent lean, and ground beef is 73 percent lean. Ground sirloin is the leanest beef, at 93 percent, but it crumbles easily and quickly dries out on the grill.)
COOKING TIPS
Boil brats in beer until the casing breaks open to about the size of a dime on the end. Boil with a lid on the pan or outside on the side burner to minimize the smell in the house. Once the casing breaks open, grill until charred to personal preference because the meat’s already cooked.
When it comes to pork chops, try a boneless pork chop, 1- to 1 ¼-inch thick. Grill for about 15 minutes, turning twice.
Buy pork injected with sodium solution (sometimes labeled “user-friendly” pork) because it keeps the meat from drying out. Massage the meat with dry rub an hour before grilling. If desired, add BBQ sauce and cook for five minutes with the lid down.
For pork steak, ask the butcher to cut the meat 5/8- to ¾-inch thick, and you’ll have a pleasant surprise. Season with dry rub an hour before cooking. Grill for 12 to 15 minutes, searing it and then turning it two to three times.
An hour before grilling steak, sprinkle the dry rub liberally and massage it into both sides of the meat. Let the steak sit on a cookie sheet at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour; doing so breaks down the meat’s fibers, making it tender.
A bone-in split breast is tough to top when it comes to chicken. Again, put the dry rub on before you grill. Cook it with half of the grill’s burners on high heat and half on low, grilling the chicken on the low-heat side. Cook for about 30 minutes total.
Mist the chicken with apple juice every five minutes. (A simple spray bottle will do the trick.) Keep the lid down except when misting. About 20 minutes into cooking, turn over the chicken so the meat side is down for five minutes, then turn back over and mist heavily with apple juice before serving.
Rub down ribs with yellow mustard before grilling. Once you add the dry rub, you won’t even taste the mustard. Then, spray the ribs with apple juice every five minutes. Again, keep the lid down as much as possible while cooking.
