Filed Under: BBQ, Burgers, Grilling, Guides, Memorial Day, Steak

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Summer’s here, well sort of. Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer for us here at Mancave Daily. Summer for us means two things, drinking beer and grilling. We’ll assume you don’t need a guide to drinking beer, but you might not be the grill master you think you are. So here’s a guide to the manliest of all arts, grilling.

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The Basics

1. Start With A Clean Grill: No matter how well you’ve marinated your burger, it won’t matter if that grill isn’t clean. All that leftover nastiness can get on your food and cause flare-ups that will overcook your burger.

2. Apply Oil: Coat the grates of the grill with your choice of cooking oil to prevent food from sticking.

3. Use a Meat Thermometer: We personally love our steaks and burgers medium rare, but there’s a fine line between rare and undercooked. Prevent a day spent on the toilet by using a meat thermometer.

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Meat Management

 4. Don’t Puncture or “Press” On the Meat: This isn’t the time to play with your meat. Sure it may be fun to squeeze down on that juicy burger with your spatula. But this takes the taste right out of it, leaving you with a dry, flavorless burger.

5. Don’t Micro-manage The Meat: Here’s a secret about grilling most people don’t know. It doesn’t take much work. So stop touching your meat. Don’t constantly flip and prod whatever your grilling. One flip of your meat of choice is sufficient.

6. Food Will Continue to Cook: Here’s a no-brainer that some people forget: your food will continue to cook for a bit after you’ve taken it off the grill. With that in mind, be sure to take the meat off the grill a few minutes before it reaches your desired “doneness,” or, as we prefer, “awesomeness.”

7. Let The Meat Rest: Once you’ve taken the meat off the grill, “tent” it in aluminum foil and let it rest for 5 minutes. This will let the juices in the meat redistribute for optimal moistness.

Now that you’ve got the basics, invest in a good set of BBQ tools. This is our personal favorite. Yes, this grilling set has a spatula that’s also a wrench, a fork that’s also a hammer and a basting brush that’s also a tape measure. If that’s not manly, we don’t know what is.

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