This is the crux of the situation.
When it comes to barbeque, knowing the function of collagen in your meat is critical. Muscles that do minimal effort in general contain less connective tissue and collagen, making them more delicate. These are the muscles that are used for the prime cuts. Cheaper cuts often contain more connective tissue and collagen than more expensive cuts, making them harder.
Prep
Your grill should be heated, but not too hot – if you can’t stand near to it while cooking, you shouldn’t be using it for that purpose. Make sure to light it early enough so that the flames have enough time to die down before you begin cooking: the charcoal should be completely consumed and covered in white ash before you begin cooking with it. Season the meat thoroughly just before serving. If you don’t grease the grill, the meat will not cling to it if the temperature of the grill is right.
A consistent, low heat is required when cooking a tough, collagen-rich piece of meat to produce something moist and tender. This allows it to have a chance to break down and dissolve into soft gelatine, which bastes and moistens the meat from inside the flesh. Therefore, inexpensive slices are best suited to slow, indirect cooking or smoking, while premium cuts benefit from speedier, more direct cooking methods.
Seasoning and adjusting the temperature.
To bring your meat up to room temperature, remove it from the refrigerator (this is referred to as tempering in the culinary world). Because the goal is to get a beautiful char on the outside while keeping the inside moist and tender, it is ideal if your meat is at least 4cm thick.
Otherwise, it will be hard to achieve a good char on the outside while keeping the inside juicy and tender. Using a kitchen towel, blot the meat completely dry before seasoning. Wet meat struggles to develop a good crust and may take up nasty, boiled-meat tastes from the pan.
When seasoning meat, I prefer Maldon sea salt; I never use table salt, which is much too salty and includes anti-caking chemicals, and instead use Maldon sea salt instead. Season vigorously, sprinkling handfuls of salt on the meat; the notion being that most of the salt will come off during the seasoning process and cooking, leaving just the precise quantity of seasoning remaining after the seasoning process and cooking.
There are those who believe that seasoning beef should be kept until after it has been cooked. In this case, I’m not convinced. In any form of cooking, though, there are a few things to keep an eye out for. Because of their lower surface-to-meat ratio, larger slices of meat, such as bone-in ribs, need more seasoning than thinner ones.
The Grill has begun.
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat and let the meat alone for one minute before flipping it. Repeat this process every minute or so until you have achieved some tempting caramelization. It is important to flip your meat often if your meat is on the thick side to avoid it from catching and burning. Whenever yellow flames erupt from the barbeque, transfer your meat immediately. This indicates that fat has caught fire, which may cause meat to taste too smoky when it comes to the table.
Keep the grill from becoming crowded. Provide enough space between each piece of meat to allow oxygen to reach the charcoal. Exact cooking times cannot be given since they vary depending on the thickness of the meat, the animal from which it originates, the cut, and the temperature of the grill.
Temperature control can only be taught by trial and error. In no time, you will be able to identify hot and cold regions, how long it takes for the coals to burn down to the ideal temperature, and how long a complete load of charcoal will endure.
For harder slices, try moving the embers to one side of the grill and covering it with a lid with the vents open (if your barbeque doesn’t come with a lid, improvise with anything else made of metal to allow air to travel through). As a result, heated air circulates evenly around the meat, much as in a convection oven. This is referred to as indirect grilling or roasting.
Indirect fire cooking is not an exact science, but as long as you have a meat probe on hand (there is a broad selection on Amazon to suit all budgets) and know the ideal temperature for the meat you are cooking, you should be in good shape. Do not overlook the sense of touch: the more well done a piece of meat is, the stiffer it will feel in your hands. While this is something that can only be learned through experience, using a probe and your fingers next to each other can help you develop your touch without making too many errors.
Culinary techniques that use two zones
A safety net may also be created by indirect cooking methods. With two cooking zones, direct and indirect, you can manage the way your meat cooks: if the grill starts to get a bit out of hand, just shift the meat to an indirect region until it settles. There should be two extremely different temperatures at each end of the barbeque; the goal is to achieve this. Intended temperatures for the indirect zone are 105-130 degrees Celsius, with the direct zone hovering around 170-190 degrees Celsius.
Grilling in a dirty manner
Clean grilling, often known as “clinching,” is done directly on the coals at the opposite extreme of this range. Using high-quality charcoal and wood is critical in this situation – as is being fearless…. In this manner, it is very difficult to burn meat since the coals will not get enough oxygen in order to ignite the flesh if it is placed directly against them (rather than merely nearby).
Directly into the smouldering wood or charcoal, stirring constantly, the meat will color pretty rapidly and emit splashes and sizzles before being fully cooked. When you believe it is about finished, move it to a place with indirect heat and let it to finish and rest. Caution: this will take some time to master.
Resting
When it comes to barbecues, this is one of the most critical phases. If you remove the meat before you believe it is done, let it to rest for a few minutes. The flesh will continue to cook in the residual heat, and the tissues will relax, resulting in meat that is more juicy and tender when served. More temperate temperatures are also beneficial to our taste receptors. It is possible to enhance your grilling skills by let it to rest for 20 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius — if you can keep your cool for that long.
With anchovies, crudités
Despite the fact that you are ready to consume a large amount of meat, you need something to munch on while the wait. As a moderate warm-up, I recommend that you consume some fibrous raw veggies; the key is to make them taste delicious as hell. Fortunately, this French classic meets all of the criteria. Every aspect of the preparation has been completed in advance, allowing participants to come and go as they want – quite literally. Makes enough food for six people.
The crudités will be served first.
I’d want to make a 1kg (prepared weight) batch of any or all of the following, raw or merely blanched and crunchy: Asparagus, cauliflower, fennel, sugarsnap peas, radishes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, yellow wax beans, baby carrots or maize, sprouting broccoli, peas in the pod, and miniature gem lettuce are examples of vegetables that are good for you.
Lemons are a citrus fruit that may be found in abundance in the United States and elsewhere (for squeezing over; optional)
The anchoade is made using
three peeled and coarsely chopped garlic cloves (around one hundred grams (ie 1 small jar) anchovy fillets with a significant amount of salt (Ortiz are my favourite)
deseeded and coarsely chopped 3 tiny red chilies (or less, according to taste)
Picked 6 basil leaves, coarsely chopped 3 g thyme leaves, minced
olive oil (extra virgin) 200 mL
Dijon mustard (about 3 tablespoons).
vinegar (red wine): 3 tablespoons
Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic into a paste, then add the anchovies and ground one more until smooth. To make a smooth paste, combine the chilli and herbs in a blender. The other ingredients should be stirred in until they reach the consistency of a thickish dressing.
Using a big platter, arrange the veggies and serve them beside a bowl of anchoade for dipping.
Ketchups made specifically for barbecue
The concept of purchasing high-quality meat and then disguising its natural flavor does not appeal to me; it is a waste of money. Apart from that, I dislike the overly sugary sauce that passes for BBQ sauce nowadays. In the event that you must have sugar with your BBQ, consider substituting fruit ketchup for the traditional kind. Cooks in medieval England produced ketchup to serve with meat hundreds of years before Heinz invented the condiment. In practically every case, there are several options available. All of the recipes make enough for six people and may be stored in the refrigerator for a week or longer.
Ketchup made with apples (for pork)
Fruit sugar (150g) 500g granny smith apples (peeled and cored)
vinegar made from cider (150 mL)
8 black peppercorns and 12 stick cinnamon are knotted together in a muslin bag.
fifty-five milliliters of lemon juice
sal (one pinch)
In a stainless-steel pan, combine all of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and remove the spice bag, and then puree the sauce until it is creamy and silky smooth. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve, then pour it into a sterilised container or jar and store it in the refrigerator until it is required.
Ketchup with rhubarb (for pork)
Rhubarb that has been forced to grow in a confined space (pink stems only)
sugar cane (150 g)
vinegar (apple cider) 100 mL
A muslin bag with 12 stick cinnamon, 2cm piece peeled fresh ginger, 2 cloves, and 8 black peppercorns is the perfect container for this fragrant blend.
fifty-five milliliters of orange juice
sal (one pinch)
To make apple ketchup, use the same directions as above.
Ketchup with cranberries (for fowl)
500g fresh or frozen cranberries 150g caster sugar 150g red wine vinegar 500g cranberries
fifty-five milliliters of orange juice
2 grams ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and black peppercorns, all knotted together in muslin bag.
sal (one pinch)
To make apple ketchup, use the same directions as above.
ketchup with pineapple (for sausages, bacon and ham)
Fruit sugar (100 g) 500 g pineapple (peeled and cored)
vinegar (apple cider) 100 mL
1 fiery red chilli, split, 1 vanilla pod, 20 black peppercorns, all tied together in a muslin bag with a string
fifty-five milliliters of lime juice
sal (one pinch)
To make apple ketchup, use the same directions as above.
Ketchup made with tomatoes (for beef)
Chopped tomatoes (1kg) that are fresh and ripe (you could, at a pinch, use passata instead)
1 apple (250 grams)
peeled and sliced 1 small onion (about)
peeled and chopped 1 clove garlic
1 tiny chilli, peeled and cut into pieces.
220 g of sucrose
sea salt (Maldon) 50g
Malt vinegar, two whole black peppercorns, one entire allspice, one clove and one star anise, all knotted up in a muslin bag, 200ml
Make apple ketchup in the same manner as you would for apple sauce, except boil the mixture for two hours instead. Toss the spices into the trash and run the mixture through a mouli until smooth. To store, pour the contents of the jar/bottle into a sterile container and shut it.
A ketchup made from gooseberries (for oily fish such as sardines and mackerel)
Goji berries (500 grams) (frozen are fine)
sugar cane (150 g)
vinegar made from cider (150 mL)
fifty-five milliliters of lemon juice
sal (one pinch)