Grilling With the Guru of Good Life, Part 2

	Sizzling Steaks
Photo: Bill Bettencourt

Memorial Day is almost here, and you're at the point of no return -- the sun is out, blue sky glows above you, fresh green grass is under your feet. You've made your decision about gas or charcoal grilling.

You've got the chicken, steak, burgers and dogs ready to go. Now it's time to prepare the field. So crack your knuckles, smear some barbecue sauce underneath your eyes and get your game face on -- the time is here!

Sound too dramatic?

Well, getting ready to grill is serious stuff. Without the right preparation, grilling becomes a giant hassle. Everything sticks, nothing gets that beautiful char and you turn into a big grilling loser.

So, here's your essential guide on grill preparation. No tricks, just the facts -- what to do first, what to do the minute you slap that beautifully marinated steak on the grill and what to have handy throughout the process.

Get Ready, Get Set

The first step? Clean that grill like you've never cleaned it before.

It's crucial to remove any residue from the last grilling session to ensure your food not only tastes good, but also cooks properly. Charred substances -- which are essentially carbonized organic matter -- will stick to your food and make it taste like what you grilled last Memorial Day.

And if your food is making contact with last year's carbon instead of the hot steel of the grill, it won't char and cook without sticking.

So clean that grill. Do it! It's fun. Get your brush, heat up the grill till it's very hot and scrub, scrub, scrub those nasty bits away. Use a heavy wire brush and get "Mommy Dearest" on that thing.

When you're done cleaning, get the grill hot again -- you really can't have too hot a surface. The minute you throw the food on, it cools the metal down, and you are no longer taking advantage of the high heat.

Just before you place food on the grill, prepare the surface by wiping the grates with a thick cotton dish towel that has been dipped in a little bit of vegetable oil. (Don't use aerosol sprays like Pam unless you want to become a fire-eater!)

Use just enough oil for a light coating and rub it into the surface of the grill -- this will go a long way to prevent sticking. If the grill is too hot, use a pair of long metal tongs to hold the towel.

All Fired Up

So now your grill is clean, hot and calling out to you. But before you begin to cook, there are a few important things to keep in mind: temperature, seasoning and storing.

You control temperature by adjusting the distance, either by moving the food away from the heat, or the heat away from the food.

You can use a grill basket or the height adjustments that most grills have to move food away from the heat, and thereby slow down the cooking process.

To move heat away from the food, just create two heat zones by moving the coals to one side of the grill, thus producing a cool spot and a hot spot (with a gas grill, it's a simple turn of the dial). Cook larger, thicker items more slowly in the cool zone and thinner, smaller items more rapidly in the hot zone.

Most grilled food is marinated, brined, rubbed or slathered with BBQ sauce. In any case, make sure your food is wiped clean and well dried before grilling -- you should actually scrape off excess seasonings and dry your food by patting it down with a paper towel. Sauces and marinades flame up and can give grilled food an unpleasant gasoline-like flavor.

Plus, the water in those seasonings would cool down the grill and prevent browning and charring. And no char, no flavor!

	Last-Minute Salting
Photo: Bill Bettencourt

After the food is patted dry, always season generously with salt and pepper. Season the side of the food to touch the grill first just before it goes on the heat, because salt extracts moisture and, again, water cools down the grill.

When you are ready to flip the food, season the top and then flip immediately.

How to tell when it's done? A good guideline is that the food will be firm, but still springy, to the touch. Feel free to cut it open if you're unsure (I won't tell).

But the safest method is to use an instant-read thermometer: for meat, look for 110 to 120 degrees for rare to medium-rare, 120 to 140 degrees for medium to medium-well and 140 to 160 degrees for well-done and completely free of any blood.