How to Brown Meat Perfectly

I always thought that there wasn't much to browning a great ribeye or my pre-braised short ribs--a hot pan, some tongs, and I was ready to go. A little research has since revealed that browning meat is fairly scientific. When meat comes into contact with a hot surface under the right conditions, the Maillard reaction occurs, which means the proteins become more complex. This gives your food a beautiful color and crackling texture, but it also intensifies the flavor.

Here are a few tips that I've collected as I've browned my way through more than a few pounds of pork, beef, and chicken:

Rinse the meat before you season it (particularly if you used a salty marinade), and pat dry thoroughly.

Season with salt and pepper immediately before searing. If you let the salt sit on the meat, it may draw moisture to the surface. This will result in you steaming, rather than searing, your meat.

Use a heavy-bottomed pan, like a cast-iron skillet. Avoid non-stick contraptions.

Use medium high heat, and heat the skillet for at least two minutes before adding the oil and the meat.

Add less meat, or get a bigger pan. You want plenty of space for the heat to circulate, and you don't want to cool the pan down with lots of refrigerated beef going in it all at once.

Use tongs! They avoid splatter burns, and give you the ability to hold onto the meat to position it for optimum browning.

For large cuts like steaks and roasts, let the meat sit a full minute longer than you want to before turning. (I have to count to 60. Really. In the pic above, I should have let it brown a little longer.) You want plenty of sear on each side, and this is easiest and fastest on the first pass. Use the tongs, and brown each and every inch that you can.

For tricky items like meatballs, use the "scootch" method. When you think it's time to turn the meatballs, use the tongs and carefully press the bottom of the meatball down onto the pan and try to "scootch" it 1/3 of an inch. If it scootches easily, then turn. If it resists then let it continue to brown until it releases from the bottom of the pan.

Reparations I: Meatruck

Sorry about that post below--I think I was having an existential crisis over the fact that I haven't eaten meat, cheese, or grains (!!) in the past 5 days. I just had an illegal cookie, and I think it set me straight. To make amends, and to celebrate the impending death of my health food binge, I give you....

MEATRUCK!

It just seemed like a good omen, waking up to find this sitting outside my house one drizzly Sunday morning. A good omen that is making me regret turning down that LockPicking 101 Course at the Phoenix Online University last Fall.

How to Smoke Food on a Weber Kettle

I've held out long enough. I hereby declare that it's Officially Grillin' Season, even if I have to do it in a parka. (Not that I own a parka, it's just fun to say. Parkuh.)

I love grilling on my weber kettle. It gets at the basics of good cooking--caramelization, heat, and complementary flavors. Also, I get to set things on fire, enjoy the sunshine, and drink beer while I do it. Ever since I booted my 10th-grade-boyfriend out of the way and cooked my first steak over a tiny camping grill, I've been addicted. I've also had a strict rule about letting boys near my fire. That sounds sort of wrong.

In celebration of Grillin' Season, here are some quick tips and instructions for smoking food over a charcoal grill. It's not exhaustive or recipe-specific, but it'll take the mystery out of both grilling and smoking food and leave you a little room to experiment on your own.

1. Using a charcoal chimney: Remove the upper grate used as a cooking surface, but leave the smaller grate at the bottom of the grill in place. Open the vents on the bottom of the grill. Fill the chimney with coals and stuff tight balls of paper in the cavity underneath the coals. (This will make sure the paper lights on fire, rather than simply smolders and ashes.)

Light the paper on fire in several places and observe. If the coals smoke profusely, but you don't feel a significant source of heat after the smoking stops, carefully add more balls of paper to the smoldering paper underneath the chimney. Oxygen is important, so fan the paper underneath the chimney if it's a humid day, or if the breeze is light.

2. Soak your smoking wood chips of choice in water for at least a half hour. Soak longer if possible. I like to use 2 large handfuls of mesquite wood.

3. Once the coals on the top of the chimney are mostly white, and the inner coals are glowing red, carefully dump half of the coals on one side of the lower grill, and half on the other, leaving the middle 1/3 of the lower grill empty. Add 4-5 fresh coals on top of the hot ones on either side. If you're smoking ribs, add an entire loose layer of fresh coals to keep your grill hot for the time it takes to smoke them.

3. Carefully place an empty aluminum casserole pan in the middle of your grill, between the hot coals. (And Lordy, will they be hot!) Use long tongs to move the hot coals, if necessary.

Pour beer, fruit juice, and/or water into the pan to add flavor to the smoke and keep the drippings from charring. Add the wood chips on top of your charcoal, and replace the cooking-surface-grate.

Close the lid on your grill for 5 minutes, making sure the vents are open on the top to allow air to flow over the coals. (This will get the grill hot, so your food sears and is less likely to stick.) Add your food to the grill, placing it directly over the coals for 2-3 minutes. Here I'm using a smaller pork tenderloin, which has been marinated overnight in Walkerswood jerk seasoning.
4. Turn the meat, again placing it over the coals for 2-3 minutes and closing the lid.

If you desire more caramelization on the surface of your meat (I certainly do--it tastes yummy and keeps the juices in) take your chances with taking the lid off and turning the meat frequently until you are just under your desired doneness on the outside. Smoking will further caramelize the outside of your meat.

5. After the initial sear, move the meat to the center of the grill, over the pan of liquid. I smoked this 2 lb. pork tenderloin for 20 minutes and it was done perfectly. For smoking times on specific cuts and sizes of meat, comment below and I'll do my best to reply quickly with the proper smoking time after I check a number of sources. (One of them being my fantastic Weber Cookbook.)
6. To check the doneness of your meat, PLEASE do not hack into it with a knife. Use the Finger Test. Pork should be medium to medium-well.
7. Remove the meat from the grill and let sit for at least 10 minutes. On heating, all the juices in meat rush from the center, and if you cut it right away those juices will be released. If you let it rest, the juices are reabsorbed and your meat stays tender and flavorful. 8. Serve, and enjoy!
To counteract the extreme spice of the jerk seasoning, and to complement the nutmeg and brown sugar flavors in the marinade, I made an orange bacon chutney to go with my smoked pork. I just fried up some bacon (a regular occurrence in my household), sautéed some onion in the bacon grease, deglazed the pan with orange juice, and added chicken stock, agave, and spices until everything tasted fantastic. Then I blended, and served.

The Cavalcade of Marinade I: Broiled Soy Garlic Flank Steak Recipe

It is nowhere near grilling time in D.C. (even though they promised 60 degree weather today...liars) but this week I really, really wanted a large cut of red meat on some veggies after our trip to NOLA. Maybe I failed to mention this, but besides the Holy Trinity (see below) and the jalapeno-pickled green beans (or, jala-beanos) in my bloody marys, I ate nary a veggie while we were there.



I went to the grocery store, and picked out a nice flank steak and a boatload of produce. I happen to love flank steak, though most people find it difficult to prepare. Maybe it's the thin cut, but it always absorbs the flavor of marinades so well, and tastes aged and therefore more like a restaurant steak than a grocery store steak to me.

The process known as "wet aging" allows the muscle tissue to relax, and the cuts are therefore more tender. It also does away with that twangy, metallic taste that steaks sometimes have, so all you get is sweet beef flavor. You can see why this is desirable...

There are a few tricks to preparing a great flank steak, but the three primary ones are: 1. Marinade overnight in the proper marinade 2. Do not overcook it--because it is so lean, flank steak is best served medium rare to medium. 3. Cut across the grain for tender slices.

It's important to find the proper marinade for your cut of meat. A marinade that's too acidic or salty will leave the meat mushy and unable to retain its juices upon cooking. A marinade with too much oil will be bland. Here's one of my favorite marinades, featuring a few of my favorite ingredients. The agave adds a rich sweetness that is pretty complex without being overpowering...it almost adds a sweet buttermilk flavor to the more forward and sharp Asian flavors.

I love this Star's Garlic Olive Oil--making your own garlic olive oil is fun, but it goes bad quickly and you run the risk of bacteria ruining a wonderful meal. Why not pick some of this lovely brew up at your grocery store, and flavor everything from salad dressing, to marinade, to chicken soup with it?

Soy Garlic Flank Steak

1 flank steak, trimmed

1/2 cup Star's Garlic Olive Oil

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

3 tbs. agave sweetener (trust me on this one)

4 cloves garlic, chopped

black pepper

1 small bunch green onions, sliced

Mix everything but steak together in a small bowl. Place steak in a plastic, resealable bag and pour marinade over the top. Marinate overnight on the bottom shelf of your fridge, turning occasionally.

Bring flank steak in marinade to room temperature. This step is very important for cooking the steak evenly. Remove from marinade, and place on broiler pan. Broil for 4 minutes on one side, 3 minutes on another. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice across the grain, and serve.