It’s a glorious day when the clouds part right above the porch and the sun beams through, signaling that it’s time to pull the barbecue out of the garage. Yes, after months of hibernating indoors with only our ovens and George Foreman grills to cook with, it’s finally time to fire up the barby. While we’ve all got our own grilling techniques and rituals, there’s always something to learn. Enter Chef Matt MacPherson and GM Allan Tiwari from Muddy Waters Smokehouse with some insider tips to the art of summer grilling.

CLEAN YOUR GRILL
The first step is to make sure your grill is clean. It seems like an obvious step, but still worth mentioning. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes to burn off food particles and then scrape the grill with a brush so that residue doesn’t build up and compromise the taste of your meat, or your health.

 ADD HEAT
Next, make sure the barbecue heats up to the target temperature before you put any meat on the grill. It’s just like preheating your oven when you make your winter meatloaf. You might think throwing the meat on the grill while it’s heating up will make your chicken come out faster, but this isn’t a good idea. The meat won’t cook evenly throughout. While it might look like it’s cooked, it might be less than pleasant once you bite into it.

MARINATE
If you have issues with drying out your chicken breasts on the grill or come up with a bland, chewy steak, try marinating. A tip from MacPherson: Plan ahead and marinate for 24 hours before you cook. This allows for the most flavourful and tender meat. By doing this it also begins the cooking process. Make sure to marinate in the fridge, and not on the counter.

STEAK CUTS
Beef Tenderloin: Tenderloin refers to the area along the central spine portion of the cow. Because this area does very little work, it is the most tender part of the animal.

Porterhouse Steak: A large steak cut from the thick end of the short loin.

New York Steak: This cut comes from the short loin and is the equivalent of a Porterhouse, minus the tenderloin and the bone.

Rib Steak: A tender, flavourful steak cut from the rib section between the short loin and the chuck.


LEVEL OF DONENESS
Rare: The steak has a cool red centre.

Medium rare: The steak is red in the centre and fairly hot.

Medium: Bright pink throughout with a greyish brown surrounding and hot throughout.

Medium well done: A touch of pink throughout with a greyish brown centre.

Well done: The steak is brown throughout with no pink.

Chicago: This is big city style. Charred on the outside, but rare in the middle.

 WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Quality steaks are measured by the level of marbling in the meat. Marbling is the fine white streak of unsaturated fat running through lean beef. Far from being detrimental to the meat, marbling makes the steak juicier, more tender and more flavourful.

Beef in Canada is categorized according to the amount of marbling present in the beef. These categories are:

A: The lowest level, beef has only a trace amount of marbling.
AA: At this level the meat must have at least slight marbling.
AAA: Beef must have a small level of marbling or higher.
Prime: This is top of the line. A high level of marbling must be present to be declared prime.