Improve your grill game. Part 1
#1 Kosher Salt
I have experienced time and time again the importance of dry brining. Such a simple step can improve your food greatly. After teaching and preaching this concept in person and on the podcast, I cannot stress enough how important this is. I have been to some of the best bbq spots and they have the great smoke ring, the great rub, the perfect compliment of sauce, however when you taste the meat that doesn’t have bark or sauce, you get that bite of bland! I absolutely hate that. It ruins my experience so much that I want to go right to the kitchen and give these guys a box of kosher salt and instructions how to use it. I can imagine that running a restaurant is a lot of work, however what I remember most about a restaurant is typically the last thing that I put in my mouth. Its usually that bland piece.
I don’t only have restaurants to blame. I blame myself as well. There were a couple of time in the last year where I got lazy or arrogant and missed this step. There was one time when I was cooking chicken thighs and I seriously thought that I can grill them so well, I’m skipping the dry brine part. Boy was I disappointed and it was that same experience. Everything on the outside was great, but when I got to that middle. Things were noticeably different. I then had to remind myself. This part cant be skipped and it is so easy to do. Dry brining should never be skipped. Please read below my original blog post about dry brining. Make sure when cooking steaks, chicken, pork chops, ribs, brisket even fish. Dry brining is a must. Change your bbq and grilling today with this simple step.
I remember a time when I started to get serious about grilling and bbq. For my birthday, I convinced my wife that I needed one the best smokers on the market so I can be an expert in BBQ. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Thankfully, it started an amazing journey that I am still on today, still trying to be an expert. I purchased a “Big Green Egg” for almost $1,000, and yes their creative marketing team came up with the name because it's big, it's green and it's shaped like an egg. Not only is it very unique, it is an amazing cooker. Very versatile for any types of cooks and minimal temperature swings for those long cooks. One of my future posts will be about the Big Green Egg and my experience with it, even the tragic time I tried to carry it by myself.
We learn as we age (hopefully), and what I learned is that I didn't need that amazing cooker to make great food. Please don't get me wrong, the Big Green Egg is incredible and worth every penny but you don't need to spend that much on a cooker to make great food. Following The Grill Coach.com and The Grill Coach podcast, you will learn tools to make great food by understanding what you need from a cooker. But today, let's start with the first of 3 simple must have items that you need to start improving your grill game.
“Ever went to a friends house to eat and the food just ain't no good?” A lyric from the classic rap song Rapper's Delight in 1979. Well nothing is worse than getting your proteins ready, getting them on the grill completing all the necessary steps to cook it and getting back something bland and dry. To avoid this you need Kosher salt! Kosher salt is something that every cook should use throughout the kitchen. Well I heard it doesn't work for baking. Baking is not my thing so I wouldn't know.
What is kosher salt? Kosher salt is not the little small grains of salt that you see on restaurant tables. That salt is commonly referred to as table salt. Table salt is best used to salt items after the food is cooked, or when added to avocado toast. I’m far from being a millennial, but dang I love avocado toast. Kosher salt has a lot bigger grains than table salt and doesn't have as many additives like iodine. Kosher salt has approximately 60% less sodium per teaspoon than table salt.
The best thing about kosher salt is that it makes things taste good. When I first used kosher salt I felt that I found the secret to great tasting food. For the purposes of grilling and bbq, kosher salt is the game changer. I like to add kosher salt to vegetables like a freshly sliced tomato or some pan fried broccoli. One of my key ways to use kosher salt is the “dry brine” technique on meats like beef, pork and chicken. Dry brining is a process where kosher salt is applied to raw meat before cooking. The salt will dissolve into the meat and make it shine and glisten so beautifully. Yes I said glisten meaning that it shines with a wet looking surface that is tacky to the touch. The salt that gets dissolved will help the meat retain moisture as it is cooked as well as provide flavor throughout the protein, not just on the surface.
The dry brining technique with kosher salt can really improve the taste and texture of what you cook. Everything else is just a compliment to your meats, for instance on beef add some pepper after your dry brine. Or on pork and chicken add a rub that doesn't have much salt because things could get too salty. So give it a try the next time you cook. Don't be afraid to throw a pinch in other things you cook.
