Beef on the Grill

We find ourselves waxing more thoughtful as we stroll down the meat aisle, wishing perhaps to explore new possibilities or improve on our favorites, but we're not sure where to begin. A better burger? The ideal steak? Some exotic kebab recipe? Just in time, we've put together some handy hints for the next time you get a hankering to throw something juicy, satisfying, and unmistakably beefy on your grill and you're looking for a little help in choosing the right meat for the job.

Ah, that good ol' grilling standby, the hamburger. Everyone knows what the ideal burger should taste like - a firm, flavorful, flame-kissed exterior that gives way to the juicy, tender beefiness inside. To our great frustration, our homemade burgers can often fall short of that ideal. But why? Making burgers seems simple enough. There are a few common mistakes that people make with their home-grilled burgers, and if you can avoid them, you're on the road to the world's best burgers.

One of the most important burger choices you can make is not in the seasoning, but in the type of ground beef you use. Our society has become more fat-conscious over the years, choosing leaner meats over fattier ones, for the sake of our health. When you make burgers with extra-lean ground beef, though, it's almost impossible to get a juicy, flavorful burger as your end result. When you're in the mood to indulge in the pure pleasure of a perfect hamburger, buy ground beef that is at least 15 percent fat. While you're at it, ask your butcher to freshly grind some beef just for you. You will notice a huge difference in flavor and juiciness from the prepackaged ground beef. Whether or not you're able to get custom-ground beef, keep in mind that coarsely ground meat makes a juicier burger than that which is finely ground. You can add additional moisture by mixing in a few tablespoons of tomato juice or beef broth for every pound of meat.

When mixing in flavoring and forming the meat into patties, take great pains not to over-handle the mixture or it the result will be dry, unpleasantly dense burgers. There's no need to pat and squeeze your burgers into perfectly uniform discs, just press the mixture lightly until the patties stick together. Finally, once the burgers are on the grill, resist the temptation to press down on them with a spatula. Every drop of juice and fat that you squeeze out of them makes the burger that much drier. A gently handled burger is a good burger.

Choosing a steak from the long row of plastic-wrapped Styrofoam trays at your local supermarket can be a positively bewildering experience. Just because something is called a "steak," does that mean it's good for grilling? Do you have to mortgage your house to afford a really good steak? Which steaks are the most tender?

Most steaks are good for grilling, although some, such as flank steak , require careful treatment in order for them to be tender enough to eat. It's possible to drop a small fortune on a prime steak, but it's certainly not necessary to spend that much for a very tender and tasty piece of beef. Some of the most tender steaks are the most expensive: the tenderloin, the porterhouse , and the T-bone . Some other steaks that are nearly as tender and just as delicious are the chuck top blade, the New York , the club , the rib-eye and the rib , the top sirloin and the round tip. If you're looking to reduce the fat in your cookout, take note that the leanest cuts of beef come from the loin and the round.

For perfectly grilled steaks, place them over the hottest part of the fire and leave them there for at least three minutes without moving them. When the first side is good and browned, with those picture-perfect grill lines seared into the surface, flip them and sear the other side. It's possible that, by the time the steak looks flawlessly grilled on the outside, the inside may not yet be done to your liking. In that case, simply move the steak to a cooler part of the grill to finish cooking.

The name London broil causes lots of confusion. It is actually not a specific cut of beef, but a style of cooking. The method is used with larger, cheaper cuts of meat -- flank steak, top round and shoulder -- to give them maximum flavor and tenderness. London broil is first marinated, and then cooked over high heat to form a dark-brown, flavorful crust on the outside. The center should be not be cooked past medium-rare, in order to maintain juiciness and flavor. Finally, the meat should be sliced very thinly, at an angle, against the grain, for the greatest possible tenderness. The ideal piece of beef for London broil weighs at least a pound, and is at least 1 inch thick. However, London broil makes great leftovers, for sandwiches or stroganoff, so you may find that you want to choose an even bigger one!

Whether you call them skewers, kebabs, kabobs , shish kebabs , satay , yakitori or brochettes , there's a specialty in just about every culture's culinary traditions involving deliciously marinated and seasoned cubes of meat threaded onto a skewer and grilled over a hot fire. When choosing beef for kebabs, buy something that's moderately tender. Top sirloin is a good choice, although a yogurt-based marinade can make tougher cuts of meat wonderfully tender as well. When threading meat and vegetables onto skewers, you'll get the best results if you stick with one kind of food on each skewer since each meat and vegetable has a slightly different cooking time. It may not look quite as pretty, but your dinner will be much better when you don't have to scrape carbonized cherry tomatoes off of your perfectly cooked beef and your rock-hard zucchini. Drag out the grill and skewer something tonight!