Originally Posted by NeonSamurai
I can tell you guys the 'professional' way it is done as I was trained when I studied at Le Cordon Bleu.
Ok first off, never salt any meat going onto a grill, griddle, or fry-pan; Salt extracts juices from the meat and makes it tougher. Ditto for herbs unless you really like the taste of burnt herbs. Spices can also be a problem too as they can burn and the results may not be desirable (this all depends on type, cut, and thickness). Also it helps if the meat isn't cold to start with.
For grilling (and frying) the procedure is to get the grill to maximum heat (don't forget that it takes time for outdoor bbq's to come up to temperature, like 10 - 15 minutes or more), then sear both sides to seal the meat (meat should color a bit). If you are serving it blue, its done, otherwise you will now flip it back over to the starting side and turn the heat down to medium/medium low and start the cooking process. If you want to make it look good, make sure you flip it so you get that crosshatching or diamond pattern. You will also want to cook it on each side for the same time length (this takes practice), turning it no more than 4 times in total (once on each side to sear, and again once on each side to cook). If I am seasoning the meat with spices I would add them some time around this point on each side. Herbs I would add using a herb butter when serving, salt only gets put on when serving. Also letting it rest is also important so that the juices migrate back into the cooked area, ~5 minutes in a warm oven works well. Also put the meat on warmed plates (oven at lowest setting, or back side of the plate under the hot water tap) so it does not cool down fast.
There are 3 ways of telling doneness for steaks, cut it and look, use a thermometer, or touch it. Pros use the touch method as it is by far the most accurate, and it does not leave any cuts or holes. This is done by pressing down in the center of the meat from the top while it is on the grill. With practice you can tell doneness very accurately by doing this, but the general rule of thumb I was taught was to touch each finger one by one to your thumb and feel the resistance in the muscle between your thumb and index. Thumb and index is rare, thumb and pinky is well done (results may vary though).
We also did not use thermometers for roasting meat, or birds for that matter. Birds we would check by using a skewer, poking into the thickest part of the bird to the bone (leg or thigh), and pressing against the hole to see what color juice came out (clear is what we wanted). For roast meat we would use a skewer to the center of the meat, then touch the tip to the underside of the lip to feel how hot it was.
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