How to properly prepare meat for the grill?

The grilling season is slowly but surely starting, which means many new experiences over the hot grill. To ensure these experiences are ones you will always remember with love, it is necessary to have perfectly prepared meat. Because only properly prepared meat means satisfied diners. What is the ideal preparation of meat before grilling itself?

Salt the meat just before grilling – it retains its juice

To find out which meat is actually the most suitable for grilling, read our article dedicated to the proper selection of meat for grilling. If you then decide to marinate the meat, you definitely won’t make a mistake. However, you should not add salt to the marinade, as it disrupts the structure of the meat and draws out its juice. And that is crucial when grilling.

Therefore, it is ideal to salt the meat just before grilling. What you should do already when placing the meat in the marinade is to add a little alcohol or vinegar. These disrupt the protein structure of the meat so that it better absorbs all the flavors and aromas contained in the marinade and becomes tender. Don’t forget to also season your marinade well with pepper. Kampot pepper will help you bring out exactly the flavors you need from the meat.

Marinade does not belong in hamburgers, but pork ribs definitely ask for it

Some types of meat literally call for marinade, such as pork ribs. There are also delicacies for the grill that should rather avoid marinade. These include, for example, beef steaks or ground meat for hamburgers.

When preparing the meat mixture for the popular American treat, we should not mix in other ingredients too aggressively. Again, the goal is for the meat to be as juicy as possible and the burgers fluffy, so mix with tenderness.

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Let aged meat warm up a bit before grilling

Especially with beef, think about proper aging both before and after grilling. If your meat is frozen, let it thaw and temper for at least 12 hours before placing it on the grill.

If you are cooling it in the fridge, for example in a marinade, it is good to let the meat rest at room temperature for a while. Try at least a few minutes, ideally one to two hours. The muscle will relax and the meat will be a bit softer, additionally perfectly juicy, and placing it on the hot grill will not be such a shock for it.