Steak! A five-letter word that spells a mountain of pleasure. For some of us, it’s the ultimate luxury; for others, a weeknight dinner. It’s so easy to grill, even a first-timer can earn bragging rights, yet you can spend a lifetime perfecting the fine points. Steak is the one dish everyone should know how to grill.

Too often, people make simple, avoidable mistakes: Undercooking. Overcooking. Flipping too seldom or too often. Leaving the beef out to warm to room temperature (especially dangerous in summertime heat). Serving it hot off the grill or resting it so long, the steak is cold by the time you cut into it.

Here’s the ultimate guide to achieving the perfect steak every time.

Step 1: Start with the Right Steak

Five factors determine the excellence of your steak: cattle breed, feed, aging, grade, and cut.

• Prime vs. Choice: The USDA grades beef on marbling (intramuscular fat). Only 2% of beef qualifies as Prime—highly flavorful, tender, and luscious. Choice is what you find at most supermarkets—less rich, but still very tasty.
• Wagyu vs. Angus: Wagyu is renowned for its hyper-generous marbling; an A-5 Japanese Wagyu looks like white lace on red cloth. Angus delivers a bold, robust, classic beefy flavor enjoyed across North America.

  

• Grain-Fed vs. Grass-Fed: Corn-fed beef produces rich, buttery, meaty steaks. Grass-fed beef is leaner with a distinctive, almost herbaceous flavor. The ideal compromise is beef raised on grass, then finished with grain.
• Dry-Aged vs. Wet: Dry-aged beef, hung unwrapped in climate-controlled rooms for 28 to 36 days, loses moisture, concentrating the beefy flavor and creating rich umami notes. Wet-aged beef matures in vacuum-sealed plastic; it is faster, cheaper, and tasty enough, but lacks the rich, concentrated flavor of dry-aged beef.

  

The Four Steak Categories

1. The Noble Steaks: Upper steer cuts (filet mignon, ribeye, strip, porterhouse) that are intrinsically tender and rich.

   

2. The Belly Steaks: Undercarriage cuts (skirt, flank, hanger). Intensely flavorful but stringy; slice thinly against the grain to ensure tenderness.
3. The Tough Steaks: Round and chuck. Slice paper-thin for cheesesteaks or chop fine for carne asada.

   

4. The Cult Steaks: Unique cuts like tri-tip, picanha (featuring a luscious fat cap), and flatiron.

Step 2: Keep Seasoning Simple and Strategic

For premium beef, skip heavy, muddying marinades. Stick to coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Season your steak early—about 45 to 60 minutes before grilling. This allows the salt to draw out moisture, dissolve, and reabsorb back into the fibers, seasoning the meat deeply. If you’re short on time, season immediately before the steak hits the grates.

Do not let steaks warm to room temperature beforehand. The difference in cooking time is negligible, and it is simply not worth the food safety risk. Keep them cold until they go on the grill.

Step 3: Set Up Your Grill for Two-Zone Cooking (Wood Smoke Optional, But Desired)

Arrange your coals or burners so you have a screaming-hot direct zone for searing and a cooler, zone for cooking. Control the cooking by moving the steak back and forth between the hot and less hot zone. Add wood chunks or chips (like oak, hickory, or pecan) directly to your coals or place in your gas grill’s smoker box. A quick blast of wood smoke during grilling makes a good steak great and a great steak unforgettable.

Step 4: Sear Hot and Flip Frequently

Forget the old myth of flipping your steak only once to get crosshatch grill marks. (Mea culpa—I used to recommend this in my earlier books.) I’ve come to see that flipping your steak often—every 20 to 30 seconds—cooks the meat more evenly and helps build a darker, richer crust. Focus on the crust and flip often.

Step 5: Master the Reverse Sear

1. Place your seasoned steak on the cooler, indirect side of your grill (225^°F to 250^°F).
2. Indirect grill (with grill lid down) to heat the meat to an internal temperature about 20^°F below your target doneness (for example, to 110^°F for a medium-rare steak)
3. Move the steak directly over the high-heat, searing for 1 to 2 minutes per side to build a sizzling dark crust and internal temperature of 130^°F.

Note: Measure internal temperature using an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally through the side of the steak. For the poke test, press the top of the steak with your forefinger. The amount of resistance will tell you the doneness. Use a thermometer for thicker steaks; the poke test for thin steaks like skirt.

Step 6: Give It a Rest

A steak served “hot off the grill” sounds romantic, but resting your steak on a wire rack over a sheet pan for a minute or two will give you a tenderer, juicier steak. (Resting relaxes the meat, allowing the juices to redistribute. The wire rack keep the bottom from getting soggy.) But over-resting results in a lukewarm or even cold steak, which does the meat an injustice.

Step 7: Carve It Right

It has become fashionable, if not de rigueur, for steakhouses to pre-slice your steak before serving. Don’t. This may look dramatic, but a pre-sliced steak gets cold and dry very quickly. Serve your steak whole and let the diner slice it him- or herself.

Note: the one exception here are belly steaks, like skirt and flank, which should be thinly sliced across the grain to shorten the tough meat fibers.

Finally, don’t forget to anoint

A great steak needs little more than salt and pepper by way of a seasoning, but a pat of compound butter link or drizzle of melted butter or extra virgin olive oil makes a great steak even better

Great Steak Recipes to Try Next

• Smoked-Grilled Rib-Eye Steaks with Jalapeño-Horseradish Butter: Ribeyes get a blast of wood smoke and a rich, spicy compound butter.
• Classic Tuscan Bistecca alla Fiorentina: A thick Porterhouse finished with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.
• Reverse-Seared Tomahawk Steaks with Blue Cheese Butter: Thick tomahawk steaks are reverse-seared, then finished with a bold blue cheese butter.
• Churrasco-Style Skirt Steak: Searing hot skirt steak served with bright chimichurri.

More Steak Recipes »

Frequently Asked Questions

The post How to Grill the Perfect Steak: 7 Steps to Tender, Juicy, Smoky Beefy Nirvana appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.

If you’re like us, we wait all year for summer corn. Wherever you live, summer means one thing: corn is at its peak, and there’s no better way to cook it than—you guessed it—on the grill. Live fire brings out corn’s sweetness, adding an inimitable smoky flavor. Grilling turns a simple ear into one of the great pleasures of the season.

Selecting Good Corn

Great grilled corn starts at the market. Look for ears with bright green husks that cling tightly to the cob and silk that feels slightly moist, not dry or brittle. The kernels should feel plump through the husk, and the ear should feel heavy for its size.

And, of course, buy local. Here at barbecuebible.com, we’re incredibly lucky. Steven lives in Martha’s Vineyard; Daniel in North Carolina, John in New Jersey, Nancy in Iowa, and Jared in New York. All of us have fantastic local corn in July and August.

Avoid corn with dried-out husks, blackened silk, soft spots, or missing kernels near the tip. Corn starts losing sweetness soon after it’s picked, so buy it as fresh as you can and grill it the same day if possible.

Ways to Grill Corn

There are a few basic ways to grill corn, and each gives you a different result.

Corn Naked (without the husk and directly over a hot fire)

This is my favorite way to grill corn. You remove the husk (or fold it back over the stem to make a handle), brush the ears with melted butter or extra virgin olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Then direct grill it over high heat until the kernels are nicely browned, basting with more melted butter as the corn cooks. The high dry heat caramelizes the natural plant sugars in the corn, making it all that much sweeter and smokier.

Corn Caveman Style

If you like your corn with even more smoke and char flavor, set up your grill (charcoal please) for caveman grilling—that is remove the grill grate ad rake out the embers in an even layer. Lay the corn in its husk directly on the coals. Grill until the husk burns off, turning with tongs, but not so long that the sweet kernels burn. Figure on 2 to 3 minutes per side, 8 to 12 minutes in all.

Corn in the husk

This method gives you juicy corn with a gentle roasted flavor. Pull back the husks without removing them, strip away the silk, brush the ears with melted butter and season with salt and pepper, then pull the husks back over the ears. Direct grill the corn over medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until the husks are browned and the kernels are tender.

Corn in Foil

In a word, don’t. Foiled corn steams rather than grills. Use one of the methods above.

How to Know When Corn Is Done

Corn is done when the kernels are golden brown, hot, and tender. If you press a kernel lightly, it should give a little and release juice. Corn grilled directly on the grates should have browned or lightly charred spots, but the kernels should still look plump.

Flavor Ideas from Planet Barbecue

Once the corn comes off the grill, the fun starts. Butter, salt, and pepper are enough when the corn is fresh and sweet, but grilled corn also loves bold seasonings. In Mexico, it’s slathered with mayonnaise, sprinkled with grated Cotija cheese (parmigiano or romano also work well), and sparked with chile and lime. In India, it might be electrified with cayenne and lime. Steven loves Cambodian style grilled corn, brushed with coconut milk and curry paste and dusted with shredded coconut.

Here are some fantastic recipes to try to make the best grilled corn you’ve ever tasted!

The Best Way to Grill Corn

However you grill it, corn does not need much to be great. Start with fresh ears, choose the method that gives you the texture and char you want, and serve it hot. Husk, foil, or directly on the grates—when summer corn is at its peak, the grill is the best place for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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By Daniel Hale

All hail the hotdog! For some people, it’s an affordable staple. For others, it’s a rite of summer—along with baseball and backyard barbecues. For yet others, it’s the barbecue equivalent of a blank canvas—awaiting embellishments ranging from green pickle relish and chopped onions (Chicago) to beef chili (Detroit) to bacon and pinto beans (the Sonoran hotdog from Arizona).

Few foods are as regional as the humble hot dog. Nearly every part of the country has its version, and everyone has a favorite they’ll insist is the best.

Since July is National Hot Dog Month, I decided to make six different American hotdogs. Some are classics, some are personal favorites, and all of them prove there’s more than one way to build a great dog.

Setting Up the Grill

One of the things I wanted to take advantage of for this cook was the versatility of the Denali 605 Pro from Monument Grills. Besides its spacious cooking surface, the grill features a removable center cooking grate that can be swapped out for accessories. For this cook, I replaced it with Monument’s Round Cast Iron Cooking Plate.

That gave me the best of both worlds. The hot dogs cooked over the main grill grates while the cast iron plate handled everything else. Onions and peppers caramelized, and the plancha was perfect for cooking the bacon-wrapped hot dogs without worrying about flare-ups. Having both cooking surfaces going at the same time made preparing six different hot dogs much easier than trying to juggle multiple pans indoors.

6 Regional American Hot Dogs

Frankie Frankk’s “Lou Dog”

This one is special for me because it’s local. If you live in the Raleigh area, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Frankie Frankk’s, a popular hot dog cart that’s developed a loyal following over the years. One of their signature creations is the Lou Dog, and while this isn’t an exact copy, it’s definitely inspired by it.

Chili, pimento cheese, and a drizzle of hot honey works surprisingly well. The rich chili and creamy pimento cheese create a classic Southern flavor, while the hot honey adds just enough sweetness and heat.

The Barbecue Dog

This one may not belong to any particular city, but it absolutely belongs on this list. I wrapped the hot dog in bacon, seasoned it with barbecue rub, and cooked it on the cast iron cooking plate until the bacon was crisp. After that came a brush of barbecue sauce and a handful of pickle chips.

Smoky bacon, sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, a little extra seasoning, and crunchy pickles turn an ordinary hot dog into something that eats more like barbecue.

Kansas City Dog

The Kansas City Dog keeps things relatively simple, but sometimes simple is exactly what works. Melted Swiss cheese and tangy sauerkraut are served on a sesame seed bun, creating a balanced combination.

The sauerkraut cuts through the richness of the hot dog while the Swiss adds a mild, nutty flavor. It’s one of those combinations you probably wouldn’t think to make, but after one bite you’ll understand why it’s become a regional favorite.

Coney Dog

No list of iconic American hot dogs would feel complete without a Coney Dog. Not to be confused with Coney Island in Brooklyn, the Coney Dog is most closely associated with Detroit. Piled high with chili, chopped raw onions, yellow mustard, and shredded cheddar cheese, it’s messy, hearty, and worth every napkin you’ll need afterward.

LA Street Dog

Speaking of messy, this one might be my favorite simply because of the memories it brings back. I grew up in Los Angeles, and bacon-wrapped street dogs were everywhere after concerts, sporting events, and nights out. You could smell them cooking from half a block away.

Wrapped in bacon and topped with grilled onions, peppers, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and a whole jalapeño, this is definitely the biggest hot dog of the bunch. Cooking it on the cast iron plate made it easy to crisp the bacon while caramelizing the vegetables right beside it. One bite immediately transported me back to SoCal.

Southern Slaw Dog

Sometimes less really is more. The Southern Slaw Dog skips all the extra toppings and lets creamy coleslaw do the work.

Cool, crunchy slaw adds freshness and texture while complementing the smoky flavor of the grilled hot dog. Around the Carolinas, this combination has been a favorite for decades, and after one bite it’s easy to understand why.

Which One Will You Try First?

One of the best things about hot dogs is how personal they are. Every region has its own version, and every griller eventually finds a favorite combination. That’s what made this cook so much fun. It was simple, messy, and a good reminder that sometimes the best grilling ideas start with something as familiar as a hot dog.

The Denali 605 Pro made this cook especially enjoyable. I was able to grill the hot dogs on the main grates while cooking the vegetables and bacon-wrapped dogs on the Round Cast Iron Cooking Plate. It kept everything moving and made it easy to build six different hot dogs without juggling pans indoors. Thanks to Monument Grills for sponsoring this post.

The post Grilling Across America: <br />6 Regional Hot Dogs I Love appeared first on Barbecuebible.com.

July is the heart of grilling season, the time of year when meals move outside and smoke, fire, and fresh summer flavors do most of the heavy lifting. This month’s recipe roundup is built for easygoing outdoor cooking, whether you’re planning a weeknight dinner, a weekend gathering, or something a little unexpected from the grill.

What to Grill in July

However you like to grill in July, keep it simple and make the most of the season. Pick a recipe, get outside, and enjoy the kind of easy summer meal that tastes better when it comes off the grill.

More Recipes for July

• For the Best July Yet, 8 Great Recipes for the Grill
• 8 Recipes We’re Grilling This July
• How to Grill Burgers: 12 Surefire Ways to Build the Best Burger!

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Two hundred and fifty years already?

It seems like just yesterday that a band of colonists dressed in waistcoats and knee breeches assembled in Philadelphia to sign a document that would set the 13 colonies free from England.

Of course, it would take another 7 years—and 30,000 Colonial deaths—for the Continental Army to vanquish the British at Yorktown, ushering in the country we now hail as the United States of America.

And with that victory at Yorktown, we Americans celebrated the way we still do today: by smoking and grilling meat over fire. In other words: an Independence barbecue!

Barbecue: An American Tradition

Barbecue. It’s a uniquely American institution and a culinary tradition we can truly call our own. It began long before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It began in the Caribbean centuries earlier, when the Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola erected a sort of wooden gridiron high above a smoky wood fire, using it to cook fish, game, and even iguana.

To the ear of the early Spanish explorers, the name for this singular cooking device sounded like barbacoa. Thus was born the institution we know and love today: barbecue.

One of the first laws enacted in the Colony of Virginia forbade the discharge of firearms at a barbecue. (Even back then we Americans were obsessed with smoked meat and guns.)

A pre-presidential George Washington—then a surveyor and plantation owner—loved barbecue so much, he wrote about it in his journals. (One such barbecue in Alexandria, Virginia, went on for three days!)

When stone masons laid the cornerstone for the Capitol building in a fledgling city on the Potomac—Washington—we celebrated with a barbecue.

When Abraham Lincoln’s parents were married, the wedding feast was—you guessed it—a barbecue. And a century later, another American president, Lyndon B. Johnson, conducted global diplomacy from the “Texas White House,” his ranch in Stonewall, Texas.

Which is to say, barbecue has been a foundational part of the American experience for as long as America has existed.

The Regional Roots of American Barbecue

But which barbecue is truly American? Because in our homogenized society—where you find Starbucks and McDonald’s in virtually every city and neighborhood—barbecue remains some of the last truly regional food in our country.

When I started writing about barbecue, the big four—the Carolinas, Kansas City, Memphis, and Texas—served distinct styles of barbecue that could only be found in those regions. In the Carolinas, that meant pork—smoked and shredded, doused with vinegar sauce (in North Carolina) or mustard sauce (in South Carolina and Georgia)—both served with pickles on a bun.

In Memphis, Tennessee, barbecue meant baby back ribs served “dry” (dusted with spice rub, but without sauce)—the invention of a Greek immigrant named Charlie Vergos, whose restaurant—the Rendezvous—still serves thousands of customers each week. They also had barbecued game hens, barbecued pizza, and even barbecued spaghetti.

In Texas—especially the Hill Country—barbecue meant brisket, slow-smoked over smoldering oak—pioneered by German butchers like Charles Kreuz, who in 1900 founded the Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas.

As for Kansas City, once America’s meatpacking capital, it became famous for an ecumenical menu of ribs, chicken, pork shoulder, and beef—all heavily smoked and slathered with a sweet, smoky barbecue sauce epitomized by the creation of another Kansas citizen: Dr. Rich Davis, creator of KC Masterpiece.

Why Regional Barbecue Still Matters

Of course, today, excellent versions of these once truly regional specialties turn up across America, in cities as far-flung as Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and my hometown, Miami. There’s even a passionate barbecue culture in our overseas territory, Guam.

But some regional barbecue remains truly regional—make that micro-regional. To sample barbecue mutton (not lamb, but mutton) served with black dip (a savory condiment made with Worcestershire sauce, melted butter, and lemon juice), you must travel to Owensboro, Kentucky.

To savor pork chops grilled over hickory embers and dipped in a fiery amalgam of hot sauce, cayenne, and melted lard, you must go to another Kentucky barbecue hotspot: Monroe County.

Far from deploring the obscurity of these micro-regions of barbecue, I celebrate them, because barbecue should be regional. And while some micro-regional barbecue will go national or even international (consider the smoked chicken with a unique mayonnaise- and vinegar-based white barbecue sauce born at Big Bob Gibson’s in Decatur, Alabama), other barbecue remains stubbornly regional.

You must travel there to try it—a fact that I love.

Barbecue Brings Us Together

It’s no news that we live in an age of fierce partisanship and polarization—perhaps the most polarized in our nation’s history. But polarization isn’t new either. In the 1850s, our nation—not even 100 years old—was so polarized over the issue of slavery that we descended into Civil War. It took four years of brutal fighting and more than 600,000 deaths to bring our country back together again. Prohibition, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War all brought more strife and internal fighting.

The sad truth is we Americans have always fought with one another over what we believe. Debate—sometimes peaceful, sometimes not—seems to be part of our DNA.

But as July 4th approaches, let’s celebrate what brings us together, not the differences that drive us apart. Let’s celebrate not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. I’m sure it’s what the Founding Fathers would have wanted.

I recently saw a t-shirt at a barbecue festival that read: “Blood makes you relatives; barbecue makes you family.”

From our barbecue family to yours: Happy birthday, America! Here’s to another 250 years!!

Recipes

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By Daniel Hale

International Chicken Wing Day is tomorrow. (Yes, that’s a thing.) And honestly, I don’t need much of an excuse to fire up the grill for chicken wings. This time, I went with Steven Raichlen’s Honey-Glazed Hong Kong Wings from The Barbecue Bible. Not even an out-of-nowhere rainstorm was going to stop me.

Why These Wings Work

I like these wings because they are simple. You get a lot of flavor from just garlic, salt, pepper, and honey—ingredients you probably already have on hand.

The prep is simple, too. You cut a few slashes into the meaty part of each wing so the seasoning can get in deeper, then season the wings and let them chill for a couple of hours. After some time in the fridge, I threaded them onto metal skewers, which made them much easier to flip and move around on the grill.

Setting Up the Grill

For this cook, I set up the Monument Eminence 605 for direct grilling over medium-high heat. Since the wings were skewered whole, they took up more room than separated flats and drumettes, so the wide cooking surface was a big help.

I also liked having plenty of heat control. With honey-glazed wings, you want enough heat to crisp the skin, but not so much that the honey burns the second it hits the grill. The Eminence 605 gave me the room and control I needed to keep the wings moving and finish them with that sweet glaze at the end.

Cooking the Wings

Once the grill was hot, I arranged the skewered wings on the grill grates over direct heat. The skewers helped hold the wings in the extended position and made them easier to flip, which came in handy.

Of course, right when I started flipping the wings, an out-of-nowhere rainstorm rolled in. Perfect timing, right? But the Eminence held up well, and I was able to keep turning the wings and managing the heat without too many issues.

The wings cooked for about 12 to 16 minutes total. I kept an eye on the thicker sections (165^°F internal temperature) and moved the wings as needed so the skin could crisp without burning.

Glazing the Wings

Fortunately, the rain died down during the last few minutes of grilling. I then started brushing the wings with warm honey. This is where you need to pay attention. Honey can burn quickly over direct heat, so I waited until the wings were almost done before adding the glaze.

I kept turning the wings and brushing lightly until they had a nice color without letting the glaze get too dark.

The Results

These wings came off the grill with exactly what I was hoping for: crisp skin, a sweet honey glaze, and plenty of garlic and black pepper underneath. They are not heavy or saucy; they are simple grilled wings with a lot of flavor.

A big thank-you to Monument Grills for sponsoring this cook. The Eminence 605 gave me the space and control I needed for skewered wings over direct heat—and it held up well when that surprise rainstorm rolled in.

Frequently Asked Questions

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