By William Rice
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
Come the 4th of July, everyone is going to be doing it!
Cooking on a grill, that is, according to a survey that pegs the percentage of fired-up grill owners at a year-round high of 89 percent on Independence Day.
They'll be cooking up hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, chicken pieces and ribs - and in that order, according to an annual, nationwide poll by Impulse Research. (The poll is funded, it should be noted, by Weber-Stephen Products, the well-known producer of home grills.)
Although most grill cooks opt for these familiar items, some are experimenting with cuts of beef, pork and lamb less often prepared on the grill and easier on the purse.
Tony Stallone, vice president for perishables at Skokie, Ill.,-based Peapod, says the firm's home-delivery orders this spring contained more London broil (top sirloin or butt), boneless beef short ribs, skirt steak and lamb shoulder chops, all of them less tender cuts. Customer surveys indicate that much of this meat is being cooked on a grill, he says.
Grill-roasting is cited as one of the "hottest" new trends in the Weber poll.
Also, new grill-friendly steaks and roasts are coming over the horizon.
Cooks already have many choices in the supermarket meat case that are flavorful, not too tough and cost less than rib or loin steaks. They mostly come from the chuck or round areas. And most can be grilled or roasted on a grill.
A recent tour of supermarket meat counters reveals quite a selection:
At one store, we found boneless chuck steak for $3.29 a pound; top-sirloin at $5.49; beef back ribs, $1.79, and blade pork roast for $3. Compare that to tenderloin at $8 per pound, porterhouse at $7 and lamb rib chops, $10.
At another store, triangle tip steak was $5 a pound; top round steak, $4; round steak, $2; lamb blade shoulder chop, $4; and boneless lamb leg steak, $4.39. Tenderloin steaks were $12 a pound, porterhouse, $9, and lamb rib chops, $11.
Beef chuck (from the fore-shoulder and neck of a steer) has a complex bone and tissue structure and outstanding flavor. Chuck cuts for grilling are blade steak, shoulder steak, arm steak and chuck steak. The chuck eye, often labeled as "beauty steak," is surprisingly tender.
Beef round and rump are from the backside and thigh of the animal. This meat has firm muscle fibers, pronounced grain and more connective tissue than loin and rib meat. Steak and roast cuts include sirloin tip, top round and bottom round. They contain very little fat.
Veteran cooks know the best way of cooking many of these cuts is with indirect heat, keeping the food away from direct contact with the flames. That prevents flare-ups from dripping fat or sauces and allows thicker cuts such as roasts to cook through without the exterior becoming charred.
"For me, cooking with indirect heat is a lot more interesting," says author and sausage producer Bruce Aidells. Among Aidells' favorite grilling choices are short ribs cut crosswise in the Hawaiian or Korean manner into ¼-inch pieces and marinated in soy sauce and Asian seasonings. He also braises lamb riblets to render the fat and tenderize them, then finishes them on the grill.
Moving beyond red meat for grilling choices, Bobby Flay, the New York City and Food Network chef, likes grilling turkey by indirect heat.
"It's an easy way to feed a lot of people," he says. "It's not really grilled. It's roasted in an outdoor oven."
Other items he cooks by the indirect method are duck breast ("score the fat and cook to medium") and lobster ("don't put half lobsters directly on the grill; the meat will shrink and taste rubbery. Steam them whole for 6 to 8 minutes, cool, split them lengthwise and grill 4 or 5 minutes.")
Whatever the cut of meat or poultry you choose, "thick, sweet sauces or glazes should be brushed over meat only in the final minutes of cooking," says executive chef Michael Cech of Weber Restaurants. "If they are exposed to direct heat for a longer time, they will char and give the meat a burned taste."
While it does not qualify as a cut of meat, Cech has developed a most unusual summer comfort food, grilled "homestyle" barbecued meat loaf.
Now, that's unusual.
© 2002, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
