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I have a rather paranoid mom. As a youngster, whenever we would go to a restaurant she would always ensure that any type of meat offered was well done. Even a hint of red was enough to create panic. She believed that all meat had to be thoroughly cooked, otherwise we were likely to get food poisoning. As a result, it wasn't until I was about 18 that I had my first actual taste of steak. My uncle took me out and I got the forbidden medium rare steak for the first time in my life. I was impressed! There was so much more taste in that one piece of meat than all the other steaks I had ever before had put together. From that day on I never again ordered one well done. So how come steak has more taste the less you heat it? Who knows! I definitely don't. I just know it does and it's delicious. Most likely much of the taste is lost via evaporation of the meat juices. Anyhow, the thing that freaked my mom out above all was when you would slice a piece of meat and red 'blood' would ooze out. "How could you possibly wish to eat meat that bleeds when you cut it!?" she would exclaim in disgust. Well here is the thing: it's not blood. Its Myoglobin. Myoglobin is an oxygen carrying protein located only in the muscular tissues. It is like haemoglobin, located in the red blood cells, both in structure and functions. In fact, the reason that some meat is red (beef/pork) and some is white (chicken/turkey) is due to the difference in myoglobin levels. So, when you hear a person exclaim how much they love their steak to be bloody, what they really mean is they like it to be myoglobiny. I believe I have possibly made a brand-new word there! As you might expect, educating my mom that a rare steak has no blood whatsoever didn't did anything to discourage her from constantly buying 'well done' at a restaurant. Blood or no blood, it doesn't matter to me; the vital thing is the taste. My barbecue grill has not once been used to destroy a steak by overcooking it. I have the tendency to go for somewhere between rare and medium rare. I get a little turned off with completely rare steak as the middle is usually a little cold and I like my meat to be warm throughout. It's especially vital to clean your barbecue grill well prior to cooking a steak. You definitely don't want it sticking to unclean bars and spoiling your pricey piece of beef. So don't forget to clean the grate and oil the bars well before you start. If you have a porcelain enamel coated grate then you should not have to stress over oil as the bars will be non stick. Nevertheless, make certain you use a grill brush safe for porcelain, as some will scratch the coating off, damaging your grill and exposing the underlying metal to rust. Stan Lew is a grill enthusiast who really enjoys sharing tips, advice and thoughts on all things BBQ. Check out this site for info about buying a BBQ grill brush and check out this video to learn how to use your wire grill brush.
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