BBQ cooking is great and done right you can get brilliant cooking results all the time. However sometimes we can get caught up in a few common myths surrounding BBQ cooking, and this can often detract from the otherwise great cooking results we should be consistently achieving.
A Common Myth of BBQ Cooking
One BBQ cooking myth that we regularly come across is that it is bad to poke or flip your BBQ meat. The belief is that by doing so you will make the meat you are barbecuing tough and unappealing. If you are experienced at BBQ cooking, then you will understand why this is far from the truth. In fact when you flip the BBQ meat, you not only create the beautiful grill lines on the meat, but you also ensure that the meat will be cooked evenly.
This belief seems to have come about because of the misinformation that if you poke or flip the meat while BBQ cooking, you will release and drain the meat of all it’s juice, thus making it dry and tough.
If meat consisted of one complete cell then this would certainly be the case, however meat is actually made of hundreds of individual, small cells each filled with it’s own juices and moisture. If we poke a few of these cells while the meat is cooking on the BBQ, the juices will be released from those punctured cells, not the entire piece of BBQ meat. And remember when BBQ cooking, a good cook will only poke the meat sparingly anyway, in order to check on the progress of the cooking. So unless the person cooking on the BBQ is poking and prodding the meat every few seconds, the occasional poke will not affect the outcome of the BBQ cooking in any way.
As well as poking the meat cooking on the BBQ, flipping the meat seems to have gotten a bad rap. In actual fact, flipping the meat can sear both sides and thus seal in the juices and moisture. It also can produce those very appealing grill lines that great cooks seem to have mastered. Of course flipping the meat and then pushing down hard on it can burst many of the cells, and can force the moisture out. The practice of doing this when BBQ cooking can leave the meat dry.
Some BBQ cooks refuse to poke the meat they are cooking, but usually this is because they are very experienced at knowing exactly when the meat is cooked through, not because of some belief that the occasional poke will leave the meat dry and tough. It’s my personal belief that many BBQ’s have a more uneven and relatively unpredictable heat pattern when compared to their indoor cooking cousins, so often it is necessary to poke the meat just a few times to ensure that it is evenly cooked.
So, the bottom line is, have fun with your BBQ cooking, and don’t be afraid to poke or flip your meat to achieve the perfect cooking results you desire.