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Metro Creative Connection

A thick cut of meat grilled over an open flame can make for a mouth watering meal. While such an endeavor likely won’t lead to any complaints around the dinner table, many people still shy away from grilling especially thick cuts of meat.

A thick cut of uncooked meat can intimidate even the most devoted grilling enthusiast. Such cuts tend to take a long time to cook, and many a grilling devotee has put in that time only to end up with a dried out piece of meat. So what do? The following are some ways to master the art of grilling thick cuts of meat.

• Reverse sear the steak. According to Omaha Steaks, reverse searing involves bringing the steak up to temperature via indirect heat first, then searing the outside second. Reverse searing ensures the outside of the steak does not become charred while the inside takes its time cooking. This requires using both direct and indirect heat. When using a gas grill with multiple burners, it’s easy to create direct and indirect heating zones by only turning one set of burners on. When using a charcoal grill, move the hot coals to one side of the grill and leave the other side empty. Omaha Steaks recommends maintaining a grill temperature between 250 and 300 F and placing the meat over indirect heat first, keeping the steak there until a digital thermometer reads roughly 10 to 15 degrees below the desired temperature of the meat. The steak can then be moved over direct heat so all sides can be seared.

• Salt the meat overnight. People hesitant to salt their meat out of fear of overconsumption of sodium should know that it’s not necessary to use a lot of salt to create a flavorful piece of meat. A sprinkling of kosher salt over the surface of the meat is all that’s necessary. Once the meat has been salted, store it in the refrigerator, uncovered, overnight, which allows ample time for the cut to fully absorb the salt, ultimately contributing to a juicy cut of meat.

• Be patient. Once the meat has been taken off the grill, let it sit for awhile before slicing into it. The goal is to allow the juice inside the meat to redistribute so each bite is as mouth watering as possible. This is the same principle that leads Thanksgiving cooks to let turkeys sit for awhile when they first come out of the oven. While turkeys may require roughly 30 minutes of sitting, meat typically only needs between 10 and 20 minutes, with thick cuts requiring more time than thin cuts.

Grilling afficionados need not be intimidated by thick cuts of meat. A few tricks of the trade can make it easy to serve up a thick piece of meat where each bite is juicy and full of flavor.