Cooking Tips

• Begin with good, high quality meat, like M&M steaks, burgers, pork, and chicken.  You’ll be assured a more tender, delicious result, every time.
• Have all the tools on hand that you’ll need – spatulas, forks, basting brushes, sauces and plates so you’re not running back and forth to the kitchen.
• Choose side dishes that can be made ahead of time so when you’re ready, why everything else is too!
• Brush on sauces that are tomato, sugar or honey-based only during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.  This avoids scorching the food.  Oil and butter-based sauces can be applied throughout the cooking.
• Use a glass or ceramic dish for marinating your meat.  Metal can transfer a metallic flavour. 
• For perfectly grilled steaks it helps to have one side of the barbecue on hot and the other side on warm.  This way you can sear the steaks on the hot side and then move them over to the cooler side to finish cooking nice and slow under more relaxed and forgiving conditions.
• To keep steaks tender, leave the meat in the vacuum pack and thaw the cuts in cold water, or overnight in the refrigerator.  Don’t microwave -  it actually toughens and damages the steak before it even reaches the grill.
• Keep salt in the cupboard.  Avoid salting your steaks before cooking.  Salt draws out the meat’s juices and dries out your steak.
• Lock in juices.  To seal in the natural juices, sear both sides of the steak on high heat.  Then lower the barbecue temperature to cook your steaks through as desired.
• Twice is just right.  Don’t turn your steaks more than twice during cooking to prevent excess loss of juices.
• Turn steaks over when bubbles appear on the surface.  Each time that bubbles appear, turn the steak over to let the juices drain back into the meat.
• Don’t fork it over.  A fork pierces the meat and allows juices to escape.  Instead, purchase a good set of barbecue tongs.
• Good looking grill marks.  To get those professional looking grill marks, rotate your steaks π turn on the grill halfway through the cooking time.  Do this on both sides.
• To make beef great, marinate!  Marinating increases tenderness and adds exciting flavour to your meat.  It’s easy with ingredients you have around your kitchen, visit our recipes section for ideas!
• Brush the grill lightly with vegetable or olive oil before cooking, and even during cooking if the food starts to stick.  If you use an oil spray, apply before lighting the barbecue.
• Always cook more than you can eat.  Meat freezes well and tastes great for on those cold and rainy days when the weather is too bad to barbecue.
• For easy preparation and cleanup, wrap vegetables in aluminum foil and top them with butter and seasoning.  You could also add a few ice cubes inside the packet; as the packet heats, the cubes melt and the vegetables steam beautifully.


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