When preparing grilled meats, when should the piece of meat be seasoned?
There are three different phases for adding flavor. First, when the meat or fish is raw. Then, while it cooks on the barbecue. And finally, when we serve the grill. When we talk about sauces, rubs and seasoning, in America, we have a principle called “layering of flavors”, that is to say that we put several levels of flavors. It starts, for example, with a rub or a liquid marinade. Then, when the meat is on the heat, it is brushed with garlic-scented oil or sometimes sprinkled with wine or beer using a spray bottle. At the very end of cooking or once on the plate, we put the barbecue sauce.
What is the technique for applying a dry marinade?
A few hours before cooking, sprinkle the mixture of spices to rub on the meat or fish. Then, we rub with the fingertips. In English, rub, it means to massage. So, in a way, we’re doing a meat massage. THE dry rub, it’s great for anything meat, poultry, fish, shellfish. Anything that has a smooth surface that the spices will stick to.
When should dry marinade be preferred over liquid marinade?
I’ll give you a rule, but I can also give you counterexamples. If it’s a fatty meat, like a pork shoulder, ribs or a well-marbled steak, we put a dry rub. For lean meat, for example a tuna steak or a swordfish steak, a liquid marinade can be used to make the fish not only more tender, but above all less dry. But I can think of plenty of recipes in which we put a rub on a tuna steak or a marinade on ribs. The barbecue is full of contradictions. Besides, that’s what I love about my job: there are always exceptions.
If you opt for a liquid marinade, what is the ideal resting time?
It depends on the size and tenderness of the meat, but also on the intensity of the marinade. Let’s marinate, for example, shrimp. It’s damn small. Ten or fifteen minutes is enough. But if, on the other hand, we had a shoulder of pork or a brisket of beef (brisket), the piece would be left to marinate for at least eight hours, perhaps a whole day, because the meat is very large. You have to let the flavors penetrate it. At the same time, if the marinade contains very strong ingredients, such as lime juice or vinegar, it will react faster than a marinade based on olive oil and herbs.
Who says barbecue says, of course, barbecue sauce. At what stage should it be used?
It is used at the end of cooking or once the meat is on the plate, but especially not before. Most barbecue sauces contain sugar which may burn before the meat is cooked if added at the beginning. We therefore put some during the last five minutes of cooking. This way, you can caramelize the sugar without burning it.
Your book also contains other preparations that we have less of a reflex to use when cooking on the barbecue. Do you have examples?
Flavored butters are a good example. Since I am currently in France, I must mention the maître d’hôtel butter. To prepare it is very easy. It is a softened butter to which we add chopped garlic and parsley. I roll this flavored butter in plastic wrap to make a sort of log that I cut into slices. I then place pieces on the hot steak. The butter melts into the steak. It gives a lot of flavor. Butter is a food that must be appreciated and used better. There is also chutney, which comes from India. It is served as a condiment and it is very good. It’s a little sweet, a little sour. It’s very spicy. If you’re obsessed with American barbecue sauces, so sweet, you have to try the chutney. It gives a completely different experience, but also pleasant. In the book, I included recipes from various parts of the world, because I wanted people to discover new things, to get out of their comfort zone. For me, the barbecue is a bit like a magic carpet that makes me travel all over the world.
For brevity, the content of this interview has been edited.
Barbecue sauces — butters, chutneys and marinades for grilling
Steven Raichlen
Editions of Man
214 pages.