Grill Your Meat Evenly Every Time With This 90-Second Trick

With the warmer weather ramping up, it’s time to pull out your outdoor grill and enjoy cooking meat and vegetables again. However, every barbecue, especially a gas one, has its idiosyncrasies, and you might find that your meat doesn’t always cook evenly. Sometimes there are hot spots on the grill that char too quickly, while others places aren’t hot enough. So, what can you do to make sure you’re placing your meat somewhere that allows it to cook uniformly? Try sticking some bread on that grill.

How To Use Bread to Find the Hot Spots

This trick from Sam Bithoney takes only 90 seconds, sets you up for great grilling all summer, and involves a kitchen staple: a loaf of sliced white bread. Before you start BBQing this season (if you already have, that’s great!), follow these steps:

• Preheat your grill for 15 to 20 minutes on a high setting.
• Turn it down to medium and let the temperature adjust for a few minutes.
• Take your loaf of bread and place the individual slices across the grill so they take up the entire surface.
• Set a timer to 90 seconds, then flip your pieces over.

What you’ll most likely have are very different sets of grill marks and browning levels on individual slices. Sections that are much hotter will have more charred bread than others.

Now that you know where the hottest and coolest parts of your grill are, you can plan where to place each type of food — especially meat — accordingly. For example, thicker cuts of meat like steak can go on the hotter sections, while rolls or grill veggies can go on parts that don’t get as hot.

But what should you do with all of that toasted bread? Don’t throw it out! Toss some chicken or your favorite meat on the grill and make sandwiches, or turn that bread into croutons for a side salad. Enjoy!