What is with the grill marks?

[heidih]

It struck me recently that there seems to be a bizarre emphasis on having perfect cross-hatched grillmarks; particularly on chicken breast. A friend gave me some magazines to thumb through today and every piece of allegedly grilled protein looks like it was branded with something like diamondplate. I have seen it in frozen prepared foods that I am sure never saw a grill. Have you noticed this? Do you care about grill marks?

[Porthos]

I think it is all about marketing. If it looks perfect it must taste perfect. Myself, I don't care about the grill marks. I grill our dinners 2-3 times a week during the summer and I never bother trying to get the diamond pattern. In fact, I normally only flip the meat, chicken, whatever once.

[gfweb]

I always do a diamond on steaks. Because if it looks pretty it tastes better to me. <br /><br />I don't do it on chicken breasts unless cooked SV first. I hate dried breasts which is what I get if I actually cook them on a grill.

[David Hensley]

I admit, I'm completely anal about grill marks! If it isn't a perfect 60 degree angle...I wanna throw it out...

[pyrguy]

We used to eat at a great brew pub. But... staffing issues caused a down turn. The last meal we had there we were served 'house made' burgers. They had 'diamond' grill marks on one side, looked like an expanded metal home made grill, and straight on the other. Oh, and they wrapped up the sides of the patty.

Edited September 17, 2013 by pyrguy (log)

[Dakki]

I don't really care about the grill marks, maybe because to me "grilled" should signify grilled over charcoal or wood, and grill marks obtained any other way are "cheating." A silly prejudice but there you go.

I have heard a rumor though that steak houses "code" the doneness into the marks, eg single marks means the steak is rare, cross-hatched at a certain angle means medium and so on. Can anyone in the industry confirm/deny this?

[annabelle]

You heard right, Dakki. Putting grill marks on steaks was one of my jobs when I was a banquet cook.

[Dakki]

Awesome. So what's the code? Or is it a trade secret?

[annabelle]

I can't even remember. Sorry. It was a horrible job and I have deleted it from my memory banks.

[rlibkind]

When there used to be hundreds (thousands?) of Howard Johnson roadside restaurants, I was told by someone who worked in the processing plant that grill stripes were essentially "pained" on the burger patties before being shipped to restaurants, Don't know whether that was actually true, but sounds right.

[Porthos]

I don't about the HoJos but when KFC brought out it's "grilled" chicken the marks certainly looked like a cosmetic addition.

[pyrguy]

Those marks on the burger patty were sprayed on. You could see the widths change as they went over the edge.

[Snadra]

Was always fascinated by the crosshatch grill marks on the steaks at Mr Mikes when I was a kid - and you could see the steaks lined up on the grill, so they definitely weren't painted on. I thought the cooks must be rather special to get those marks so perfect. Oh, the excitement of the self-serve salad bar, foil wrapped potatoes and grill-marked steaks!

These days they strike me as sweetly retro.

[liuzhou]

grill stripes were essentially "pained" on the burger patties before being shipped to restaurants,

Seldom have I seen a more appropriate typo. Or is it Freudian?

[dcarch]

Why just rectangular marks?

dcarch

Strip steak, garlic scapes, couscous.

[pastameshugana]

Why just rectangular marks?

dcarch

Strip steak, garlic scapes, couscous.

I was secretly anticipating your entry into this conversation. I've had my eye out for some time for a branding iron for my steaks, just for the halibut.