Grilling this spring? Try these tips:

1. Clean your grill. First rub the grate with a ball of aluminum foil. Turn it to high and burn off any remaining food residue.
2. If your grill is prone to sticking, oil your grill when cool.
3. Make sure your grill is hot when you place your meat on it to sear the juices into the meat.
4. Pre-season steaks either with a marinade or with salt and pepper. Soak meat in marinade per cooking instructions (usually several hours), or for a steak, pat dry, season with salt and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking to absorb the flavors. Use about 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt for 1 pound of meat.
5. When forming hamburgers, shape about 3/4^th inch thick, slightly thinner in the middle, to allow for swelling.
6. To get a seared crust, pat marinated meat dry before cooking.
7. Limit turning meat multiple times which pours off the juices. Avoid pressing a spatula on the burger or cutting meat open to check for doneness which drains juice and flavor.
8. Let your meat rest after grilling (5 minutes per inch of steak thickness or 10 minutes per pound). Resting allows the juices to redistribute back into the meat. Cutting too soon will cause the wonderful juices to run out.
9. Check the internal temperature for doneness. Remember, meat will rise an additional 5 degrees per 5 minutes during resting.  If you like ‘medium’ doneness, pull meat off the grill at about 120 degrees for steaks, and 160 for hamburgers. You can always cook it longer if someone wants it more done; but, you can never go back and make it rare. If your steak rests for 10 minutes, you will see the temperature has risen about 10 degrees.

For a helpful meat doneness chart, visit: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/articles/meat-and-poultry-temperature-guide.html

So, heat up your barbeque and get those meats sizzling!