| Good morning, everybody. I may step on some toes here today, but so be it. This is the truth as I see it now after a recent discovery. Steaks and burgers are better cooked in a pan than on a grill. I'm not talking about marinated meats. If you're talking something marinated, like carne asada or lamb chops that have been sitting in lemon, olive oil, garlic, and rosemary, the open flame is the way to go. The marinades don't always hold up well to constant contact with a superhot slab of iron; they pair extremely well with the char and smoke of the open grill. But a NY strip or ribeye or burger seasoned with salt and pepper? Do it in a screaming hot cast iron pan with a decent amount of heat-tolerant fat (I like avocado oil, or rendering some of the tallow from the steak itself). You want every square centimeter of that steak's surface in constant contact with hot iron and fat. You want that Maillard reaction. You want the browning. The crust. There's nothing like it, especially when you sear all 6 sides. So please, stop grilling your strips, your ribeyes, your porterhouses, and your burgers over open flame. Those grill marks are pretty but they're overrated. Use a cast iron pan! And just about the worst thing you can use is one of those pseudo-grill pans, the pans with ridges on it that simulate "grill marks." Every time I've ever used one of those the results have been disappointing—the uneven contact with the meat, the drainage of the fat (which most people seem to covet, but I like my meat cooking in fat). Hell, they always seem to fail on those cooking competition shows too, and those are presumably professional cooks. Never use the grill pan. But open fire and hot coals make for an aesthetic experience. It really is quite beautiful to see meat juxtaposed with flame. It feels abundant in a primordial sort of way. And no, it's not superficial. These things matter. How to reconcile? Cast iron happens to be remarkably heat-tolerant. Throw that pan on the grill. it'll get hotter there than it will on your home stove, so the sear will be unmatched. You'll get the smoky flavor. You'll get the aesthetic punch of the live flames and burning wood. And hey, it's even prettier and arguably more iconic to see black iron, meat, and fire all together doing their thing. I hope I haven't offended anyone. I hope I don't lose a bunch of subscribers. But I just had to shout this out to the world because it's objective reality. If you insist on pushing back against reality, tell me why. Why is grilling steaks over open flame better than searing in a pan? Oh, and if anyone has a good use for the grill pan, I'd love to be proven wrong. Let me know in the comment section from this Friday's Weekly Link Love. Have a great Sunday, everybody. Best, | 