The Spray Bottle Hack To Grill Extra Flavorful Steaks

Marinating your steak before you grill it isn't the only way to add some extra flavor: Equipped with a spray bottle, you can also add flavor while it's on the grill. This technique is sometimes called "spritzing," and while it's often recommended for when you're smoking or barbecuing meats, you can try it with regular grilling, too.

The process is easy: Put a liquid in your spray bottle and spritz it onto the meat from different angles, so you cover the whole surface. Of course, there's the question of what to put into that bottle. A typical option is to spray apple cider vinegar (perhaps mixed with water). This has a few effects — it adds moisture back in that would be lost during the grilling process, but it also adds flavor, and vinegar generally helps tenderize meat, making for a softer end product. Alternatively, spritzing your steak with a marinade made with all the essential components can combine both methods of adding flavor, or something sweet and simple like apple juice can help the meat caramelize, while the acid tenderizes it.

But one overlooked option would be to spritz your steak with red wine. This works for the same reason a glass of red wine pairs well with steak: The acidic properties balance out the fat in the meat and help tenderize it, and it'll generally add moisture back into the steak. (That said, some spritzing proponents question how much flavor a light spray of red wine can add — but it certainly won't harm your steak.)

If you're planning to spritz a streak, you may be wondering what type of red wine to use. When it comes to common steak marinating mistakes, chefs recommend avoiding high-acidity wines for marinades (these are usually lighter reds like pinot noir), as they can over-marinate the meat and cause it to disintegrate if left too long. However, since the spritzed steak won't be soaked in wine long enough for this to occur, this isn't something you need to worry about. Generally speaking, if you like the taste profile of a wine when drinking it, it'll be a good spritzing option for you — but if you're not sure, go for a full-bodied red like malbec or merlot, as they'll match the more intense flavor of most steaks. Avoid anything with really heavy oak or high tannins so nothing gets unbalanced, though. There's probably no need to choose your fanciest, most complex flavor profile wine, as the extra nuances you'll get when drinking it will likely be lost to the meat as it cooks.

As for how to spritz, wait until partway through the cooking so you don't spritz any seasoning off the steak right at the start. (The exact timing here will inevitably depend on how long you're cooking the steak — that is, how well done you like your steak.) For this reason, you'll also want a fine mist rather than a heavy drench that soaks the steak. You may want to avoid spritzing too close to the end so you don't lose any crisp, caramelized crust on the steak. Keep it to a handful of spritzes, as overdoing it will lower the temperature of the grill — not ideal since most grill masters recommend cooking steak at a high heat for caramelization.

Bear in mind that spritzing is more of a final extra touch to your meat to keep it moist while possibly adding some flavor and helping it form a caramelized crust (depending on what you're spritzing with: something with sugar in it usually helps). For example, while you can spray your steak with some marinade while it's on the grill, if you really want that marinade to soak in, you should score your steak and put the meat in it for a few hours before cooking, rather than just spraying it on (even if the spritz will still have benefits).

The same applies with red wine — if you really want to bring red wine into your grilling, don't just spritz, but consider a marinade beforehand. You can play around with options, but you'll want a mix of fat, acid, seasoning, and aromatics. The fat could just be olive oil, while the wine brings the acid; seasonings and aromatics can be anything like herbs and garlic, and obviously salt and pepper. Four hours is a good length of time to let it soak, and you could repurpose the marinade into your spritz.

There's also the option of a red wine sauce after your steak is done. If you finish your steak on the stovetop, keep the pan juices and use butter, wine, and broth, as well as flavorings like shallots or herbs to make a simple pan sauce.