Don't Sweat the Aubergine

is fast food. You cook it at a high heat to get the flavourful Maillard or browning reactions ( see here ); and you cook it briefly, in order to avoid expelling all its juices. A pork chop is hard to get right. It is thick, and may need a good 15 minutes in the frying pan or under the grill; but after that length of time, it is invariably dry. ( See here for an attempt at the solution to this problem.)
    Meat for frying and grilling comes from the animal’s most relaxed bits, which have done the least exercise and which therefore don’t have toughened connective tissues. From a cow, those bits include the sirloin and the fillet; from a sheep, the loin and best end of neck; from a pig, the loin again; from poultry, the breast (although every bit of a chicken can be grilled or fried). Browned and cooked to the point at which it is just done (in the cases of steak and lamb, most gourmets prefer some rareness), this meat is firm but juicy; tender too. Cooked beyond that point, it suddenly expels all that juiciness, and becomes shrivelled and leathery.
    A ridged grill pan, or a barbecue, is best for grilling meat. Overhead grills do not sear the meat as satisfactorily; they also seem to dry it out more.
Salt
    Don’t salt meat before you cook it, you’re advised: you’ll draw out the juices. Meat consists of about 75 per cent water. A dusting of salt on raw meat will not have a significant effect on that percentage; and, as the meat cooks, it undergoes a drastic water-reduction process anyway. That sizzling as the meat hits the pan or the grill is the sound of water, instantly vaporizing; the high temperature, not the salt, is responsible for it. When the meat rests after cooking it exudes more juices, whether it is salted or not.
    Salt added to meat before cooking will not penetrate much, but will add savour to the browned crust. It’s an effect worth having, in my opinion.
Marinades
    So, yes, you can add salt to a marinade (see above).
    Books on barbecuing and grilling can lead you to believe that, in order to be interesting, grilled meat must first be bathed in some exotic compound, for at least 6 hours. I find the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall argument persuasive. In essence, it’s this: the acid in marinades will mess with your meat; if you’ve got a decent piece of meat, why would you want that to happen? If you want a lemony, or vinegary, taste, marinate with lemon or vinegar just before you start grilling.
    Without acid, however, marinades scarcely penetrate the surface of the meat. Punctilious cooks use syringes to inject flavoursome compounds, but that kind of technique is not for you and me. We’re happy if our marinades give a coating of flavour, enhancing the finished dish; and therefore we need apply them only when we’re ready to cook.
    Here are various types of marinade you can rub over your meat. Use some oil with all of them: it provides lubrication, flavour and a certain amount of protection, both for the dry ingredients of a marinade and for the meat – oil gets very hot, but not as hot as a naked flame.
    Herbs: thyme, rosemary and oregano are good; also, for pork, sage.
    Spices: see Curry here . Mix these with oil before coating the meat (you could do the same with the herb marinade). They are less likely to burn with an oil coating. An alternative is to mix the spices with yoghurt. A yoghurt marinade, if given time, will work on the meat, which in this case you want to be imbued with as much spiciness as possible. Harissa ( see here ), thinned with oil (olive, sunflower or vegetable), is an alternative fiery coating. Or a jerk marinade: a mixture of Scotch bonnet chilli (it’s very hot, so remove the pith unless you’re brave) with, say, 4 spring onions, a tsp-sized piece of ginger, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tsp cinnamon, salt to taste, and the juice of a lime. Whizz them up in a food mill, and stir in enough olive and sunflower oil to form a paste. Watch out when you’re grilling: the honey burns easily.
    Garlic: crush it with some salt and rub this paste over the meat.
    Barbecue marinade: it might consist of tomato ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, vinegar, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and oil. Honey or brown sugar is optional, with the proviso stated above: if your grill is fierce, you may end up with blackened food.
    You can also use this marinade to coat slow-cooked meat, such as spare rib chops or belly pork (or chicken wings from a stock – see here ). One method is to poach the meat, very gently,