I suppose one perk that comes with a low carb diet is the ability to eat more meat.

I have largely eschewed red meat, primarily because of its cholesterol content. Now, though, I read that red meats, in moderation, are acceptable for a low carb diet.

Tonight my wife brought home two pounds of ground beef. Ordinarily, I would not be so excited about this dinner except that I recently purchased Cookina barbeque grill sheets at Costco. I was dying to try them out.

After starting up the barbecue fire, centering the new grill mat on the barbecue surface, and closing the barbeque cover, I went inside to begin shaping our hamburgers-to-be.

I was delighted to see the hamburgers cooking on the grill sheet, and the juices remaining on the grill sheet, theoretically to be absorbed by the cooking hamburgers.

No more messy grills, no more juices dripping, or small pieces of meat falling to the bottom of my barbeque. The hamburgers were juicier than I had imagined, even though I cut into them several times to check on the pinkness of the meat inside.

I was just delighted –until I brought the cooled-off grill mat into the house to wash it off. Yes, it washed off very easily — no scrubbing necessary. But, alas, there were two tears in the grill sheet. What had I done?

I remember reading the package instructions carefully prior to cooking tonight. The grill sheet was to last a long time, and it was rated for 550 degrees. I went back to read the package instructions after noticing the tears. It said not to use sharp instruments on the grill pad. Well, the tears were not in the area where I cooked the meat. The tears were nearer to the periphery of the grill pad. The use of a metal spatula to turn the burgers was not the culprit.

To solve the mystery of the sheet’s tears, I turned to Amazon’s reviews of the same grilling sheets. There it was.  A gentleman wrote in a one-star review that 500 degrees is not safe for most grills.  He said that if you close your grill for 10 minutes at maximum temperature, your grill will be over 700 degrees!

I will use another Costco grill sheet, and I will not leave my barbeque closed while the sheet is heating up.  If the sheet does not tear I will give this product an A-plus.

If my upcoming cholesterol test militates against a red meat diet, there is always fish, chicken, and grilled veggies.  A delicious win-win nevertheless.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertzebsen@gmail.com