Safe Steps When Cooking with Your Natural Gas Grill

Gas grill safety when barbecuing is very important , and there are simple but effective steps to safer cooking with your natural gas grill. Knowing what the risks are and how to reduce them is the secret to success. When cooking outdoors, whether hot and fast grilling, or low and slow barbecue there are a few things you need to know to make sure nothing goes wrong and how to get the most out of your cooking.

Combining explosive fuels with food, hot metals, and large groups of people can cause some serious problems if you are not careful. Of course, there is more to outdoor cooking safety than just the fire.

Fire

Fire is the most destructive force in the universe and you are inviting it into your backyard for a little cookout. First thing you need is a fire extinguisher. Next you need to know your fire and know how to control it. Every year grills and smokers cause thousands of fires, hundreds of injuries, dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in damage. You need to know how to cut fuel supplies, extinguish fires and call the fire department. Always have one person in charge of the fire at all times, a fire marshal if you will. You should also know something about treating burns.

Food Safety

Bacteria eats every kind of food you can think of, and it grows at any temperature above freezing so, until it goes in to your mouth or on the grill, it needs to be kept cool. The second you are done serving it up, it goes back in the refridgerator.

Instructions

Please, read the manual supplied with your natural gas grill. Follow all the safety restrictions to the letter. If you have a fire and you didn’t follow the instructions - well, ignorance is no excuse, it is your fault, no matter what. Natural gas grills have very specific ranges of operation. You need to know these before you light up. Don’t assume that your new grill works just like the last one and that all the same rules apply. Tip: Generally you can find the manuals to most grills and smokers on the manufacturers website.

Location

Location is everything when it comes to placing your grill or smoker. Every year hundreds of people cause fires to their houses, garages and patios because they didn’t put their grill or smoker in the correct location. Your manual will tell you the minimum distances around your unit that must be kept clear. It is a good idea to take a good look at your equipment and imagine the worst fire you can. Could you quickly bring that fire under control without injury to anyone? Make sure there isn’t anything burnable in the grilling area. Also make sure that you unit isn’t going to require people to walk too close to hot surfaces and that children won’t be playing nearby.

Gas Safety

The number one cause of natural gas grill fires is an obstruction in the path of the fuel. This largely takes place, behind, underneath or inside your grill where you do not look. This means you need to regularly inspect your gas grill for any problems. Bugs and other small aninmals can climb into little places causing gas to flow where it shouldn’t. At the first sign of problems turn off your control values, turn off the fuel tank, and disconnect everything. Gas grills produce a great deal of heat that can melt through hoses, knobs and other parts.

Grease

Bad enough that you are using flammable materials to do your cooking, but the food itself is creating more. Flare-ups are more than a nuisance, they are potentially lethal. Grease that collects in your grill builds up over time. It is easy to get several pounds of grease in the bottom of your grill after only a few grill sessions, so this is why you need to keep your grill clean.  A clean grill is a safer grill.

Following the manufacturers advice to safe steps when cooking with your natural gas grill should ensure you and your guests have a great time.

There is a specific way in which you should use a grill in cooking, although the term is very dependant on what country you live in. In Europe, grilling is the cooking of food by direct heat from above, whereby the the food sits on a grill or metal grate, and electric or gas heat is directed onto it from above. In North America this is referred to as broiling.

In North America, grilling is placing the food on the same type of metal grate and cooking it by means of direct heat coming from below. The outdoor grills are very similar to barbecues, and the terms are often used synonymously. However, barbecuing strictly refers to cooking with the use of flavored rubs and sauces, and it is possible to barbecue without the use of an open charcoal grill.

Grilling also need not involve an open charcoal grill, but can use any means of applying heat directly to the food from beneath. Countertop grills can also be used, and most of us are familiar with these cooking implements. They are personified by the George Foreman type of grill in which the food is placed on an electrically heated ribbed surface that alllows the fats to drip off into a collecting container, a heated ribbed top is then placed down on top of the food which is then cooked from below and above.

A broiler, on the other hand, heats the food with direct heat from above, much as in a European type of grill as supplied with most gas and electric cookers. Another form of broiler is the device often seen in fast food restaurants, where food passes along a conveyor and is cooked from above and beneath. By the time it reaches the end of the conveyor, the burger or whatever is cooked.

Food can be grilled either directly or indirectly. In direct grilling, the food is placed directly over the flame or hot charcoal, or even on top of a heated ridged plate as described above. The food is exposed to extreme levels of heat that cooks the food very fast, and is suitable for smaller items such as burgers, sausages and small portions of chicken. The problems associated with this type of grilling are that the food can burn if not constantly attended and turned, and that it is possible to undercook food.

With indirect grilling, the food is not placed directly over the heat source, but remote from it. For example, when grilling in an oven, the burners or heat source will be to one side of the oven and the food to the other. The heat is not directly applied to the food which has time to cook slowly without burning. This type of grilling is more suited to larger cuts of meat or whole chickens for example. Sometimes a bowl of water is placed under the food to keep it moist since the cooking time involved can easily dry out the food.

Grilling is particularly suited to fatty foods, where the fat keeps the food moist and also helps to cook it. It is when the food is particularly dry that sauces and rubs have to be used in the cooking, and while barbecues are used for fatty foods they are also suitable for dry foods that benefit from a coating that prevents the excessive loss of moisture.

Grilling is a healthy way of cooking because the fats are drained off during the coooking process. The countertop grills are designed to facilitate this, and in traditional grilling over an open flame the melted fats burn and add to the flavor of the food. Charcoal gruills also add to the flavor, and in many cases the fuel used is selcted because of its smell and flavor. Pine nuts and various other types of cob and kernel are used for this reason.

There are a few safety issues with grills that can be avoided if the grills are used as intended. Thus, grills intended for outdoor use should never be used indoors. In fact a gas grill should not be used withing 15 feet of a building or car, and should be properly maintained to ensure that all the burners are clean and that none of the conenctions are loose. Many explosions occur after the grill has been left unused for along period of time. After winter, give it a thorough check over and make sure that nothing is blocked and that no tubes are kinked or constricted. If you have a charcoal grill you should never add lighter fuel to hot coals and never use petrol to light the charcoal.

Ther are a number of ways in which you can use a charcoal grill including direct grilling where the charcoals are spread even across the pan so that everything cooks at the same rate. You can also create three different cooking zones by building up the charcoal at one side, having just a few coals in the center, and then no coals at the other side. You can use that set-up to cook different foods at different rates.

You can also grill indirectly, as described above for an oven grill. Put the charcoals to each side, with the middle third having no charcoal at all. Put a drip tray in the charcoal pan below the center part, place the food on the grill then close the grill. The food will then cook slowly in the center. This is a good way to cook larger joints of meat without it burning.

There are many recipes available online for grilling, so happy cooking, but never forget the safety tips above. Oh: and make sure that all frozen food is completely defrosted before cooking.