Hints and Tips
You will find in this section a list of hints and tips. Some you may know and some you will find useful.
About the meat :
- Keep the cooked food in a warm place (135 F)
- Keep the chilled food in a cool place (40 F)
- Prevent contaminations (cross): separate the cooked meat from the raw meat. And do not use the same utensils or the same plates.
- Once you make your marinade, make two separate portions. Use one for to marinate your meats and once it’s done, through it away. The other is used to baste your meats.
- Cook at the good temperature.
- Marinades will not only tenderize your meats but will reduce the presence of PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). But it’S not all the meats that can be marinated.
- After cooking your mat, remove all the pieces that have been carbonized.
- Try to prevent the grease from the meat dripping on the embers.
- Cut off the fat from your meat. For chicken or any other avian meat, you should cut off the fatty skin.
- Stay away from sausages that contain a lot of fat. Ask your butcher for those with reduced fat.
- It is not necessary to totally immerse your meat in marinades. Just turn them occasionally.
The Grill
- Brush your grill regularly to remove the burned residues.
Don’t hesitate to purchase adequate tools that are made for grilling barbecuing. Make sure they are long enough and you may also consider a pair of barbecue gloves.
- Best time to scrub your grill is right after using it.
- PAH : Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are carcinogenic compounds that appear when cooking meat with intense heat. They can occur everywhere even in your kitchen. While barbecuing, fat from the meat may drip on the embers and create a flare-up. This will occur on wood charcoal as well as gas barbecues. In order to minimize the occurrence of HAP, you should prevent contact with those flames. If it occurs, remove the meat and wait until the flames disappear. In fact, it is the infrared heat from the embers which will grill your meat, not the flames.
- For optimal grilling of red meat, the distance from the charcoal to your meat must be around 10 cm (4 inches). For more fragile food such as fish and fruits and vegetable, you may choose to place the grill at the furthest distance from the charcoal. And an in between distance may be ideal for white meat (poultry).
At the end
- The ash left at the end may be deposited in your compost or garden but not too much. You may refer at various websites that relate to gardening to know which volume may be absorbed by your soil. Ash may contain up to 10% in potash, 1% in phosphates and some traces of iron, manganese, boron, copper and zinc.
- It is frequently used to alternative liming agent.
Keep in mind hardwood charcoal ash is the same as wood ash. But keep in mind ash from briquettes should not be used for this purpose - Left over pieces that are big enough can be used again in your barbecue. Smaller pieces may also be used but if too small can also be put in your compost or garden as soil amendment..
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