Grilling out is one of the most fun parts of summer, not to mention cooking outside helps to keep your house cool inside. Before you fire up the grill, check out these grilling safety tips that you should heed to avoid any accidents.
Keep Your Grill Clean
Keeping your grill clean should always be added to your list of grilling safety tips. A clean grill will cook your food more efficiently than one that’s caked in crusted food or oil drippings. Speaking of oil drippings, in a gas grill, it’s important that you clean the grease tray located beneath the grilling grates. This tray can become overflowing with grease and debris from the food you’ve cooked and will begin to attract insects and bacteria. It can also become a fire hazard and could cause a grease fire.
Gas Grilling Safety Tips
Using a charcoal grill has its own share of hazards and issues, but gas grills aren’t without their own dangers. The most crucial aspects of a gas grill are the gas container and the gas line. Study the manufacturer’s handbook carefully and replace the gas line if the current one is damaged or worn.There are also specific procedures to follow when it comes time to turn on your gas tank. You should never turn on the gas to your grill while the lid is shut. This causes the gas to accumulate under the lid and once you light it, it could cause serious burns.
Position Your Grill Carefully
Grills can pose an unexpected fire hazard to anything that’s near it. Although you may keep the lid closed to contain the flames, the heat radiating from the grill can melt nearby objects. Those melted objects then have the potential to cause more surrounding items to be damaged. This is especially true if you use a charcoal grill as opposed to a propane grill. Charcoal grills need an accelerant to help ignite flames that are large and hot enough to cook your food. You want to keep anything flammable away from your grill. This includes disposable plates, toys, patio furniture, and your house. Keeping your grill at least 10 feet away from your house is one of the most essential grilling safety tips you should follow.
Remain Present At The Grill
Grilling outdoors should be treated as seriously as when you’re cooking inside your kitchen. A grill that has an active fire should never be left unattended. The fire could become uncontrollable at any moment and unless you’re there to put out the flames, it will become a dangerous fire hazard. Do all of your prep work on your food before you light the grill so that you can dedicate your attention to the grill during the time that it has an active flame.
Strategically Put Food on the Grill
When you begin to load your prepared food on the grill, make sure that you have a balanced ratio of fatty meats and non-fatty foods. If you cook too many fatty meats together at the same time, the grease from the meat will drip down into the flames and has the potential to cause dangerous flare-ups. Always keep your fatty meats spread out and don’t overload the grill to avoid any excess flames.
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