Grilling

Grilling is an easy, quick, nutritious, and flavorful way to cook lean pieces of meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables. Wood, gas, or charcoal heats the grill bars and cooks the food, imparting a smoked, charred taste. Sometimes the foods are seasoned (sprinkled or rubbed with salt and pepper and/or spices) or marinated (soaked in a flavorful liquid) before grilling.

Equipment

You might have a gas or charcoal grill in your backyard. A gas grill is fueled by propane and has knobs for controlling the temperature. A charcoal grill burns charcoal; you control the temperature by using more or less charcoal and by arranging it under the grate so that some parts of the grate are closer to the charcoal than others. Whichever one you use, always have an adult light the grill.

Ingredients

When choosing items to grill, remember that grilling is a quick cooking method, so the pieces should be portion-sized or smaller. Ideal ingredients for grilling include:

• Chicken (remove the skin to keep it from burning)
• Firm-fleshed fish like salmon and swordfish
• Pork loin and pork chops
• Tender beef steaks
• Hamburgers
• Sausages and hot dogs
• Soft vegetables such as zucchini, pepper, and eggplant (but not hard vegetables such as carrots and broccoli)

Grilled foods can be marinated using:

• Spices
• Salt and pepper
• Mustard

• Small amounts of oil
• Steak sauce
• Barbecue sauce

Grilling Step by Step

Use a wire grill brush to clean the grill before you start to heat it up. Most gas grills have 2 or 3 separate temperature controls. Turn one to high, one to medium, and the last to low. Place the marinated salmon smooth side down on the section of the grill that is set to high heat. After a few minutes, to get traditional-looking grill marks, rotate the salmon about 90 degrees (called a quarter turn).

After several minutes, turn the salmon over and place it on the section of the grill set at medium temperature. This way the salmon will cook slowly, without burning, and stay juicy. To test for doneness, insert a thermometer into the center of the fish; it should read 140 to 145°F. Alternatively, press down on the top of the fish. When it is fully cooked, the fish will separate, or flake apart.

 

Kitchen Vocabulary

Lean meat can be from any animal; “lean” means it contains less fat than other cuts of meat. By definition, lean meat is a 3½-ounce portion that contains less than 10 grams of total fat, less than 4 grams of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol. Some of the most typical lean cuts of meat are beef sirloin, pork loin chops, and chicken breast.

Marinating food means immersing it in a liquid before cooking it in order to add flavor and moisture; the liquid is called a marinade. The food must be completely immersed in the marinade for at least an hour or up to overnight in order to absorb its characteristics.

Safety First

It is important to cook all ground meats until the juices run clear because hamburgers and other ground meats can be contaminated with bacteria that make people sick. See page 11 for the recommended cooking temperatures.

Remember, have an adult light the grill.

Fun Facts

• Charcoal is made from burned wood that is compressed into briquettes or cut into chunks.
• Henry Ford, founder of the Ford motor company, created the charcoal briquette from the leftover wood scraps from his automobile factories.

What Is in a Hot Dog?

Hot dogs are a pureed mixture of meat, fat, water, spices, salt, binders (usually dry milk) to hold everything together, and sometimes chemicals called nitrates. This mixture is forced into long sheep intestines, called casings, before being smoked and cooked in a water bath or steamer. Hot dogs contain about 25 percent fat and are high in salt.

• All-meat hot dogs may have beef, chicken, turkey, or pork in the mix.
• All-beef hot dogs must contain only beef.
• Kosher hot dogs are made only from beef.