Seems like everybody’s going all Kermit on us.  It’s like a new wave of political correctness, except this time the social pressure is all about your carbon footprint.  Drive a Hummer and you’re bad.  Drive a Prius and you’re good.  Trouble is, there’s a lot of shades of green aren’t there?  We’ve been getting a few questions about ‘green grilling’ lately so, we’re going to add our measly two cents to the pile of information about grilling and the environment. 

 

Firstly, I’m going to assume that you cook your food.  Some folks don’t but I’m not sure many of them read this newsletter.  Secondly, I’m going to assume that you cook your food by burning some sort of fuel (ie. wood, propane, natural gas, buffalo chips etc.).  I’ve heard that Ed Begley Jr. has a solar oven but I haven’t seen any of those for sale at Sears yet.  Thirdly, I’m going to assume that you like the way that food tastes when it’s been barbecued.  So, if you grill your food by burning fuel, the environmental question is how can you most efficiently cook your food on a barbecue?

How To Grill With The Environment In Mind

1. Use the cleanest fuel available.  Natural gas is cleaner than propane.  Hardwood charcoal without chemical fillers is cleaner than mass produced briquettes.

2.Use only as much of the barbecue as you need.  Don’t fire up all of your burners if you’re only cooking one T-bone.

3.Any decent barbecue should only take about five minutes to reach proper cooking temperature.  Try to avoid the outdated ritual of pinning every burner onto the “High Heat: Beware” setting and then heading inside to watch two periods of hockey and finish six Mooseheads before you worry about throwing your food on the grill.

4.Clean your barbecue occasionally.  Don’t waste fuel by burning three weeks of sludge off of your cooking grills because you’re too lazy to clean the thing.  Cleaning your grill right after you’ve removed your food is the most efficient way to go because the barbecue is already up to temperature.