Raw Meat and the Potato Salad That Wouldn't Die

Don't let your food poison you. You've probably heard enough public service announcements about this, so I'll keep it brief.

Don't let meat, potato salad, or other perishable foods, sit around. Eat it, cook it, freeze it, or put it in the refrigerator.

Wash the counter where you put raw meat, or worked with it, before you use it again.

When you're done grilling, don't put the food on the plate you carried it out in. Use a clean plate. Unless the food is baked potatoes, and the plate didn't have meat on it.

Finally, although every once in a while some newspaper or magazine publishes a scary article about carcinogens and grilling. Less exciting, and I think better informed, publications point out that sensible grilling does not seem to be a health risk. The harmful chemicals form when meat or fat is burned. And, unless you prefer meat briquettes to steak, burned fat mostly ends up as the charred stuff at the bottom of the grill.

So, you shouldn't eat blackened debris from the bottom of the grill. Your meat, on the other hand, should be good to eat. That's assuming that the meat itself hasn't been incinerated. Seriously, scrape or cut the blackened debris off your steak, before you eat it.

Next: Extreme Safety: Above and Beyond the Call of Reason

Or: How to Grill

Copyright © 2005-2010 Brian H. Gill