This may sound positively unAmerican, but I've never been able to enjoy myself at a cookout. Merely this spring, I decided to examine my deep-seated aversion. To get myself in the mood, I bought a bag of barbecue potato chips, and soon I institute myself reliving the crucial events that contributed to my patiophobia. I consulted with some experts to see where I'd gone wrong. And I establish that it's easy to keep a friendly backyard cookout from becoming a natural disaster. Here'southward what I learned almost grill safety.

Where In that location's Smoke...

Back in the '70s, when I was a kid, every Sunday from April through August, my cousins and I met up at grandma'southward cookouts.

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Those backyard BBQs were hell on the one thousand, what with 20-odd kids running amok, all hopped-up on Hullo-C, Jell-O, and other hyphenated foodstuffs. But what actually did a number on the grass, flowers, copse, and shrubbery was the smoke. All afternoon, my granddad presided over a charcoal-filled cauldron that emitted a mushroom deject that must have been visible from Skylab. There would be a Dante's inferno of flames every bit he shifted the burgers and steaks around the grill similar a circus ringmaster. To an over-sugared grade-schooler similar me, these displays inspired feelings of awe and terror.

I know now that all this fume and burn isn't necessary. "Where there'south smoke and flame, there's soot," warns Alton Brown, host of the Food Network's Good Eats. Controlling your flame is fundamental for a safe and tasty event; here are some grill condom pointers:

Site safelySet your grill at least several anxiety from the house, abroad from areas highly trafficked by kids or pets. Charcoal grills shouldn't be used on a wooden deck, though gas grills can exist, every bit long every bit the hot office of the grill isn't touching any wood. "A patio made of brick or concrete is ideal," says Brown. Make sure the site is level, and lock or block the wheels and then the grill doesn't become a traveling inferno.

Get off to a skilful outsetA chimney starter, available where grilling accessories are sold, is a must-have for serious charcoalers. "It allows fast, safety lighting of charcoal without whatever electrical or chemical agents," says Brownish. Information technology'southward basically a metal can with a handle and a grated lesser. You fill up information technology with charcoal, put some paper underneath, and light the paper; the heat is channeled up to the coals, and very quickly y'all've got a hunka burnin' beloved. (Once the coals get going, you lot'll need a fireproof platform such every bit pavement where the starter tin can absurd.) Alton's tip: Dab the newspaper in a piffling cooking oil for improve start-up.

Rely on air supportWhen the dress-down are covered with gray ash, they're set up to cook. If this doesn't happen soon enough for your taste, or they start to absurd, don't squirt a chemical charcoal starter onto the already lit dress-down. The fluid might take hold of fire and go out you on the business concern end of a homemade flamethrower. Nor should you stir the coals effectually. This will only eolith sparks and ash on the surface of your grill, on your food, or mayhap on your iii-year-onetime. Instead, use your grill'southward air vents: Open them broad if the dress-down aren't heating upwardly, and close them if you're getting likewise much smoke or flames.

Fight the flaresFlare-ups happen when juice from the meat drips into the burn down; the fattier the meat, the bigger the flame. Most of the time, a flare-up is cursory and harmless. But if things get out of control, don't panic: Merely shut the chapeau. "Eventually, the flames will choke themselves out," Brown says. Keep a small squirt bottle total of water handy for smaller flares, and have some common salt or blistering soda fix to squelch fires in the grill'due south grease trap. Always take a fully charged, all-purpose fire extinguisher nearby in case something other than the grill catches burn down.

Burn down fightingYou lot tin avoid surging flames (such as those at left) by using indirect oestrus to cook fat foods, recommends Ed Maurin, professional fire fighter, champion barbecuer, and part owner of the American Barbeque Association.

When cooking on a gas grill, turn off the middle burner, put the meat in the centre, and cook without direct flame nether it. And never squirt lighter fluid on a fire.

Germ Warfare

Food poisoning is an all-besides-common result of careless cookouts, says Catherine Cutter, PhD, assistant professor and food safety extension specialist at Pennsylvania State University. The germs that cause information technology are nowadays in our nutrient in such pocket-sized numbers that you commonly never notice them. But they'll grow to dangerous proportions if treated imprudently. Here's how to avoid an outbreak:

Trounce the clockFood poisoning prevention begins at the supermarket, says Dr. Cutter. Once yous have a piece of meat from its refrigerated case and put information technology in your shopping cart, the bacterial growth clock starts ticking. Buy your meat last, and proceed it out of straight sunday on the ride home. "Go it refrigerated every bit soon equally possible," she says, "to go on microorganisms from growing to high levels." Rule of thumb: If the food sits out for more 2 hours at room temperature, information technology'south gone from edible to dispensable. This happens faster on hot days, and so turn upwardly the car'due south AC if necessary.

Befriend a butcherYou'll get cleaner meat if you buy from a market where large pieces of meat are brought in so ground or divided into retail cuts on site, according to Brown. "At that place'south less chance of contamination because most problems occur in large processing plants rather than at the grocery store level," he says.

Thaw wisely If you lot're not going to exist cooking it for a few days, it's a adept thought to freeze meat, says Dr. Cutter. Merely make sure you thaw it correctly when the time comes. How? Motility the meat to the refrigerator several hours before serving (or longer if you're dealing with a large roast). Put it in a pan or container to take hold of the drips, or let information technology thaw in the sink nether common cold running water. Never thaw meat by just setting it out at room temperature or by running warm water over it. Either method will warm upwardly the exterior of the meat before the inside is thawed, letting microbes on the surface multiply earlier the food's ready to melt.

Keep the raw away from the cooked"Juices from raw meat tin can have microorganisms in them that tin be transmitted to the cooked food," warns Dr. Cutter. So continue the two segregated throughout the cooking process. A key strategy point: Never plop a cooked burger (or steak, or any) onto the plate used to carry raw meat to the grill. Designate unlike plates for raw and cooked meat, or wash the plate in warm soapy water before reusing it. It's also a proficient idea to use divide utensils to handle the raw and cooked edibles, or sterilize affected tools by sticking them into the oestrus for a few seconds earlier they touch your cooked food.

Have the temperature"Research indicates that if you rely on color to tell when meat is cooked, y'all're really playing Russian roulette," Dr. Cutter explains. A burger or steak tin can be pink as a piglet even though it's safe to eat. Or it can be every bit dark-brown as the UPS guy's shirt even though it's raw enough to harbor enough bacteria to send you to the ER. Solution? Utilise a meat thermometer. "You can take the food off the grill, mensurate the temperature, and put information technology back on the grill if y'all demand to," says Dr. Cutter. Meat thermometers not merely keep you from scarfing down dangerously undercooked food, they forestall y'all from charring every burger to hockey puck consistency in an endeavour to kill off germs. "Y'all tin save a lot of the meat juices and serve a more tender production," Dr. Cutter says.

When Leaner Political party

Germs that cause nutrient poisoning adopt the same temperatures nosotros practice, explains Kenneth Bock, MD, coauthor of The Germ Survival Guide. "It's at room temperature that the bacteria have their party," he says.

Not only should raw meat exist cooked as soon equally possible, merely cooked foods and protein foods (such as egg and tuna salads) should exist kept chilled if they're going to sit out for two hours or more.

Don't Blow It

When I moved in with my fiancée, a gas grill came too. I grew up on charcoal grills, then I eyed it with the alert of a coast baby-sit lookout man who'd spotted a Nazi U-boat cruising up the Potomac. With all the circumspection of a police flop squadder who has 1 day until retirement, I unhooked the grill'due south propane tank and collection it to the hardware store at fifteen mph on the smoothest roads I knew. Then, instead of trading it in for a full tank, I abased it there.

As it turns out, my fears of exploding gas grills have little to do with reality. Like charcoal cookers, gas grills are very safe if you lot know what you're doing.

Push out the shmutzThe Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that users regularly cheque the hoses that lead from the tank to the burners for blockages, especially if you haven't used the grill for a while or the hoses haven't been connected. "People use the grill for the terminal time in the fall, they detach everything, then they put it in the garage," says Ken Giles, spokesperson for the CPSC. "By the adjacent bound, spiders have built their webs in the tubes." Clogs can atomic number 82 to a gas leak and, if your sniffer happens to be on the fritz, an explosion and fire. Apply a pipe cleaner or cotton fiber swab to push out any blockages. Replace any hoses that are cracked or nicked. Check the grill's air holes for grease or spilled food that might be gumming up the works.

Put actress tanks out of range "Don't go along an extra filled tank near the grill," says Donna Myers, spokesperson for the Hearth, Patio, and Charcoal-broil Clan. That prevents your grill from heating them up, possibly allowing gas to escape. "Keep them in an untrafficked area," she says, "where they'll exist shaded and a lawn mower won't run into them." Never keep a filled propane tank (including the 1 attached to your grill) indoors. (If you store your grill in the garage, remove the tank, and go along information technology outdoors.)

Keep open flames awayFound a no-burn down zone around your grill, because if at that place is a gas leak it could ignite. Be specially cautious about people dropping matches or cigarettes on the ground; leaking propane volition pool at ground level. And treat whatever smell of gas seriously: Turn off the grill, and close the tank. To check for leaks, rub soapy water over the valves or suspect areas, and look for bubbles. Newer grills have many safety features that will shut down the organization automatically if in that location'south a leak, and so consider trading up if yous've been using the same model for more v years or so.

Go by the book"I know how to plow a gas grill on and off," says Nutrient Network'southward Alton Chocolate-brown. "But I nevertheless brand a point to read what the manufacturer says about it." Become thoroughly familiar with the user's transmission that came with your grill; it's the all-time manner to ensure you don't have a mishap.