Backyard Grilling the Eco Friendly Way
Before beginning your backyard grilling event, make sure that your grill is clean. A clean grill produces less smoke and releases fewer carcinogens into the air. A simple soap and water cleaning after each use should keep your grill in tip-top shape for eco friendly grilling. If you wash the grill and all it’s components after each use, you will not need to use strong, harsh chemicals to remove the burnt on build-up of gunk.
For a more eco friendly grilling fuel, use chemical free charcoals or wood chips to grill with. Using wood chips for grilling serve double duty, after you are done grilling with wood chips, the cooled ashes can be tossed in your compost pile and incorporated into your soil amendment. Wood chips that are certified by the Forrest Stewardship Council are harvested as part of an eco friendly forest maintenance program-no trees died so you could enjoy grilling in your backyard.
Some prefer gas or electricity for backyard grilling. While neither one of these are the best eco friendly grilling method, nor will they provide your food with that great cooked-in-the-backyard flavor, gas and electric are still the preferred choice of some. Propane gas is the lesser of the two opponents to eco friendly grilling and it’s much more eco friendly than charcoal composite briquettes.
Don’t waste your grilling fuel, regardless of what your preferred method of backyard grilling is. Pre-heating the grill too long or using to much charcoal or wood chips is a waste of fuel, will wear out your grill faster.
By using a charcoal chimney, you eliminate the need for charcoal lighter to get your grill fired up. A charcoal chimney is a metal cylinder in which you place your charcoal and crumpled pieces of newspaper are used to ignite the charcoal. Eco friendly grilling with no charcoal lighter fumes to be expelled into the air and it’s a way to recycle a small amount of newspaper.
A backyard eco friendly grilling favorite is kabobs. Smaller portions of meat require less grilling time and when combining the meat with vegetables, it’s less meat used overall. Two thumbs up for this backyard eco friendly grilling method if you use locally grown vegetables for your kabobs.
Lastly, where you place your grill in the backyard is important for eco friendly grilling. Notice which way the wind is blowing and position your grill accordingly, your neighbors won’t want to your backyard grilling fumes heading in their direction, especially if you did not invite them over!
Source:
http://www.usaweekend.com/08_issues/080824/080824grilling.html
