The Thrill of the Grill

The Thrill of the Grill

Host: Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky

Guest: Annhall Norris, Extension Specialist for Food Safety and Preservation

Episode 52, Season 2

0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.

0:21 Mindy McCulley: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support at the University of Kentucky. I'm sitting in today for Dr. Jennifer Hunter, who is our Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension and our regular host.

Today, I'm pleased to be joined by Annhall Norris, our Extension Specialist for Food Safety and Preservation. Welcome Annhall.

0:45 Annhall Norris: Thanks, Mindy. I'm happy to be here.

0:47 Mindy McCulley: So, I don't know about you, but I am excited to jump right into our topic for today – The thrill of the grill.

0:54 Annhall Norris: Oh, yes. I love cooking on the grill.

0:56 Mindy McCulley: Well, I think that there is nothing better than that first grill burger of the summer with those juicy, red, ripe tomatoes. And I just can't wait to sink my teeth into one of those.

1:06 Annhall Norris: Oh, I know. That's my favorite thing on the grill is a hamburger with Swiss cheese and a ripe tomato. So, I am just waiting patiently for my tomatoes to come in.

1:15 Mindy McCulley: And I know some people prefer stake or chicken. For me, that grilled burger is my favorite. So, I don't want that thrill of enjoying my delicious hamburger to be tainted by the possibility of getting sick because I didn't prepare a grill or serve my food properly.

1:31 Annhall Norris: I understand.

1:32 Mindy McCulley: So, let's get started with what do we need to do to ensure that we are ready to start grilling?

1:38 Annhall Norris: Well, you always want to start with clean utensils and clean hands. So, wash your hands before and after handling your meat products. I mean, I like to be organized.

My part of the task, when we're grilling, is to do the marinade and get the plates ready and the utensils ready. And then my husband gets to do the fun part; he puts it on the grill.

I make sure that the plates are clean, that I have a separate plate for my cooked product and I don't mix up the plate that had the raw meat on it and I'm always very careful to wash my hands and so is he.

2:09 Mindy McCulley: Yeah, I think that that's really important that we highlight how important it is to wash your hands at every step. If you're the one that's going from the first marinade to the end, you need to wash frequently. But if you are pairing up, as you said, that everybody needs to wash their hands, right?

2:28 Annhall Norris: That's right. And part of my job is to get the vegetables ready too. I know we're going to be talking about meat, but we grill our vegetables on the grill too.

And you want to make sure that you're not putting those vegetables on the same cutting board or the same plate that held the raw meat because you don't want to transfer that bacteria from the meat onto your vegetables. So, you want to make sure that everything's clean and separated.

2:48 Mindy McCulley: That's perfect. So, what about frozen meat? Can we just take a frozen piece of meat and throw it right on the grill?

2:55 Annhall Norris: Well, you shouldn't. It's recommended that everything be thawed completely before you put it on the grill. That way you're going to get a thorough cook step there. So, thawing is important too.

You don't ever want to thaw at room temperature, out on the counter. If you're going to thaw your product, you want to thaw in the refrigerator. And sometimes that takes some planning ahead because it can take two or three days to thaw something, especially if it's a large piece of meat. Sometimes, I don't always think ahead and I'm able to do that.

So, you can thaw under running cold water or you can put it in a sink of cold water and change it frequently. You can even fall in the microwave, as long as you're going to put it right on the grill.

But thawing is important. You don't want to set it out on the picnic table and let it thaw before you grill or leave it on the counter at room temperature.

3:39 Mindy McCulley: And I'm so glad that you brought that up, because that's the argument that we have the most at my house about how we thaw the meat. And so, we definitely do want to keep that in the refrigerator or else under the running water, in the cold-water bath.

3:53 Annhall Norris: And also marinating. You want to marinate in the refrigerator, too. Now, you might not be marinating your burger, but a lot of times, you're going to marinate your chicken or your pork or any of those roasts that you're doing. And so, you want to marinate in the refrigerator as well. You don't want to marinate out on the counter or out on the picnic table, if you're not at home.

4:12 Mindy McCulley: That is a good advice to give. At my house, like at yours, grilling is a team effort. So, I try to handle that thawing and marinating before my husband gets to swoop in and do the grilling.

But when we are ready to grill, what are some things that we need to watch for?

4:28 Annhall Norris: Before we move on, I want to say something about the marinade too. You're marinating that that meat and it's raw. And so, you should throw away that marinade; anything that's left. You don't want to put that on any cooked product. But sometimes, that recipe for the marinade is really tasty and you want to use it as a sauce.

So, if you do want to put it on cooked product, you need to make sure you bring that marinade to a full boil before you serve it as a dipping sauce or put or put it over cooked product.

4:56 Mindy McCulley: Sometimes I'll make two recipes of the marinade; one is for the meat and I'll throw out that's leftover and then the other one I use for dipping sauce or just to put on that food.

5:06 Annhall Norris: That's an even better idea. Yes, that's great. But to go on to what you were saying; when you're cooking your meat, you want to make sure that you cook it properly. And the only real way to tell if it's done is to use a meat thermometer. And you can use a digital meat thermometer or one of the ones with a dial. But you want to make sure that you insert that thermometer to each piece of meat before you take it off the grill. You want to make sure that it has reached the proper cooking temperature.

5:31 Mindy McCulley: And that's another place where I like to give a little guidance, when my husband's up at the grill, to always make sure that he takes the thermometer to the little indicator notch.

5:40 Annhall Norris: Glad you brought that up. So, on your metal stone thermometer, there'll be a little notch, maybe a half inch from the tip. And so, that's where you get the correct temperature measurement. So, you want to make sure that the thermometer is inserted to that little notch.

And it's difficult on a flat burger. So, a lot of times, you'll have to take the burger, pick it up with your tongs and turn it sideways, so that you can stick that thermometer down and get to the center of that meat. You don't want to rely on color as an indicator of doneness. You don't want to just cut that patty open and say, “Oh, it's all brown inside. It's done now” because that might not be true.

6:15 Mindy McCulley: That’s right. Sometimes they're finished and they're still pink, right?

6:18 Annhall Norris: Yes, that can happen. And so, while we're talking about this, I want to tell you that your ground beef, any kind of ground meat like that; beef, pork or lamb, you need to take to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

And then any of your chicken; so, your ground chicken, if you were doing a ground turkey burger or any kind of poultry, needs to go a little bit higher. You need to take that to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Your big chops or your roast or your steaks, those only need to go to 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

But you do need to make sure that you use it thermometer. And your extension offices have these temperatures in a little chart; easy to remember. Sometimes, even refrigerator magnets. But it's important to know the differences in temperatures for the different types of meats.

7:03 Mindy McCulley: And we will make sure to put those in the show notes, so that if anybody wants to refer back to it, they don't have to come back to this point in the podcast to find it. So, we'll make sure that that's there as well.

So, now that we have cooked this meat, and you did talk a little bit about our vegetables. When we're cooking our vegetables on the grill, what recommendations do you have for that?

7:25 Annhall Norris: Well, you don't have to really cook a vegetable to a certain temperature. And that's kind of a preference for people. I like my vegetables a little more crisp. My husband and my kids like them a little more soft. I refer to them as soggy and overcooked, but it's just a personal preference.

We will sometimes slice them up and put them in a little bag of tinfoil and let them sit on the grill and kind of steam. But a lot of times we'll just cut them whole and lay them on the grill, kind of like a zucchini steak.

You can also do corn in the husk on the grill, too. You want to make sure you read it before you put it on. But vegetables are great on the grill. They have a totally different flavor than if you've steamed them or just boil them.

8:05 Mindy McCulley: Yeah, and that's one of my favorite flavors, which is grilled vegetable flavor. So, now that we have grilled me and all of our food and we're ready to eat, what are some important considerations for serving that meat?

8:18 Annhall Norris: Okay. Well, if you're going to not eat it immediately, you can move the meat over to a warmer part of the grill and maybe hold it on the side or an upper rack, if you have one.

It's important to keep that cooked food above 140 degrees. You want to keep it warm before you serve it. You don't want to put it out on a platter and let it sit for more than two hours. You don't want it to be at room temperature for more than two hours. You can put it in a tray and keep it on the grill and keep it warm.

8:48 Mindy McCulley: So, we often hear that we need to let our meat rest. Do we let that rest on the grill or do we put it out on the countertop? Well, how do we let the meat rest?

8:58 Annhall Norris: Well, resting is important. It allows those internal juices to stay in there and makes for a juicier product. So, you want to remove it from the heat and put it on a tray or a platter and cover it with tin foil and let it rest.

Some of them products, maybe burgers, you want to let rest a couple of minutes, your steaks, maybe three or four minutes and then your roast, your larger pieces of meat, you'll want to let rest longer. And that just helps to keep those juices inside and make it really tender.

9:26 Mindy McCulley: Because that's probably one of the things that people complain about most with grilled food is that it's dry.

9:32 Annhall Norris: That happens a lot with chicken. And I don't know if people are cooking it on too high of a heat or it gets cooked on the outside before the inside gets done. And then when they take that temperature, it isn't up to 165. So, they keep cooking it longer.

So, my husband usually starts out on a medium or medium to high heat and cooks it slower, so the outside doesn't get done before the inside reaches that internal temperature. So, cooking it on a little bit lower heat helps and then letting it rest also helps to make for a juicier product.

10:01 Mindy McCulley: So, now that we've eaten this delicious meal that’s full of juicy meat and delicious vegetables, I'm sure that there will be leftovers. So, what are we going to do with those leftovers?

10:12 Annhall Norris: Well, we want to get those packaged up and in a cooler or in the refrigerator in under two hours. You don't want it to set out for longer than two hours at room temperature. And then if it's hot outside, if it's in the middle of July or August and it's above 90 degrees, you don't want that food to sit out for more than one hour.

So, planning comes into play here. You don't want to have so much food that it's not eaten within an hour or two hours and then you have to have a way to pack all that up and get it cooled down properly.

10:41 Mindy McCulley: Right.

10:42 Annhall Norris: But you don't want it to sit out for more than two hours and then if it's really hot outside, you don't want it to set out for more than one hour before you get a packaged up and cooled.

10:50 Mindy McCulley: And I know that people hate the thought of throwing away good meat because it is expensive. But if it's left out longer than that two hours, that's really the best idea, isn't it?

11:00 Annhall Norris: Yes, it is. It's the best practice.

11:02 Mindy McCulley: Yes. All right. Well, I am ready to go eat a great big, juicy hamburger now that we've had this discussion.

11:09 Annhall Norris: Oh, I know. I'm looking forward to cooking on the grill tonight.

11:12 Mindy McCulley: And I do hope that our listeners will follow your guidance for the safest and healthiest grilling experience that they can possibly have, because we do want drilling to be a thrill and not make anybody ill, right?

11:25 Annhall Norris: Right. A thrill and not making people ill. Good job.

11:28 Mindy McCulley: All right. Well, thank you for joining me Annhall.

11:31 Annhall Norris: Thanks for having me, Mindy.

11:33 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement.

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Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension program or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences. We build strong families. It starts with us.