The barbecue is a time to savor the smells of roasting meat and to enjoy the company of good friends. It is a time-honored social gathering and a way almost to get back to nature. The next time you hold a barbecue, check your guest list. Not everyone on the list is your friend. Who are the bad guys? Bacteria.

We live in an atmosphere swirling with fungus, yeast, mold, and bacteria. Normally these microscopic meddlers pose no problem to us. It is only when they find a suitable habitat and grow out of control that they can cause us harm. Bacteria are some of the most dangerous, because they flourish on what your are about to put on the grill: raw meat.

Here are some barbecue safety tips to help ensure that your cookout is a trip down memory land instead of a trip to the emergency room.

Use Proper Meat Handling Procedures

Dirty hands and cooking utensils can spread bacteria around a kitchen like a tornado. Always wash your hands both before and after handling raw meat. When preparing for your barbecue, never reuse a plate or container that has held raw meat. If you marinated your raw meat, never pour the marinade over partially or fully cooked meat, or place cooked meat back into the marinade. You may be adding harmful bacteria back into the meat.

Use Proper Cooking Temperatures

Heat kills most bacteria. Cook your barbecue meats to the proper temperatures to kill any unwanted bacteria. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends the following minimum grilling temperatures.

Cook ground beef to 160 F (71 C)
Cook steaks to at least 145 F (63 C)
Cook chicken breasts to 170 F (77 C)
Cook pork to 160 F (71 C) for medium or 170 F (77 C) for well done.

Note that these are the recommended minimum internal temperatures of the meat. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the items being grilled, especially of you have thick cuts of meat. Never use a dirty meat thermometer. Always wash it thoroughly between uses so that your aren’t reintroducing bacteria back into your food.

Pregnant Women Beware!

If you are pregnant, let someone else handle all the raw meat preparation and grilling at your barbecue. You shouldn’t touch the raw meat dishes either, so let someone else clean up. Finally, if you are at someone else’s barbecue, let your hosts know of your bacterial concerns and make sure they follow proper grilling procedures. You may want to bring your own meat thermometer.

Barbecue Safety Isn’t Difficult

Soap and water, common sense, and a clean meat thermometer can take the bacterial worries out of your next barbecue.

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There are thousands of tips to be found when it comes having a successful barbeque. There’s a wide variety of subjects that can be covered from how to cook different cuts of meat and what type of grill to use to how to achieve a particular taste for your barbequed foods. But there are some basic tips that can help anyone with the basics and will get them started successfully barbequing. By following the 9 tips listed below you can start you career as a backyard barbeque master the next time you fire up your grill.

1. The most important thing you need to do when barbequing is to control the heat. If your fire gets to hot or flares up out of control you can easily burn and dry out your meat. This is not something that is fun to have happen because it effectively kills the whole barbeque experience.

2. Rub you grill with oil before you fire it up to help prevent your meat sticking to the grates. If your grill is already hot you can use a regular spray bottle filled with cooking oil. Just spray the grates before you set your meat on it.

3. Use tongs or a spatula to turn your meat. Never use a fork because piercing the meat allows the juices to escape.

4. Bring your meat to room temperature before grilling. This will allow your meat to cook evenly throughout.

5. Always pre-heat your barbeque. For gas turn on high for 5-10 minutes then adjust temperature as needed. For charcoal light the coals 30 minutes before you intend to start cooking.

6. A clean barbeque grill is a happy grill. See step 2 above. By keeping your food from sticking to the grill it will stay cleaner.

7. When using a barbeque sauce be sure to wait until the outside of the meat is cooked before applying the sauce with your brush. If you add your barbeque sauce to early it can char and cause flares ups when it drips off the meat.

8. The larger the cut of meat the further away it should be from the heat source. This will allow the meat to cook evenly all the way through.

9. If you are doing shish-kabobs and using wooden skewers be sure to soak them in cold water for an hour or so to prevent them from burning.

These tips are a great general guideline to follow for anyone wishing to become a backyard barbeque master. They will give you a good base to start from and any recipe or technique you attempt will have a much better chance of success.

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