My Backyard Barbeque

I have to admit that I much prefer foods cooked over an open fire to foods cooked on an electric or gas stove. It's just more natural, less industrial--just me and the food and the fire.

If I had the time, I would cook all our food outdoors over the fire. Occasionally my husband Larry and I manage to plan enough time for the fire and get to enjoy a wonderful flame-cooked meal. He builds the fire and supervises the grilling, and I do all the food preparation. It's a good division of labor.

I'm using the word barbeque as it is commonly used, to refer to anything cooked on a grill in the backyard. But I am well aware that there is a difference between barbeque and grilling. What we do is grilling--we ccok food for a short period of time directly over the coals in a hot, open, grill. We don't usually do the "low and slow" cooking over indirect heat with lots of smoke that is the traditional barbeque (I've learned so much about barbeque since moving to the South, so I don't want to misrepresent my grilling for real barbeque).

Barbeque and grilling have become very popular recently, as have gas-powered grills. We don't have a gas-powered, and will never get one. Too much metal and fossil fuel. We have a standard round grill with a lid that we bought on special for $20.

We burn wood. We were buying mesquite charcoal, but now we are burning chuncks of wood from branches that fell from our oak trees during the hurricanes. Burning wood is carbon neutral--burning the wood produces the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that would be released if the tree biodegraded naturally in the woods. Propane gas comes from underground and adds to the CO2 in the atmosphere that isn't part of the natural cycle of the ecosystem. So we don't use a gas barbeque. And we also don't use charcoal briquets. They are made by combining coal (a nonrenewable resource), limestone, borax, sodium nitrate, and sawdust with charred wood and burning gives off primarily carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide (that causes acid rain), as well as particulates and some organic compounds. Besides, wood tastes better.

To light our wood, we use a chimney-type starter. This chunky cylinder with a handle is not only infinitely reusable, it also works better than any other kind of starter. According to the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Los Angeles, using a chimney starter to ignite briquets produces fewer air pollutants than any other method they tested. No need for chemical lighter fluid.

If you have heard that barbequed food causes cancer, we're not concerned about it. Some years back there was some confusion about barbecued foods containing a cancer-causing substance called benzo(a)pyrene. Studies showed that the cooking temperature, type of fuel used, and the fat content of the meat all affect the amount of benzo(a)pyrene that is formed. The most benzo(a)pyrene is the result of charcoal grilling and gas grilling, when the gas flame is below the meat, grilling closer to the heat source, grilling meats with more fat, and grilling for a long period of time. So we use thin cuts of lean meat and poultry and grill them quickly and not too close to the heat. Traditional barbeque, by the way, has no problems with benzo(a)pyrene because the meat is cooked over indirect heat, proving once again that the old ways are often the best ways.

I also read that University of Hawaii researchers found you can reduce the dangers of carcinogens in grilled meat by eating lots of green vegetables--the chlorophyll in vegetables binds with the carcinogens during digestion, limiting their absorption. So we always have a big salad with our barbeque.

We usually barbeque chicken or beef or lamb kebabs, along with onions and mushrooms that we put on skewers. so as to not lose them in the fire. Since barbeque sauce contains so much sugar, we generally use a dry rub that I mix myself (salt, pepper, paprika, garlic salt, celery seeds, and a bit of evaporated cane juice) and I also make my own barbeque sauce. Sometimes I make barbeque sauce with raw ingredients, which is a wonderful condiment.

We just keep our barbeque simple and natural, and enjoy cooking together and eating outdoors in the backyard, beneath our beautiful old oak trees.