Safety tips.

[RonB]

I know tips get mentioned in posts occasionally, but I thought it might be a good idea to list some safety tips in one post. Post 'em for whatever cooker you want, or how to handle food.

Since I use a Weber kettle, I'll start with a few for the kettle:

If you use a chimney to start coals, look in the bottom to make sure all the coals have been dumped. A missed coal will continue to burn and eventually get small enough to fall through the grate. That happened once and I had to replace two boards in the deck.

Use a metal bucket to hold ashes. I place a large kitchen trash bag in my bucket so that I can tie the ashes up when the bag is half full. You can tell if the ashes were not out when dumped if you find a melted spot in the plastic bag - only happened once since I bought the bucket.

I dump ashes at the beginning of the next cook - but not after every cook. This gives time for all the coals to burn out.

Place something fireproof under your cooker if it's on a deck - I found some nice looking ceramic tiles at Home Depot. They can withstand the heat from a single hot coal, but not a bunch - they will crack and break.

Who's next?

[EdF]

Good gloves! Grate tool. Pincers.

[DWCowles]

Keep a fire extinguisher close by.

[FireMan]

Always! Ya never know!

[Mr. Bones]

Absolutely mandatory, agreed, DW!!!
Mine are usually in my cooker pics, often disguised as a Guinness Bopper...

[Huskee]

Good ones. If you use paper in your charcoal chimney, if it's a windy, dry, hot day and/or you live near the woods or a hayfield, use a lighter cube instead of paper


Not safety, but more sanity- anything that can get dripped on during cooking, (inside your grill/smoker or outside) a layer of foil on it will save you lots of mess and work for only a couple bucks a month.

[texastweeter]

SHARP knives will actually prevent you from cutting yourself
Invest in a good digital thermometer to keep from undercooking food and getting a belly ache (especially with poultry)
Hot grease is HOT, make sure your gloves don't soak up fluids when messing with hot drip pans, or fluid in the bottom of a foil wrapped crutch
Rotisserie rods are basically branding irons, I set them in the oven to cool once removed from food
Open hot pepper (chipotle and higher) powder canisters away from your face
Never rearrange the boys or go to the bathroom after cutting up habaneros without THOUROUGHLLY washing your hands (speaking from experience here)

[Mr. Bones]

LOL re: th' boys...btdt, amigo!
Need me to send ya a few ghosts, scorps, etc., to play with th' boys???
They's nigh onta 1000 times hotter than Habañeros, on th' Scoville scale, tasty stuff...
If ya get them on yer boys, or Heaven Forbid, in yer eyes...
Kid ya not, yer ER Bound...

[Mr. Bones]

Bless yer wife, an' y'all buyin' butter!!!!

[texastweeter]

we grow scores, ghosts, and reapers too

[Steve R.]

If you need to move your Weber kettle after you already have the charcoal started... always push, rather than pull, the grill. If you pull, it can very quickly get away from you and possibly dump most or all of the hot coals on whatever surface you are on. Or so I have heard.

[Mr. Bones]

Reckon we both heard it th' same dang place, then...

[HawkerXP]

Never stand in front of OR behind a running jet engine. Duck when heading to or leaving a helicopter. Skydrol hydraulic fluid on your fingers will do the same as habaneros.

[Mr. Bones]

Especial duck whenever insert/extract out of helos in a hot LZ...
Try to look cool, when doin' "Dope On A Rope' maneuvers out of helos...
Try even harder to do both, above, with composure, when yer doin' ops', in a desert terrain...
YMMV, but I reckon not by much , I'd wager...

[HouseHomey]

Hold on tightly to your grate and don't mishandle it while not paying attention so it swings down ward and knocks you full SNS over.

also don't try and shove the hot coals back under the SnS.. really.

if you have a busted charcoal starter and have been using it for a long time, wear shoes. Really.

[Mudkat]

Use loose fitting gloves when handling hot things. If the glove can't handle the heat you want it to FLY OFF with one flick not hug your hands with all that heat applied.

[MBMorgan]

Hence my fondness for welding gloves ...

[Mudkat]

Resist the temptation to take a wiff of those sauteeing hot peppers! Your sinuses will thank you!

[hoovarmin]

Don't place your kettle over your pine bark mulch garden, unless of course you are ok with setting your yard on fire and enjoy the taste of pine bark smoke. It happened.

[Mr. Bones]

Suh-Weet! Hope it wasn' too disastrous, brother!

[Polarbear777]

When pouring 400 degree rendered beef fat over a brisket after a cambro hold, pour slowly, do it outside, at arms length, and turn your face away.

If it ignites while doing this, just walk away until it settles down, you can always cut off the burnt parts, but it takes a while for arm hairs to grow back.

[RonB]

Maybe we should rate these "tips" for pain on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst. Just sayin'...

[Huskee]

Don't pour hot coals from a chimney while wearing sandals or barefoot.

[EdF]

You mean it reminds you? ;-)

[Huskee]

EdF [hangs head in shame, walks away...]

[EdF]

Don't worry - you're not alone!

[Reds Fan 5]

* Wear grill/fireplace/welder's gloves
* Rmember if you hang tongs, spatula,etc from the grill handle the tool will be HOT
* Wear closed shoes when pouring charcoal from the chimney starter
* Refill water pan/SnS reservoir slowly and carefully
* Lift kettle lid straight up; if the kettle has a lid rest slide the lid off from the side or from behind
* Make sure there is plenty of beer to ward off panic attacks late in a long cook

[Steve R.]

Oh, yeah. Fill the water reservoir of the SnS at the end furthest away from the lit coals. Sometimes when doing this late at night for overnight cooks, common sense doesn't kick in until one's pain threshold has been crossed.