Hey, everyone. I've just had a moment that sort of threw me for a loop, and could really use help figuring out the next step.
It happened while I was standing over the kettle grilling some chicken. I've been making a lot lately, in a bid to boost the protein in my diet lately (not throwing shade on protein shakes, I just prefer to eat my calories). Very recently I've been mixing up the way I've been cooking, going from grill-smoking a bird whole to breaking it down and grilling the pieces - allows me to prep and cook much quicker.
Anyway, I brought it in, let it cool a bit and was pulling the skin off to shred the meat, when it struck me: since I moved to a warmer climate about a year ago, I've been grilling probably every other day, sometimes a few days in a row. In addition to the weather, we haven't had a working oven in the house so almost everything gets grilled. I really like the situation generally speaking as I prefer grilling to just about every other method of cooking (I'm a card carrying AR member after all). Then it struck me how much charcoal I've been using lately, which got me thinking about what I might be doing to myself longer term eating charcoal cooked food 5 times a week.
We are moving later this year into a new place, and for that one I'd been planning on building a new setup with perhaps an LSG so I could grill and smoke on one unit. That's a major commitment and, in light of this conundrum, I'm really not sure I should do that now. I haven't had a gas grill in ages, but maybe I need to think about that seriously as the main cooker and use charcoal more sparingly now that I'll be cooking outside so often.
I've done some basic research and read that cooking indirect, avoiding charred meat and even marinating in citrus can reduce carcinogens from forming. Anybody know the validity of these claims? While we're at it, am I just being paranoid? I mean, I'd like to live a long and healthy life, but I'm not steaming my food for the rest of it just to get an extra year on the end. That said, if grilling over gas were substantially healthier than charcoal grilling (all other things equal of course), I could certainly be swayed to change my ways and bring out the charcoal or smoker for special occasions only.
Thanks for reading! Any thoughts, advice etc. would be really appreciated.
Cheers
It happened while I was standing over the kettle grilling some chicken. I've been making a lot lately, in a bid to boost the protein in my diet lately (not throwing shade on protein shakes, I just prefer to eat my calories). Very recently I've been mixing up the way I've been cooking, going from grill-smoking a bird whole to breaking it down and grilling the pieces - allows me to prep and cook much quicker.
Anyway, I brought it in, let it cool a bit and was pulling the skin off to shred the meat, when it struck me: since I moved to a warmer climate about a year ago, I've been grilling probably every other day, sometimes a few days in a row. In addition to the weather, we haven't had a working oven in the house so almost everything gets grilled. I really like the situation generally speaking as I prefer grilling to just about every other method of cooking (I'm a card carrying AR member after all). Then it struck me how much charcoal I've been using lately, which got me thinking about what I might be doing to myself longer term eating charcoal cooked food 5 times a week.
We are moving later this year into a new place, and for that one I'd been planning on building a new setup with perhaps an LSG so I could grill and smoke on one unit. That's a major commitment and, in light of this conundrum, I'm really not sure I should do that now. I haven't had a gas grill in ages, but maybe I need to think about that seriously as the main cooker and use charcoal more sparingly now that I'll be cooking outside so often.
I've done some basic research and read that cooking indirect, avoiding charred meat and even marinating in citrus can reduce carcinogens from forming. Anybody know the validity of these claims? While we're at it, am I just being paranoid? I mean, I'd like to live a long and healthy life, but I'm not steaming my food for the rest of it just to get an extra year on the end. That said, if grilling over gas were substantially healthier than charcoal grilling (all other things equal of course), I could certainly be swayed to change my ways and bring out the charcoal or smoker for special occasions only.
Thanks for reading! Any thoughts, advice etc. would be really appreciated.
Cheers
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