Grilling Machine

Americans often celebrate the 4th of July national holiday by bursting fireworks through the air, marching to patriotic tunes and scorching slabs of meat on a grill.\nWhether beef, bison, elk, ennui, hot dog, lamb, ostrich, pork, poultry, seafood steaks, veggie patties or venison, meat of all denominations will meet the flames of outdoor fires. Some campus community members, no doubt, have cleaned their charcoal or gas grill, water or wood smoker in anticipation of having to feed coworkers, family, friends or neighbors.\n"When grilling, flavor and heat control are the two big things," said Dave Schell, co-owner of the Butcher's Block, 115 South S.R. 46., a local meat shop. "Grilling time and temperature depend on a lot things -- thickness, the thicker the item you slower you want to cook it; fattiness versus leanness, leans meats like fish need less time; and the particular type of cut, some cuts are not suitable for grilling at all."\nIt is recognized that barbecue is one of the oldest cooking methods known to man. Learning to control the use of fire by early man around 500,000 B.C.E. was a profound event that likely included the roasting of meat for survival, according to the National Barbecue Association. Barbecuing, in essence, gave birth to the beginning of civilization. Archeological evidence indicates that early man was indeed using fire to cook meat by 125,000 B.C.E.\nBloomington residents and guests seeking meat to grill during the Fourth of July celebration can discover "exotic" four-legged or fin-flapping barbecuing choices in various retailers throughout town like Bloomingfoods Market and Deli located on East 3rd St., the Butcher's Block and the Faris Meat Market located on North Walnut St.\nMonroe County resident John Delong, owner of Red Sky Ostrich Ranch, said he sells his ostrich meat to these three meat market choices. He said he is overseeing 15 animals right now because he just sent a pre-holiday shipment to slaughter.\n"Ostrich is a good-tasting red meat, similar in taste and texture to beef with the health attributes of poultry -- low fat, low cholesterol," Delong said. "Ostrich is prepared the same way as other red meats -- I like to grill it. If you take any kind of condiments and put them on an ostrich burger, you might tell a small difference but otherwise you would be convinced it was beef."\nHe said an ostrich behaves like most other commercial livestock penned within a "free range" -- they eat, drink, sleep and frolic about the farm. \nCampus community members yearning for fresh-made hamburger patties or other high quality meats including grillable seafood can peruse the daily rotated selection at the Butcher's Block. A special grilled treat for the Fourth of July holiday might include, Schell said, an "old fashioned" pinwheel steak you can't find anywhere else in town.\n"We carry a nice tunaloin, which is freshly flown in from Bahi and overnight-flight fresh salmon from Alaska. We cut all our fish meat from whole fresh fishes instead of shipping in frozen fillets," he said. "We give barbecuing suggestions on the spot depending on whether the customer plans on grilling hamburgers, steaks, chicken, pork chops or fresh seafood steaks."\nBarbecuing aficionados and otherwise fire-roasted meat consuming humans disagree about the overall grilling experience when gas grills and charcoal grills are compared side to side. Delong said he prefers the taste of ostrich grilled over a charcoal flame, for instance, although due to reasons of convenience he uses a propane grill at home.\nBloomington resident Jason Justice, manager of Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill, said he uses up to six wood logs a day to "smoke" Southern barbecue about 10 to 12 hours for campus community members and guests to consume. He said the taste of smoked meat is often enhanced by a barbecue-sauce glaze that grill-workers should apply after the meat is removed from the flame. \nHealth officials recommend would-be grillers place cooked meat onto clean plates that did not come in contact with any form of raw meat. According to the advice of Purdue University animal scientists, barbecue chefs should trim the extraneous animal fat from the meat when possible before cooking and the skin should be removed from poultry. \nHealth officials also recommend willing grilled-food consumers remove any charred areas from the meat before eating it and that tongs should be used to flip grilling foods instead of a fork. According to U.S. Food and Drug Administration, meat color is not a sure indicator of whether food is safe to eat -- the only way to know foods are properly cooked all the way through is to use a clean food thermometer.\nBloomington resident Jason Schaffer, a self-proclaimed "traditional meat smoker" and co-owner of the Butcher's Block, said he grills about everyday if he has the time and the weather permits. He recommends holiday grillers use charcoal for their open flame and that they choose an enjoyable meat to grill to further enjoy the occasion.\n"I start the coals using a coal starter -- a cast iron cylinder that holds about five pounds of charcoal. That method allows you to start a fire with paper instead of lighter fluid so you don't taste lighter fluid in the food," Schaffer said. "At that point I pull the meat out of the refrigerator, season it with our 'Meat Magic Seasoning' and let it warm to room temperature -- I don't like throwing cold meat onto the grill."\nAccording to the USFDA, poultry should be grilled to an internal temperature of at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit, ground beef to 160, other meats and steaks to 145 and seafood until it's opaque colored and it flakes easily with a fork. Health officials warn against washing meat before grilling and recommend instead that grillers microwave the meat beforehand to jumpstart the meat's internal temperature. \nSchaffer said he separates the coals into a pile in the center of the grill when they turn white, and he recommended applying direct heat to most thick cuts of meat like beef steaks whereas thinner meats like fish steaks prefer indirect flames. After grilling he puts the lid back on the grill to cool the coals. \n"As a rule of thumb I like to rotate the meat once to get the grill cross-marks -- it doesn't affect the taste but it helps with presentation," he said. "The more you leave the meat alone on the grill the better it will taste"