July is National Grilling Month. It is a time to celebrate with your favorite food, alongside family and friends. This month, go outdoors! Breathe fresh air and enjoy what nature has to offer with flavors from the grill.
Grilling offers the opportunity to eat a varied selection of proteins such as beef, chicken, wild game, and seafood. Maybe you fancy grilled fruits and vegetables? You can experiment with rubs, herbs, or marinades. Smoked or not? Direct or indirect heat? Perhaps, a grilled salad? Tofu anyone? The options are endless. One tool all grillers should have in their toolbox is a thermometer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “foods should be cooked hot enough to kill harmful germs and be maintained at 140°F until grilled food is served”.
Recommended internal temperatures are:
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145°F |
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160°F |
|
145°F |
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165°F |
Other tips for grilling safely are to wash your hands before and after handling raw meat, keep raw meats, poultry, and seafood separate from ready-to-eat foods, refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, and discarding leftovers after 4 days. Grilling food is a healthier option than frying as fat contained in or on the food drips out; vitamins and minerals are preserved, and calories are lowered. According to Extension Program Specialist Julie Tijerina, “other health benefits of grilling include the promotion of family bonding, passing of traditions, creating memories, and overall positive well-being.”
This July, take advantage of all the benefits that grilling has to offer.
- Grilling brings family and friends together.
- Grilling brings out smiles, cheerfulness, stress-relief, and uplifted moods.
- Grilling provides entertainment, time to visit with loved ones, and time to make memories.
- Grilling provides fresh air and Vitamin D (sunshine).
- Grilling provides an opportunity for children and teens to learn about cooking.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension offers the following resources, including grilling recipes and fundamentals for your grilling enjoyment: https://dinnertonight.tamu.edu/?s=grilling and https://bbq.tamu.edu/. For more information contact your local County Extension office at brown.agrilife.org or by calling 325-646-0386.
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About Healthy Texas. Healthy Texas combines the expertise of Texas A&M University Health Science Center with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Services one-of-a-kind, statewide reach to provide families with knowledge and resources to take control of their health. Healthy South Texas, the pilot program of Healthy Texas, is a novel effort to reduce the highest impact diseases and their consequences throughout a 27-county region in South Texas. www.healthytexas.tamu.edu
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is a unique education agency with a statewide network of professional educators, trained volunteers, and county offices. It reaches into every Texas county to address local priority needs, protecting human health through education about diet, exercise, and disease prevention. There are over 250 counties in Texas with a local Extension office.