Too Hot to Grill
I have a cooking question. I tend to read a lot of cooking blogs and magazines and articles. Now that it is summer, most of those articles and posts tend to be about grilling. People are grilling everything. Vegetables, meats, pizzas, fruit. You name it, they're grilling it. Summer is the time for grilling. I got it.
But why? I posted recently about roasting vegetables in the oven. I got a comment that turning on the oven would heat up the house too much and could they grill these vegetables. That got me thinking about cooking and heat. I started to question myself. Should I be cooking outside?
Now here are my thoughts. It's HOT outside. We've had 20+ triple digit days since mid-May. At dinner time, it is scorching outside. Why is it better to go outside in that heat and start a fire, or heat up a grill and then stand over it and get hotter? I would rather raise the temperature in my kitchen for a bit and turn down the a/c and turn on the fans and cook comfortably. I use my indoor grill all the time and just use it under the vent. I like to stay cool while I cook. I would rather go outside and grill in the late fall or early spring when it's nice outside. Why aren't those the grilling seasons?
Now it might be for a few that the money it costs to cool the house during cooking is too much. Maybe the way their house is laid out, the oven really impacts the temperature of their house. But I don't think that's true for enough people to make going outside in that heat worth it.
I think that it's about location. It might be lovely on the East and West Coasts and in the Midwest in the summer. It is not lovely in the south. Are people in Phoenix grilling in the late afternoon in July? I can't imagine it. It's too hot in the south to go outside and heat up the grill. Maybe sweat is the best way to salt food, but I don't think so.
But people here in Texas do it. Why? Are we conditioned that "this is the season" to do it? Are we buying in to mass media? Is it tradition? Is it that southern women send men out to grill and the men don't say anything because they feel it's their southern duty to "sweat it out like a man"?
Why are people outside grilling in this heat? Really I want to know. Am I missing something? I love to cook. I want to know if there is a compelling reason to get me outside.
But why? I posted recently about roasting vegetables in the oven. I got a comment that turning on the oven would heat up the house too much and could they grill these vegetables. That got me thinking about cooking and heat. I started to question myself. Should I be cooking outside?
Now here are my thoughts. It's HOT outside. We've had 20+ triple digit days since mid-May. At dinner time, it is scorching outside. Why is it better to go outside in that heat and start a fire, or heat up a grill and then stand over it and get hotter? I would rather raise the temperature in my kitchen for a bit and turn down the a/c and turn on the fans and cook comfortably. I use my indoor grill all the time and just use it under the vent. I like to stay cool while I cook. I would rather go outside and grill in the late fall or early spring when it's nice outside. Why aren't those the grilling seasons?
Now it might be for a few that the money it costs to cool the house during cooking is too much. Maybe the way their house is laid out, the oven really impacts the temperature of their house. But I don't think that's true for enough people to make going outside in that heat worth it.
I think that it's about location. It might be lovely on the East and West Coasts and in the Midwest in the summer. It is not lovely in the south. Are people in Phoenix grilling in the late afternoon in July? I can't imagine it. It's too hot in the south to go outside and heat up the grill. Maybe sweat is the best way to salt food, but I don't think so.
But people here in Texas do it. Why? Are we conditioned that "this is the season" to do it? Are we buying in to mass media? Is it tradition? Is it that southern women send men out to grill and the men don't say anything because they feel it's their southern duty to "sweat it out like a man"?
Why are people outside grilling in this heat? Really I want to know. Am I missing something? I love to cook. I want to know if there is a compelling reason to get me outside.
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