Fall Grill Tech Guide
Popular Mechanics|September 2019

Everything you need to know about the science of barbecuing to become a grilling master chef just in time for labor day.

Jeff Csatari
Fall Grill Tech Guide

EONS BEFORE THE IMPOSSIBLE BURGER, MORE THAN A MILLION YEARS

before the first biblical burnt offerings, barbecue began, very likely after a bolt of lightning triggered a forest fire. ¶ “Some bit of flesh, could have been human or animal, cooked in that fire and smelled delicious to our ancient ancestors,” says Jonathan Deutsch, Ph.D., a professor of culinary arts and science at Drexel University and author of Barbecue: A Global History. That’s when early humans began figuring out how to manipulate fire to cook food. ¶ Burnt bone fragments discovered in South African caves suggest that Homo erectus did indeed cook meat. Paleoanthropologists have determined that the char on those bones was too intense to have been caused by a natural fire on the savanna, which tends to burn at a fairly low temperature. The meat was deliberately barbecued, they say. ¶ Cooking provided significant benefits to early humans: Heat makes raw foods softer, easier to chew and digest, and it makes some nutrients more bioavailable. Roasting kills pathogens in scavenged meat, making it safer to eat. And cooked food tastes better, the heat triggering hundreds of chemical reactions that produce mouth-watering aromas and subtle flavors. While we don’t know what homonids found tasty, experiments show (and zookeepers everywhere know) that apes prefer cooked sweet potatoes and carrots over raw ones, just as you do. Thank you, heat. ¶ Since then, humans have continued to conjure up hundreds of ways to improve the flavor of food. To elevate your grilling game, it will help to understand how heat from the multitude of modern fireboxes changes the chemistry of protein, fats, and carbohydrates and improves flavor. In short, becoming a great backyard chef means learning how to submit your meat to the right kind of heat. Here’s your guide.

LEARN THE RULES OF HEAT TRANSFER

This story is from the September 2019 edition of Popular Mechanics.

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This story is from the September 2019 edition of Popular Mechanics.

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