It’s Fall. Time to Break Out the Grill
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Why you’re oh-so-wrong about grilling being solely a summer thing.
It’s the time of year when most people are putting their grills away. But I’m just getting started.
Why?
Allow me to take you back more than twenty years.
It’s the late 90s and it’s hot. Maybe not 100 degrees, but not for lack of trying. My ex-girlfriend has decided to have a huge BBQ in her backyard and has roped me into harnessing the fire. There I am, in the middle of summer, simultaneously working not one, not two, but three, charcoal grills.
And I am magnificent.
Rib tips. Hot links. Hamburgers. Chicken. All of it.
I’m getting perfect smoke, my fire maintenance is on point, and the grill marks would have made Mr. Weber shake his head in wonder.*
I’m also sweating like a pig, a towel thrown over my shoulder that I use to frequently mop the sweat from my head like a pitmaster swabbing down a whole sucking pig.
There was far more at this shindig than just my contribution, of course. Lots of people brought dishes. And they brought them in those big roaster pans that you usually reserve for thirty-pound Thanksgiving turkeys.
There was potato salad and baked beand and spaghetti and mac and cheese and tuna salad and four different versions of pound cake and garlic bread and green beans and baked ham and corn casserole and…look, there was a lot of food!
Almost too much.
Especially for a hot summer day. People finished eating and looked for a place out of the sun to lie down.
Don’t get me wrong — summer grilling has its place.
But I’ve come to believe that while grilling and barbecuing (Yes, I know there’s a difference) is often good on hot days, it can be great on cooler ones.
In other words, it is perfect for fall.
The person doing the grilling can, for instance, work the grill without feeling like they are stoking the fires of Hades.
And the cooler weather allows the food to warm you instead of sedate you.
