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Grilling in August is the height of summer fun, and a great way to Keep the temperature in your home lowThe grill is a versatile cooking tool, perfect for preparing steak, burgers, chicken, vegetables and many kinds seafoodbut some dishes just don’t taste as good when placed on the grills.
A traditional grill With slatted grills, you can bring food into direct contact with the flames for a charred summer kiss, but those penetrable grates can also make cooking certain foods a tricky business. Some items, including flaky fish, scallops, bacon, and smaller vegetables, aren’t good candidates for the grill.
If you plan on grilling them, you should secure them with special grilling equipment to prevent them from falling through and making a mess.
Here are seven foods you shouldn’t cook directly on the grill.
Flaky fish
Cod and halibut are not suitable for grilling.
If you’ve ever cooked a fillet of flaky fish like tilapia, cod, or halibut over an open flame, you probably know why it’s not the best idea. Flaked fish often falls through the grates and dies a fiery death once it starts to cook.
Instead, try one of these sturdy fish that Chef Akira Beck recommends. If you absolutely must grill fish on the grids, buy a fish grill basket to keep the fillets intact.
Peeled shrimps
When grilling shrimp, I recommend leaving the shell on until the shrimp are cooked through.
Grilling shrimp on a hot grill is not a bad idea, but if you are going to do it, leave the shrimp in their shells until they are done cooking. Peeled shrimp cook quickly and can dry out in a flash. Since you can’t cook them in oil or sauce on a grill, it’s best to leave them peeled to protect the meat from intense heat.
Scallops
One of his special skills is searing scallops.
Scallops are another type of seafood that are theoretically great when grilled, but the potential for disaster just isn’t worth it. Even large scallops can fall through. Instead, cook them in a stainless steel frying pan over the grills to give them a nice, smooth, caramelized crust, which is not possible with slatted grills.
Small or thinly sliced vegetables
If you want to cook mushrooms or young bella mushrooms on the grill, you should be prepared for a lot of them to be lost through the grates.
Certain vegetables were made for the grill, while others were made to fall right through into the flames below. Small vegetables such as green beans, snow peas, mushrooms, and broccoli florets should never be thrown onto a bare grill.
If you want to stir fry outdoors or prepare smaller, sliced vegetables on the grill, you can attach them to skewers or cook them in a skillet on the grill or on a grill mat, keeping them safely away from the fire.
Read more: Before you fire up your grill, here’s how to make it shine
Bacon
You can cook bacon just fine on an outdoor griddle, but you can’t do this on a traditional grill.
Baconeven thick slices of it, is another bad choice for the grill. Thinner bacon is impossible to handle, but even thick-cut bacon is so fatty that grease drips through the fire below, causing nasty, possibly dangerous, splatters and explosions.
Worse yet, you’ll have a seriously dirty grill to clean. Try this instead cleaner method for making bacon.
Breaded meat
Breaded food is not suitable for the grill.
You may be tempted to make grilled chicken or pork chops, but save that breaded meat for the air fryer, oven or sauté panMuch of that coating will come off the food, and you’ll end up with a pile of burnt breadcrumbs on the bottom of your grill.
Calzones
Making grilled pizza is a good idea, but calzones are a bit more of a challenge.
Pizza on the grill is a great idea, but the fluffier cousin of the pie won’t work as well. Because of the thickness and round shape of a calzone, it’s hard to cook the inside without burning the doughy crust. The insides are also likely to spill out and leak into the racks, creating a greasy, cheesy mess clean up later.
Instead of, use a pizza oven to bake perfect calzones in minutes and save yourself from carb-related problems.
For more kitchen tips, read our guide to the best cheap steaks and the seven surprising dishes I only make it in the air fryer and the
