Men who hate grilling (1 Viewer)

I know, the grill is supposed to be one of the last bastions of manhood, right? As a man I am supposed to relish the opportunity to play with fire, serve up the kill, etc. But sorry, I hate grilling.

Maybe it's because I don't like cooking much to begin with. Maybe I'm a control freak and don't like the random way the flames can seem to blacken things on the outside while they are still raw on the inside. Maybe I don't like smelling like smoke and getting spattered with grease. Maybe I just don't like the assumption that since I am the man of the house, I must be the griller of the house.

Anyone else out there hate being forced to grill? I'd much rather be sitting back, drinking a beer and relaxing while someone else does it. But I can't exactly ask a guest to do "my" job, and my wife is too busy preparing the other foods in the kitchen.

I absolutely love grilling. We grill 3-4 times a week. Its not about being manly, but I love being outside, grilling playing with my kids, having the Tigers games on the radio. Its a great way to get me outside when I don't really feel like it. As far as smelling like smoke, I have a gas grill and don't have a huge smoke problem. That also allows me to control the heat for proper cooking.

I think its ok to not like grilling, but its something that really makes me think of summertime, and just being outside.

I think it's probably this.

CJ

Why not. I hosted a superbowl party this year, and my guests completely took over the kitchen, especially this one guy who was a freaking wizard. I still dream about those wings.

Now, I do find it curious that any form of cooking should be considered a "bastion of manhood". When did this happen?

--
H

Grilling's different. It's not in the kitchen, it applies to meat nearly exclusively, and it involves setting fires.

Then be a man and say no rather than complaining about it. Ask if someone else wants to or have a roast that can be thrown in the oven and basically ignored until it's ready. It's your house and your party, so you get to make the rules.

Despite having 2 grills, I don't grill too much. I don't hate grilling but I fall into the "not liking to cook" category so to me grilling is tedious, clean the grill, hope you have a full tank of propane, get the long match to light the burners (inevitably, the automatic ones stop working and I'm too cheap to buy a new sparker). Then usually a lot of the better recipes call for marinating some kind of meat and hope it's not a flamefest because of it.

So, my two grills (one left by the seller of my house, one left by my parents when they moved) sit on my deck... I have a spare tank in my basement, albeit it's the old kind of valve on it... Maybe I'll get around to firing it up this year, albeit to make BBQ chicken wings, which is relatively easy to marinade and BBQ up.

Jay

Jay:
Unless that tank is 100% completely empty, get it out of the house, they are not to be kept indoors.
I'm not sure anyone will refill it anyway. Drop it off at a place that does tank refills. They will usually let you drop off those old clunkers.

Good question

The funny thing about Bob's description of grilling -- the soaring flames, smelling like smoke and getting spattered with grease -- pretty much describe how I cook in the kitchen. We're probably going to burn to death in a fire, because I had to take the smoke detector down it went off so regularly. Between the gas stove top and my propensity to run all my meats through the broiler, there's very little I could that doesn't involve fire. And I use butter as a glaze to make sure everything's got that extra layer of fat and cholesterol, which can sometime ignite in broiler.

So for me, grilling is just cooking in the fresh air and sunshine.

Yeah, actually it's not inside the basement, per se, but in an open "foyer" to the basement that isn't sealed.. I might just move it outside though... It might be empty for all I know anyway.

Jay

Hey, if I can't complain here in the After Hours Lounge, where else can I complain?

Grilling's always been "man's work", as Jason explains.

And in my house, all cooking in a bastion of manhood as I'm the cook. (Except for baked desserts.)I like grilling. It's cooking, but with a grill. Obviously it's better!

Bob - you absolutely can ask a guest to grill! You've certainly got a friend who see's your grill and is just itching to shove you aside and take over. Give him your approval (assuming he's good at it) and -- like Holadem experienced -- you might get the best food of your life.

You're throwing hunks of blood-dripping meat onto a metal grate over an open flame. This was clearly a form of cooking invented by a blacksmith who wanted dinner and got tired of his wife futzing around with vegetables and biscuits. "Here, give me the real food, I'll cook it myself. I have work to do."

And have you ever been inside the kitchen of a high-end restaurant? Most of the world's great chefs have been men, and they like to let you know it. In a lot of these places the testosterone is practically dripping off the walls. Cooking for the family at home may have been considered "woman's work" in most times and places, but serious, professional, competitive cooking for money has usually been a man's job, and it is only fairly recently that women cracked the top ranks.

Regards,

Joe

When women decided that not even men can make too much of a mess of heating a piece of meat over a naked flame, and so persuaded them it was manly to do it whilst they lazed back in the sunshine.

I'm not keen on them - the taste range is very limited and I'd much sooner prepare a meal in a proper kitchen. My wife, bless her, can burn water [but is a genius at household repairs and ironing, which I'm useless at, so it evens out] so generally I do the cooking in our house.

You need a better cookbook

I'm pretty much the same way, but not so much about grilling - I feel that way about watching sports. You know - Football, baseball, hockey. Bores the crap out of me. It's as painful as watching a Barbera Streisand movie. Boring boring boring. I see no reason why I should give a rats ass about what team wins. I don't know any of them and next year the teams will be completely different. I'd no more want to watch them work than they would want to watch me work.

Now, playing is completely different - I love to play them all.

Dave,

Man that's the girly-man wussy book. REAL MEN use this book.

Amazon.com: Kill It and Grill It: Ted and Shemane Nugent's Guide to Preparing & Cooking Wild Game and Fish: Ted Nugent: Books

Eric_L -- I'm with you on the sports. I've never been able to get revved up about watching people play games (except for the Olympics). I especially find it difficult as an adult to root for one set of millionaires competing against another.

That's OK. I'm sure our next vice-president - Sarah Palin - will show all us boys how to grill mooseburgers.

I absolutely love grilling. We grill 3-4 times per week. Its not about manliness, its about not messing the kitchen, not turning on an oven in the summer, being outside, watching my kids play in the backyard, fresh air, having the radio on. The more that gets cooked on the grill (veggies, meat, entire meal), the easier the clean up is ! I dont mind the smoke. Gas grills are great in controlling heat.

The only real difference is that we can grill here in California for about 10 months per year. And if I were in my hometown of San Diego, it would be about 13 months/year !

Heck I grill here in Idaho when it's snowing outside. What else is a covered patio good for? It's kind of neat seeing the snow hit the hot BBQ and vaporize.