This may sound positively unAmerican, but I've never been able to enjoy myself at a cookout. But this spring, I decided to examine my deep-seated aversion. To get myself in the mood, I bought a bag of barbecue potato chips, and soon I found myself reliving the crucial events that contributed to my patiophobia. I consulted with some experts to see where I'd gone wrong. And I found that it's easy to keep a friendly backyard cookout from becoming a natural disaster. Here's what I learned about grill safety.

Where There's Smoke...

Back in the '70s, when I was a kid, every Sunday from April through August, my cousins and I met up at grandma's cookouts.

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Those backyard BBQs were hell on the yard, what with 20-odd kids running amok, all hopped-up on Hi-C, Jell-O, and other hyphenated foodstuffs. But what really did a number on the grass, flowers, trees, and shrubbery was the smoke. All afternoon, my grandfather presided over a charcoal-filled cauldron that emitted a mushroom cloud that must have been visible from Skylab. There would be a Dante's inferno of flames as he shifted the burgers and steaks around the grill like a circus ringmaster. To an over-sugared grade-schooler like me, these displays inspired feelings of awe and terror.

I know now that all this smoke and fire isn't necessary. "Where there's smoke and flame, there's soot," warns Alton Brown, host of the Food Network's Good Eats. Controlling your flame is key for a safe and tasty event; here are some grill safety pointers:

Site safelySet up your grill at least several feet from the house, away from areas highly trafficked by kids or pets. Charcoal grills shouldn't be used on a wooden deck, though gas grills can be, as long as the hot part of the grill isn't touching any wood. "A patio made of brick or concrete is ideal," says Brown. Make sure the site is level, and lock or block the wheels so the grill doesn't become a traveling inferno.

Get off to a good startA chimney starter, available where grilling accessories are sold, is a must-have for serious charcoalers. "It allows fast, safe lighting of charcoal without any electrical or chemical agents," says Brown. It's basically a metal can with a handle and a grated bottom. You fill it with charcoal, put some newspaper underneath, and light the paper; the heat is channeled up to the coals, and very quickly you've got a hunka burnin' love. (Once the coals get going, you'll need a fireproof platform such as pavement where the starter can cool.) Alton's tip: Dab the newspaper in a little cooking oil for better start-up.

Rely on air supportWhen the coals are covered with gray ash, they're ready to cook. If this doesn't happen soon enough for your taste, or they start to cool, don't squirt a chemical charcoal starter onto the already lit coals. The fluid might catch fire and leave you on the business end of a homemade flamethrower. Nor should you stir the coals around. This will only deposit sparks and ash on the surface of your grill, on your food, or maybe on your 3-year-old. Instead, use your grill's air vents: Open them wide if the coals aren't heating up, and close them if you're getting too much smoke or flames.

Fight the flaresFlare-ups happen when juice from the meat drips into the fire; the fattier the meat, the bigger the flame. Most of the time, a flare-up is brief and harmless. But if things get out of control, don't panic: Just close the lid. "Eventually, the flames will choke themselves out," Brown says. Keep a small squirt bottle full of water handy for smaller flares, and have some salt or baking soda ready to squelch fires in the grill's grease trap. Always have a fully charged, all-purpose fire extinguisher nearby in case something other than the grill catches fire.

Fire fightingYou can avoid surging flames (such as those at left) by using indirect heat to cook fatty foods, recommends Ed Maurin, professional fire fighter, champion barbecuer, and part owner of the American Barbeque Association.

When cooking on a gas grill, turn off the middle burner, put the meat in the middle, and cook without direct flame under it. And never squirt lighter fluid on a fire.

Germ Warfare

Food poisoning is an all-too-common consequence of careless cookouts, says Catherine Cutter, PhD, assistant professor and food safety extension specialist at Pennsylvania State University. The germs that cause it are present in our food in such small numbers that you usually never notice them. But they'll grow to dangerous proportions if treated imprudently. Here's how to avoid an outbreak:

Beat the clockFood poisoning prevention begins at the supermarket, says Dr. Cutter. Once you take a piece of meat from its refrigerated case and put it in your shopping cart, the bacterial growth clock starts ticking. Buy your meat last, and keep it out of direct sun on the ride home. "Get it refrigerated as soon as possible," she says, "to keep microorganisms from growing to high levels." Rule of thumb: If the food sits out for more than 2 hours at room temperature, it's gone from edible to disposable. This happens faster on hot days, so turn up the car's AC if necessary.

Befriend a butcherYou'll get cleaner meat if you buy from a market where large pieces of meat are brought in and then ground or divided into retail cuts on site, according to Brown. "There's less chance of contamination because most problems occur in large processing plants rather than at the grocery store level," he says.

Thaw wisely If you're not going to be cooking it for a few days, it's a good idea to freeze meat, says Dr. Cutter. Just make sure you thaw it correctly when the time comes. How? Move the meat to the refrigerator several hours before serving (or longer if you're dealing with a large roast). Put it in a pan or container to catch the drips, or let it thaw in the sink under cold running water. Never thaw meat by just setting it out at room temperature or by running warm water over it. Either method will warm up the outside of the meat before the inside is thawed, letting microbes on the surface multiply before the food's ready to cook.

Keep the raw away from the cooked"Juices from raw meat can have microorganisms in them that can be transmitted to the cooked food," warns Dr. Cutter. So keep the two segregated throughout the cooking process. A key strategy point: Never plop a cooked burger (or steak, or whatever) onto the plate used to carry raw meat to the grill. Designate different plates for raw and cooked meat, or wash the plate in warm soapy water before reusing it. It's also a good idea to use separate utensils to handle the raw and cooked edibles, or sterilize affected tools by sticking them into the heat for a few seconds before they touch your cooked food.

Take the temperature"Research indicates that if you rely on color to tell when meat is cooked, you're really playing Russian roulette," Dr. Cutter explains. A burger or steak can be pink as a piglet even though it's safe to eat. Or it can be as brown as the UPS guy's shirt even though it's raw enough to harbor enough bacteria to send you to the ER. Solution? Use a meat thermometer. "You can take the food off the grill, measure the temperature, and put it back on the grill if you need to," says Dr. Cutter. Meat thermometers not only keep you from scarfing down dangerously undercooked food, they prevent you from charring every burger to hockey puck consistency in an attempt to kill off germs. "You can save a lot of the meat juices and serve a more tender product," Dr. Cutter says.

When Bacteria Party

Germs that cause food poisoning prefer the same temperatures we do, explains Kenneth Bock, MD, coauthor of The Germ Survival Guide. "It's at room temperature that the bacteria have their party," he says.

Not only should raw meat be cooked as soon as possible, but cooked foods and protein foods (such as egg and tuna salads) should be kept chilled if they're going to sit out for 2 hours or more.

Don't Blow It

When I moved in with my fiancée, a gas grill came too. I grew up on charcoal grills, so I eyed it with the alarm of a coast guard lookout who'd spotted a Nazi U-boat cruising up the Potomac. With all the caution of a police bomb squadder who has 1 day until retirement, I unhooked the grill's propane tank and drove it to the hardware store at 15 mph on the smoothest roads I knew. Then, instead of trading it in for a full tank, I abandoned it there.

As it turns out, my fears of exploding gas grills have little to do with reality. Like charcoal cookers, gas grills are very safe if you know what you're doing.

Push out the shmutzThe Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that users regularly check the hoses that lead from the tank to the burners for blockages, especially if you haven't used the grill for a while or the hoses haven't been connected. "People use the grill for the last time in the fall, they detach everything, then they put it in the garage," says Ken Giles, spokesperson for the CPSC. "By the next spring, spiders have built their webs in the tubes." Clogs can lead to a gas leak and, if your sniffer happens to be on the fritz, an explosion and fire. Use a pipe cleaner or cotton swab to push out any blockages. Replace any hoses that are cracked or nicked. Check the grill's air holes for grease or spilled food that might be gumming up the works.

Put extra tanks out of range "Don't keep an extra filled tank near the grill," says Donna Myers, spokesperson for the Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association. That prevents your grill from heating them up, possibly allowing gas to escape. "Keep them in an untrafficked area," she says, "where they'll be shaded and a lawn mower won't run into them." Never keep a filled propane tank (including the one attached to your grill) indoors. (If you store your grill in the garage, remove the tank, and keep it outdoors.)

Keep open flames awayEstablish a no-fire zone around your grill, because if there is a gas leak it could ignite. Be especially cautious about people dropping matches or cigarettes on the ground; leaking propane will pool at ground level. And treat any smell of gas seriously: Turn off the grill, and close the tank. To check for leaks, rub soapy water over the valves or suspect areas, and look for bubbles. Newer grills have many safety features that will shut down the system automatically if there's a leak, so consider trading up if you've been using the same model for more than 5 years or so.

Go by the book"I know how to turn a gas grill on and off," says Food Network's Alton Brown. "But I still make a point to read what the manufacturer says about it." Become thoroughly familiar with the user's manual that came with your grill; it's the best way to ensure you don't have a mishap.