I am a bit of a fanatic of smoked meats.  Every chance I get, I grill/smoke on my Pitboss pellet grill.  (When I do serious smoking, I use Mesquite in my big vertical smoker).  Anyway, the wife asked me last night.....  "Every meal we have prepared since we started has been cooked on the Pitboss.  Should we be concerned about carcinogens in the wood smoke grilling process that we are eating three times a day, 7 days a week?"

I haven't taken the time to research, but I am certain I will find some studies that will show grilling meat will kill anyone of cancer in short order..... humor injected.

This does beg the question.... how is it best to cook our meat?  What have you learned over the weeks, months and years?  Here are a few of my own beliefs......

After watching a video from Dr. Baker, where he said cooking at low temps is far, far better.  I also found a recommendation that oven cooked bacon should be cooked below 300 degrees.  It takes nearly an hour to cook, but we now cook our bacon in the oven at 275 degrees.

Non-stick skillets and pans are GONE.  It is my belief that those non-stick treatments are poison.  I didn't even donate to Good Will, to poison someone else.  They went to the trash dump.  We only use Iron and Stainless cookware.

Storing in plastic Tupperware and Baggies, in the frig or freezer is OK with me, but I NEVER reheat in them to avoid the micro-plastic leaching at high temps.....   

 

What are your thoughts?

..........

9 minutes ago, Mesa_John said:

I am a bit of a fanatic of smoked meats.  Every chance I get, I grill/smoke on my Pitboss pellet grill.  (When I do serious smoking, I use Mesquite in my big vertical smoker).  Anyway, the wife asked me last night.....  "Every meal we have prepared since we started has been cooked on the Pitboss.  Should we be concerned about carcinogens in the wood smoke grilling process that we are eating three times a day, 7 days a week?"

I haven't taken the time to research, but I am certain I will find some studies that will show grilling meat will kill anyone of cancer in short order..... humor injected.

This does beg the question.... how is it best to cook our meat?  What have you learned over the weeks, months and years?  Here are a few of my own beliefs......

After watching a video from Dr. Baker, where he said cooking at low temps is far, far better.  I also found a recommendation that oven cooked bacon should be cooked below 300 degrees.  It takes nearly an hour to cook, but we now cook our bacon in the oven at 275 degrees.

Non-stick skillets and pans are GONE.  It is my belief that those non-stick treatments are poison.  I didn't even donate to Good Will, to poison someone else.  They went to the trash dump.  We only use Iron and Stainless cookware.

Storing in plastic Tupperware and Baggies, in the frig or freezer is OK with me, but I NEVER reheat in them to avoid the micro-plastic leaching at high temps.....   

 

What are your thoughts?

..........

I don't do any of the fancy stuff you're in to. I wish I was, but I haven't got the patience. Cooking is a frustrating experience for me. It simplifies my habits, I assure you. 

If you're worried about carcinogens then worry about Brussel sprouts. Do you want to burn your meat? No, I do not think that is beneficial either. But we often overstate carcinogens in "burned" meat but totally look the other way when concerned with such carcinogens in other foods. 

I just look at internal temperatures, based on whether the meat was frozen at some point or fresh from the shelf. From there, I tend to keep it simple. 

As for pans, I use cast iron, but I do use ceramic (with care; low heat, no damage, etc.). 

I use Pyrex to store food stuff in the fridge, vacuum meat for in the freezer in plastic. Once we're talking about plastic above room temperature -yes, this includes a water bottle in a hot car- I no longer consume it. 

Cooking at low heat is fine, a good slice of bacon always comes from low and slow. The key is, internal, safe temperatures. 

If you have concerns, diversify the way you cook. 

10 hours ago, Orweller said:

.....

If you have concerns, diversify the way you cook. 

My father, a cattle rancher, loved a steak cooked in butter in an Iron Skillet.  The Chuck Wagon cooks did everything in Iron and that's what he grew up with.   I think I will start cooking that way more often, but not because I am afraid of a little ash and smoke.

 

 

.........

Edited February 18, 2025Feb 18 by Mesa_John

If I’m frying it’s in my cast iron. I never use that teflon stuff. Saw a movie once on how the town and all the workers at the plant that makes that stuff have serious health issues.
I’m right there with you. I love smoked meats. I use a stick burner myself. When I’m not burning the beast on the pit then it’s over an open flame or my cast iron.
I believe it was Dr. Berry who talked about flame cooked meats, smoked meats and charring meats in one of his videos or maybe a book. In it he debunked the claims that the cooking method created carcinogens. We actually said that every food we cooked had the same supposed carcinogens in them from cooking. One of the worst was toasted bread.
He said, and I agree with him, if cooking our food was carcinogenic and man has been cooking his food this way since the begging of civilization then why are we just now seeing cancer in humans becoming prevalent in the last 100 years?
I believe I will keep on smoking my meats and grilling them over a wood fire and let my healthy metabolism take care of the rest.
In the meantime I’ll keep turning out food like this.



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