A trick I learned from Argentinian circus people, who make amazing BBQ, is let the grill heat up and then cut an onion in half to rub on the grate. It imparts a nice flavor and cleans the grill very well.
(When I was very young we had a family friend who was a clown, and we visited his house once. This is everything I learned.)
They did things like walking on glass, eating fire, trapeze and other crazy acts.
Also, you have a significant fire risk with blowing fire - a friend once set a pub counter ablaze...
I did it once, when I was around 12 years old. It looks a little less cool than with fluids, but it was still an awesome experience.
As for toxicity, you can fire breathe with pharmaceutical grade paraffin(kerosene), if you accidentally swallow some, you'll just experience its laxative effects
Alcohol is bad because it burns hot and gets you drunk while you're doing it (very bad) and doesn't make a very impressive flame in comparison.
But yes, it's very dangerous. I refuse to teach anyone who I ever remotely believe will try to shortcut the safety procedures that are designed to make it at least not kill you most of the time.
The short list of safety stuff looks something like this:
1. Don't wear synthetic clothing, especially not nylon or polyester. That stuff will melt if it burns. You're actually better off with bare skin, but really you should wear something that doesn't burn easily.
2. Use a sturdy bottle (won't break if you drop/throw it) with a self-closing valve. If something happens, this will let you ditch the bottle fast and free your hand up for more important things. Last thing you need in an emergency is for your fuel bottle to spill fuel everywhere.
3. Have another fire breather watching you with a fire blanket for safety. If something goes wrong, it's their job to more or less tackle you and smother the flames as fast as possible. And if something really goes sideways, it's their job to call 9-1-1.
4. Check constantly for wind direction, and definitely don't try anything if the wind is unsteady.
Edit: Added quotes to lawyers because I really meant destroyers of freedom
German kids videos and books can be really good too, like the 'was ist was' series that, say, really shows you how internal combustion engines work. I say "can be" because there's a lot of crap there too.
It turns out they make cute little unicycles for four year olds. Amazing! All he really learned was unicycling, biking, some inappropriate language in English, and general irresponsibility. All of which have served him well.
1. let the grill get hot 2. rub with something to clean old grit 3. rub again with a chunk of fat (from the meat) for flavor
The "something" in step #2 has varied over the years. Back in the day, my grandpa used to use old newspapers... which of course we know today it's not such a great idea, heh. Onions, half a potato, a corn stalk, even a chunk of brick will do the trick. You just want to make sure you don't have old chunks of stuff clinging from the grill.
Why is it a bad idea? The newspaper thing is common in Oz, and a quick Google turned up nothing.
It's safe now. People use it for compost all the time.
The real danger from a BBQ is smoke.
Unless y'all mean grilling when you say BBQ.
EDIT: might be a linguistic issue, wikipedia has different meanings of BBQ in different languages.
Growing up in the northeast US, I didn't learn about the existence of BBQ until I was 23.
Now I smoke my own pork shoulders, ribs and chicken. And its much cheaper this way :)
This isn't an instance of the Scotsman fallacy, it is a genuine category error.
Host: do you know BBQ actually is?
Restaurant owner: the sauce?
I don't think I heard how long it took for him to get it or how severe it was.
After using, clean the grill, rub a thin coat of oil (I use canola different oils provide different seal quantity) then heat to smoking point. Wipe down and repeat a few times. This will coat the metal.
Most importantly DON'T use detergents it'll ruin the seal
Happy washing-upping!
Chrome, on the other hand... that shit is nasty.
Chromium salts (chromates) can cause allergic skin reactions.
Argentine grills are not coated. If you want to keep them from rusting, you just grease them a bit with the remains of the meat (you usually don't even need to do that) and clean them up next time around. If you are really concerned about the rust, you can always coat the grill with vegetable oil (just take a paper napkin, soak it in vegetable oil and lightly rub the grill with it.)
BTW, the biggest unrelated tip: when you are seasoning meat, use kosher salt instead of fine salt. It works much better!
http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/ask-the-food-lab-do-i-nee...
Please help.
It strips the hot plate back to metal (not joking).
So, no residue from previous meals is left.
Probably not be a good idea to do this on a hot plate coated with (say) teflon or similar. Did that once on a friends BBQ years ago, which stripped it back to the metal. Oops. Unsure what the coating was though. It definitely "wasn't there" any more afterwards. ;)
Get rid of the water. Replace the pot with a metal grill. Replace the potatoes with meat. Pretty much that.
Onion is a good tip; will try that thanks!