Summer can mean many things, baseball, warm weather and family get together's but barbecuing might be the most important element to go with those events but you want to make sure you're safe when behind the grill.

Chef at Okotoks Sobeys Darren Nixon says cleaning your barbeque is the best thing you can do to prevent fires from breaking out and it's not a daily chore.

Sobeys Chef Darren Nixon

"I do maintenance on my barbeque twice a year and I probably grill more than the average person," he says. "So twice a year gets the job done and that involves just taking off the tray underneath and cleaning that out so you don't have a fire and of course just scraping off the grill making it nice and clean and you're good to go."

When working with certain foods on the grill, Nixon says the easiest way to avoid a flare up is just simply watching the grill and having a better knowledge of what can get out of hand if you're not paying attention.

"Chicken can be a bad one for burning only because the skin has some fat underneath it. Chicken actually does really well if you're careful on the grill however you want to pre-heat it and then turn it down a little bit so you're actually working with a hot grill but not a big flame and that way when the fat renders off it doesn't flare up."

Any food with a little bit of fat on it can lead to the odd flame coming through the grill and Nixon says having a hot grill instead of flames can be the difference between that perfectly cooked meal or leaving your meat a little on the burnt side.

"Pork belly, shoulder, any kind of pork rib will have some rendering out, those fatty products are actually really good for the grill however you do have to take that caution so the whole thing of pre-heating the grill so it's nice and hot will give you your whole caramelize the pork but then turning the grill to low so you're not cooking with a hot flame."

Nixon adds saying that another great barbeque tip is simply making sure you have enough propane at all times instead of having to either switch out bottles while cooking or leaving your barbeque with no fuel source.

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