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Good Question: Why Do We Love To Grill?

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May 25, 2009 10:57 pm US/Central

Good Question: Why Do We Love To Grill?

Reporting
Jason DeRusha
(WCCO) There is something intoxicating about a grill. Memorial Day is the second-biggest day for grilling in the summer, according to a barbeque industry survey. So why do Americans seem so into grilling?

"It's the smells, the smoke," said one man grilling in front of his Minneapolis home. "It's all in it, you know?

"It's the fire, you know? It's all the way back with the caveman," said another.

According to the Hearth, Patio and Barbeque Association, almost 8 out of 10 of us own a grill. That's up 5 percent from five years ago.

The Fourth of July is the top grilling holiday (69 percent of Americans say they grill that day, according to the barbeque association), but Memorial Day is second (56 percent) followed by Labor Day (50 percent).

The primal urge to cook over a fire may go back to the time of the caveman, but the idea of having a grill in the backyard of our homes didn't really explode until 1952. That's the time Americans flocked to the suburbs, and a co-owner of a metal fabricator decided he could do better than the open-flame backyard fire pit he had been using.

George Stephen co-owned Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago, Ill. Weber Brothers fabricated metal buoys for customers on Lake Michigan. Stephen thought he could cut one of the buoys in half, put it on legs, put a wire rack inside and create a grill that cooked at an even temperature. It was a major change from the erratic flames of the open fire, and it was hugely successful.

In 1952, Weber started selling its kettle grill. Today, 85 million Americans own their own grills.

Times have changed and the charcoal grill is no longer the king. Nearly 70 percent of us own a gas grill, while just 37 percent own a charcoal. Some own one of each, of course, according to the HPBA.

In general, it's men doing the grilling. The man lights the grill more than 65 percent of the time, and does the cooking 59 percent of the time, according to the 2009 State of the Barbeque Industry Report.

"I'm an all-year-round man," said Mandela, an outdoor griller in Minneapolis. "I was out in the winter and my neighbor said 'You're crazy!' But I'm an all year round man."

Fifty-eight percent grill year-round, according to the report, while 45 percent use the grill once or twice a week during "grilling season."

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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