Grilled food offers a delicious meal for various reasons. Since grilling is done with high heat, the juices of your food are sealed, making it moist and tender without adding butter, oil, or other sauces. Knowing all this, it can be shocking if you order or cook up something that ends up with lighter fluid tastes mixed in. How healthy is that? And, is it okay to eat a burger that tastes like lighter fluid?
Here are answers to these questions and more surrounding your grilled food and lighter fluid concerns.
Is it okay to eat a burger that tastes like lighter fluid?
Lighter fluid is made up of hydrocarbons that are poisonous and harmful. If your burger tastes like lighter fluid, it probably has lighter fluid fumes released into the meat during the grilling process. This means that there could be traces of these harmful substances infused into your food and you should probably throw it out.
Adults with strong immune systems might be able to build a tolerance against the low levels of hydrocarbons in your food. However, it’s still not safe to be eating these chemicals. And it is definitely not safe for children or elderly people to eat a burger that tastes like lighter fluid.
Why does my meat taste like lighter fluid?
A few common mistakes typically occur during the grilling process that can cause your food to taste like lighter fluid. For starters, you may have used too much lighter fluid.
It shouldn’t take a lot of this liquid to get your charcoal going – a gentle spray at the bottom layer should be enough. When you add too much lighter fluid or add it to the top of your charcoal, it can spread up into the food you’re grilling.
Some other reasons why your meat might taste like lighter fluid include:
- You accidentally got some lighter fluid onto the grill, leaving residue that gives off fumes into your food
- Your using pre-treated quick-light charcoal that can leave unpleasant tastes
- You started cooking immediately after the charcoal is burning and didn’t wait 15 minutes so the lighter fluid can burn off
Can you get sick from lighter fluid?
Yes, especially in high doses or concentrated exposure. Lighter fluid contains various harmful substances, ranging from benzene and butane to propane and naptha.
The fumes released when lighter fluid burns can also contain these harmful chemicals. However, the range of symptoms from lighter fluid poisoning usually only occurs if you swallow the substance or get the fluid on your skin or in your eyes.
Common symptoms of lighter fluid poisoning include:
- Severe throat pain
- Loss of vision
- Pain or burning in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or lip
- Stomach pains
- Vomiting
- Blood in vomit or stool
- Difficulty breathing
- Coughing
- Throat swelling
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Irritability
- Skin irritation
How do you get rid of the taste of lighter fluid?
The best way to get rid of the lighter fluid taste in your food is not to use lighter fluid to begin with. This ensures every time you grill, you aren’t exposing yourself to harmful chemicals.
You can also make sure you don’t use too much lighter fluid and wait long enough for it to burn off before grilling. Sometimes people also end up adding more and more lighter fluid because they didn’t wait long enough to let the lighter fluid soak into the charcoal before lighting it up.
If your food already tastes like lighter fluid and you want to salvage it, there aren’t really many options. Most of the time you just have to throw it away and start over with better methods or a clean grill.
However, if your meat is a thick enough slice, you might get away with cutting off the outside areas. Sometimes the inside meat isn’t infused with the lighter fluid fumes.
Does lighter fluid burn off?
Lighter fluid will burn off the charcoal after some time since it ignites below 500 degrees Fahrenheit. When you first light up your charcoal, wait around 15 minutes until you see thin layers of white ash covering the coals.
This means that it has properly combusted and any lighter fluid you added has burned off. However, depending on the type of lighter fluid you are using, this time frame for it to burn off successfully and not leave a foul taste on your food can vary.
Having said all of the above, lighter fluid can sometimes leave a residue if you accidentally spray some on your grill and it soaks in. This residue won’t burn away as easily.
Instead, it can start smoking up while you are grilling to add an unwanted taste to your food. If this is the case and you continue to taste lighter fluid in your food despite waiting for it to burn off, you’ll want to deep clean your grill.
Are there alternatives to using lighter fluid?
There are plenty of alternative household items you can use to start your charcoal without using lighter fluid. These include:
- Cardboard cut into 1-inch squares placed in and around the charcoal
- Newspaper crumpled up into loose balls and stuffed under the charcoal
- High-proof alcohol such as whiskey sprayed at the bottom of the charcoal
- All natural fire starters added to your charcoal
You can also purchase an electric charcoal starter, which is a rod that helps heat up your charcoal without needing lighter fluid. Another handy tool to get your charcoal burning before you add it to the grill is a charcoal chimney starter.
Conclusion
It’s probably best to avoid eating a burger that tastes like lighter fluid because you have no way of knowing how much of the harmful chemicals have been infused into the meat.
Children especially shouldn’t eat it. There are ways to make sure the lighter fluid has burned off completely before you start grilling. However, if you want to avoid the risk of getting lighter fluid taste on your burger completely, consider not using it at all and go for an alternative.
