Local chef shares tips for marinating and safely preparing food for your July 4 cookout

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Chef Joe Parajecki is a long-time butcher and chef with Pritzlaff Wholesale Meats. He loves a grilling holiday like July 4th, and he says start preparing the night before. 

Parajecki says sometimes simple is best. Burgers just need a little salt and pepper combined with various Wisconsin cheeses.

If you're planning to throw chicken or porkchops on the grill, use something that's you may already have in your refrigerator. 

"Do a simple pickle juice out of the pickle jar or that Italian dressing you’ve got in the fridge works great," said Parajecki. "The big chicken pieces, I brined with just water, salt and herbs and let it sit overnight." 

If you're looking to spruce your bratwursts up, he recommends, cooking them and adding them to, what he calls, "a Sheboygan hot tub."

"It’s literally beer, onions and butter. Add a little bit of water in there just to finish off the brat," said Parajecki.

The USDA says foodborne illnesses rise during the warmer temperature holidays. They have dozens of recommendations for safe food handling this holiday. 

"The biggest thing is hot food hot, cold foods cold," said Parajecki. "If it’s hot, you want to keep it above 140 degrees. That cold food should be coming out of the refrigerator and shouldn’t be sitting there, just put out smaller quantities more often." 

So, how long can the pasta and potato salads sit out, we asked him. 

"We just want a couple hours on that really," said Parajecki. "We don’t want it to get too warm. We don’t want it to hurt anybody. Really, that’s the last thing we want to do."