The British summer is at its best when there is merriment in the garden, no clouds in the sky and the sound of food sizzling on the barbecues wafting through the evening air. Although we certainly cannot claim to control the notorious UK weather, we can help you cook your food alfresco – and this will hopefully take care of the merriment.
Before you even think about food though you need to pick the right BBQ.
Do you want gas or charcoal?
The days of huddling over a brick barbie or – worse a disposable one – trying to poke at a firelighter that is too far from the charcoal are long gone. Indeed, if you want the very best BBQ on the block you should look at Weber. If you can’t have your burgers without the chargrilled taste then you will find coal BBQ’s that are surprisingly sophisticated.
Alternatively, you could go for the ultimate garden gadget – the gas barbecue.
These are serious pieces of culinary kit and will allow you to give your food all the care and attention it needs to really sizzle people’s taste buds this year. You can now get these in a variety of shapes and sizes so you no longer need a country estate-sized garden to enjoy a perfectly cooked sausage.
Once you have picked out the BBQ you want it is time to get cooking.
Cook your meat at room temperature
We can’t stress this enough.
If you want one tip to improve the standard of your BBQ cooking this summer, then this is it – take your burgers, sausages, steaks, or chicken legs out of the fridge and let them heat up to room temperature in the kitchen before you place them on your barbie. If you think about this, it is logical. The biggest issue with BBQ cooking is getting the heat from the outside of your meat into the middle before the barbecue burns the outer surfaces and the warmer the middle of the meat is before it goes onto the fire, the easier it is to do this.
Make sure your BBQ is hot
This is not as simple as it sounds!
If using a great gas BBQ like the Weber Q series it is easy to keep the heat up, but otherwise make sure the coals are glowing embers before you place the food on the grill.
Let it be
We know you love using your BBQ, but please stop prodding and pushing the meat!
It can take a while for the caramelised BBQ crust that you are after to develop and you are definitely not helping this process if you are treating your burger like a pancake and continually flipping it over. You only need to turn the meat over once or twice to ensure that it is cooked through. By the same token, definitely don’t squash and pat the meat down as this will force the fats and juices out and although this may give you some pretty impressive flames, it will leave you with sad and dry food.
Remember your food hygiene
You have moved into the garden to cook – not the stone age. Just because you are outdoors doesn’t mean you should forget some basic food hygiene, you are dealing with raw meat after all.
Always keep your cooked food on a clean and separate plate or chopping board and resist the urge to add marinade that was used for raw meat to your cooked food.
