Installing a barbecue in the garden enables you to extend the living space of your home, allows you to entertain during the warmer months, and it can provide you and the family with smokey, barbecue flavoured food.
Whether you’re still a relative novice to grilling, or you are an experienced barbecue chef that wants to take it to the next level, consider the tips below to help give your barbecue an extra edge.
Oil The Grill Or Onion The Grill
It is always a good idea to give the grill a wipe down before you start preparing and cooking food. Use half an onion to get rid of the fat and gunk that has built up without the fuss and use a garlic or chili oil to prevent meat from sticking to the rack and also to give your food extra flavour. Alternatively, use a cooking oil and rub it in away from the burning coals.
Learn To Love Tin Foil
Tin foil is a powerful barbecuing tool. You can wrap anything from salmon to vegetables, and you can even wrap a whole banana and leave it in the coals to create a sticky and fruity dessert. Learn to love tin foil because it will enable you to cook even more food while you’re outdoors preparing dinner on the barbecue.
Marinade Meat
Some meat, especially chicken, has a tendency to dry out when cooked on the barbecue. The juice runs out of the meat and chicken breasts, legs, and other cuts of chicken dry up while they are being prepared. Marinade the meat with your favourite flavours and leave it marinating for longer than a few minutes. A marinade not only adds flavour but can help increase the moistness of the food you cook.
Set Up A Two Zone Barbecuing Area
Spreading the coal out across the bottom of the barbecue means that you only have a single cooking temperature right across the barbecue grill. Different meats, and different foods, need different heats, and once you have finished preparing food, you may need somewhere to let it rest while other dishes finish cooking. Set up two cooking zones by having one half of the grill hotter than the other. This will allow for greater precision in your cooking.
Cook Brilliant Burgers
Make your own burgers for the best results, ensure that the meat is the primary ingredient, but don’t be afraid to experiment with some additional flavours:
- Beef and chili, lamb and mint, or pork and apple burgers can all be cooked on the barbecue.
- Make a dent in the middle of the burger with the back of a spoon to prevent the burger from rising in the middle.
- Try to only flip the burger once, because every time you flip it you will lose some of the meat juice which will have a detrimental effect on the taste of the cooked burger.
Cook Superb Sausages
Sausages are a barbecue classic. They are relatively forgiving, although they can be easy to burn so you do need to take care to get the best results:
- Wait until the coals are a moderate heat, rather than flaming hot, for the best results.
- Do not prick the sausages because this allows the juices to run out, which will leave you with a shrivelled sausage.
- The internal cooking temperature for a sausage is 160° If you use a thermometer, insert it at the end of the sausage towards the centre.
Cook Delicious Dessert Skewers
Barbecues aren’t just ideal for cooking large amounts of meat. You can prepare vegetables, some of them directly on the grill and others in tin foil parcels. Similarly, you can also prepare desserts and fruit in a similar fashion. Choose fruits, add marshmallows, and lightly barbecue them on cooling coals for a fresh and fruity, flavoursome dessert.
