It will soon be the right weather to turn on the barbie and in writing this, I turned to one of my favourite cooks, Jamie Oliver, for a few hints to help you get ready.
Get the right barbecue
It may sound basic but there are two crucial things your burner needs if you want to make great barbecue food. The first thing is, it should be a charcoal one. There’s nothing wrong with gas barbecues, but you won’t get any extra smoky flavour. You might as well be cooking in the oven. The second thing you need is a lid. It locks in flavour, keeps the temperature constant.
Wait for the right moment to cook
Barbecuing takes patience and concentration, in that order. You need to wait for the flames to die down – flame-grilled is a very misleading term! You want the coals white hot, by which I mean grey and glowing. That’s the hottest and evenest heat.
Get the temperature bang on
Following on from that, don’t forget that what you have created is a caveman oven, so you need to control the heat just like an oven.
Get the best tools
We’ve all accidently lost a sausage down a grill or flipped a burger over the edge. Well, get yourself some decent tools.
Make your own burgers
Homemade burgers are better. Even if you make them from nothing but salt and pepper and good-quality meat, they will beat anything in the shops.
Marinade, marinade, marinade!
We all know the phrase “leave for a few hours, ideally overnight”. Well, that applies doubly to barbecues, to make sure the flavours aren’t overridden by the addition of the smoke.
Don’t ruin the vegetables
I know barbecues are an excuse for us all to turn into carnivores, but fire does wondrous things to vegetables too. What you want is that lovely charring along the bars – it looks amazing, and tastes even better.
Get the sides right
Sides should never be an afterthought! They will make up two-thirds of what you eat.
So, there you have it, our top tips for barbecuing.
