Barbecuing is the perfect culinary activity that combines the joy of cooking with the pleasure of social gatherings, making it a beloved summer tradition. However, mastering the art of barbecuing requires a blend of skill and knowledge to truly elevate your grilling game. From using a kitchen thermometer to ensuring proper spacing on skewers, and understanding optimal cooking times, we'll guide you through the essential do's and don'ts that will up your barbeque game.
Use a kichen temometer
Cooking your meats to the correct temperature can be quite tricky on a barbeque. The barbeque differs in temperature quite a lot, and compared to your oven or stove, it is difficult to know what temperature your barbeque maintains, making it difficult to calculate the cooking time of the meat.
Some ovens have built-in thermometers that show the temperature, but then you need to keep in mind that they usually show the temperature at the lid and that the temperature at the grill is lower.
If you are used to your barbeque it will also be easier to estimate temperature and cooking time. Despite this, it can be difficult to calculate the correct cooking time even for professionals, making it easy to overcook as well as undercook the meat. By using a kitchen thermometer you guarantee the best results every time.
Make space on the skewers
Resist the temptation to overcrowd your BBQ skewers. By leaving space of a centimetre between the meat or vegetables, you get a more even cooking. When you overfill a barbeque skewer, the heat doesn't reach all sides of the meat or vegetable, resulting in different cooking times for different parts of the skewers. This means that some of your skewers will be overcooked and some of it undercooked or raw. Chicken and meets tend to spread out during the cooking, and the gaps or space between them tend to disappear when fully cooked.
BBQ with the lid down
A common mistake is to grill everything with the barbeque lid up. Watching the fire and the meat grill is part of the enjoyment, but doesn't always lead to the best result. Especially not with larger pieces of meat. Keep the barbeque lid down when barbequing. Especially in connection with indirect grilling (you don't have the piece of meat directly above the embers) to get a good spread of heat and for the smoke and grill flavour to penetrate the meat. This is preferable when grilling larger pieces of meat.
Only add produces with the same cooking time on the skewer
Whether you are making a mixed meat skewer or a vegetable skewer it is important to calculate the cooking time of the different products. It's easy to fill a barbeque skewer with all the vegetables you like, to serve all the tasty things on one skewer. Onions, bell pepper, tomatoes and mushrooms all have different cooking times and should not be cooked together. If you cook them all on one skewer you will burn half of them and serve the other half raw. Chose ingredients with the same cooking time when you are building your skewer.
For example, you can add pearl onions and Zuchini on one skewer. They both need to be cooked all the way through, with similar cooking time and by chopping them up to similar sizes you will cook them through without burning them.
Don’t mix meat of a different kind on the same skewer if they don't have the same cooking time and temperature. If you mix chicken and beef on the same skewer, either the beef is overdone or the chicken will end up undercooked and not safe to eat.
Buy good quality charcoal and make sure it is properly lit
Make sure the charcoal is properly lit and don't spread the coals too early. Once the coals are lit, they should remain heaped in the bed of the barbecue until all are coated in grey ash.
Invest in quality charcoal, and if possible try to avoid lighting with lighter fluid. Lower-quality charcoal as well as the use of lighter fluid tends to add flavor. Protein absorbs flavours, which can result in an unpleasant off-taste if there are traces of lighter fluid left or if the charcoal wasn’t properly lit.
Do not cover up your BBQ
If you don't live in an especially exposed environment, you should avoid covering your barbeque. If you keep your barbeque covered, condensation could be created between the barbeque and the cover, making it rost. And if you live in a very windy place, the cover may flap and scuff and scrape the barbecue.
Let the meat rest
No matter how you cook meat, never cut it or serve it as soon as it's ready. It may be tempting, but it's just as important to let the meat rest after you take it off the grill as it is when it's cooking on the stove or in the oven. The heat pushes the meat's juices towards the centre and by allowing them to rest for a short time, the meat reabsorbs and distributed the juices more evenly, making the meat tender and juicy. A good role is to let the meat rest half the time it is cooked or 15 min rest for all pieces under 1kg.
Also, keep in mind that meat tends to rise a little in temperature after you pick it, so you don't get fooled by the temperature. Remove the meat a couple of degrees earlier than the opted temperature, and let the meat come up to temperature while it's resting. Otherwise, your meat risk being overcooked.
Use different temperatures
Do not cook everything on the same heat. Resist the caveman instinct of barbequing on a firey grill. You can absolutely barbeque "Caveman-style" if you know what you're doing and have a piece of meat that allows it. However, it is not something you start with.
Very few things should be cooked over a roaring flame and different meat, vegetables and condiments should be cooked at different temperatures. Make sure to have one hotter part of the bbq and one slightly cooler part of the barbeque. This way you can control the cooking temperature by moving the produce from one part of the barbeque to another as well as be able to cook different meat and vegetables at the same time.
The produce is more important than the marinade
There are millions of barbeque marinades, prepaid and family recipes. A lovely addition, but not always important. The most important when barbequing is to buy the best produce you can afford. If you buy good, quality meat and vegetables, the seasoning and marinades are not as important. First and foremost, let the produce speak for itself, and then add flavour. Seasoning also changes character when barbequed. Black pepper, for example, takes on a completely different character if you add it before the barbequing. If you add it before, there will be a certain sourness in the burnt black pepper flavour. Meanwhile, if you want the more pronounced flavour of black pepper, you can add it afterwards.
Clean the grill when it is hot and not too often
The grill is easiest to clean when it is hot, if you grill often, you can do it when you are lighting the barbeque, but if you know that you will not be using your barbeque that often, you should do it afterwards to avoid mould.
It is often enough to "burn off" any residues and cleaning products and brush the barbeque clean. Then a more thorough cleaning should be done once per season to remove any soot flakes.
Dont expect perfection from the start
The most important thing is to try your hand, dare to fail and have fun in the meantime. You will learn from your mistakes and every barbeque behaves slightly differently. It's only after you get used to your barbeque you can start perfecting your skills.
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