With BBQ season now approaching, it’s time to think about what you’ll need to have the best BBQ possible. Whether that’s having enough burgers to flip or making sure your salad stays crisp, I have compiled a list of essentials to ensure your BBQs are a success this year!
A BBQ – It doesn’t matter what the shape or size is, a BBQ will give you a distinctive flavour compared to any other form of cooking. Disposable BBQ’s are fine to use as long as you stick to things that will cook quickly like burgers, steaks or sausages.
Rob’s top tip: make sure you place disposable BBQ on bricks, concrete or even bare earth (…in my student days I did manage to put a disposable BBQ on a flower bed that had wood chippings…and managed to set them on fire, oops!)
TOOLS – Long handled tongs and flippers are essential to avoid too much smoke inhalation and getting too hot.
HYGIENE – Make sure you have clean plates to put cooked meat onto. You want everyone to stay healthy so avoid putting cooked meat onto the plate you took it off when it was raw.
DRINKS – It’s thirsty work barbequing so make sure you are well supplied with your favourite tipple. Failing that, have a back-up plan and adopt the Australian BBQ shuffle. This is a phenomenon I noticed when living out in Australia; when the person playing with the items on the BBQ runs out of drink, they disappear off to get another one. The person closest to the BBQ takes over until they run out and so the BBQ shuffle was born!
OVER CATER – No one remembers there being too much food in a bad way, however if you run out and people are hungry you will hear about it for ages! To avoid wastage don’t plan your usual lunches for the rest of the week, use your leftovers.
CHICKEN – To cook chicken properly, cook it in the oven and then finish it off on the BBQ – it’s a sure fire way of cooking it through properly but still getting a great BBQ flavour.
SALAD – Don’t take your salad leaves out of the fridge until just before everything else is ready to serve, otherwise they will wilt. Also avoid putting your salad dressing on your leafy salad in advance as this will also cause the leaves to wilt and go soggy. Show off your lovely bottle of Newman’s Own beside the salad and let people help themselves!
SAUCES – You’ll need the top 3 classic accompaniments for your food – BBQ sauce, tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. But don’t be afraid to try something up and coming like chilli sauce or garlic mayonnaise.
Did You Know…?
About 75% of all American households own a barbecue grill, meaning there are over 79 million barbecues in the USA alone! That’s a whopping 1.4 billion bottles of BBQ sauce used every summer!
Christmas BBQ? It’s a bit early to talk about Christmas but did you know that 200,000 people in the UK had a BBQ at Christmas? For the more level-headed Brits, we know that 21% of us now have BBQs during the Spring, with a further 13% claiming to BBQ all-year round! We love to BBQ!
