BBQ Thread.....

[Zak33]

well guys..its time to get you lot thinking about somethings that are essential to good BBQ....

I'll start......HYGIENE.

Wash hands guys....you're serving your friends. DO it regularly.

Use tongs for un cooked meat and a DIFFERENT pair for cooked....

If you are unsure what tongs are used for what meat. (ie you confused them)....PUT THEM IN THE COALS and get them hot....that'll kill the bacteria

Dont keep wiping your hands on your trousers....get a tea towel, tuck it into your belt and use that....and if it gets grubby or you get un cooked food on it....change it....they cost nowt...they just get re washed.

Wash your tea towels in a HOT WASH after

Remember not to expect food to stay cool.....it will get all hot and bothered in the sun...and then it gets dangerous...keep it in the fridge until its cooking time.

Whatever food you make in advance....keep it away from uncooked meat, and KEEP IT COLD. I'd guess at just as many people getting food poisoning from rice salads and cold potato salads that got warm .

Some meat is WAY safer to keep warm and even to re heat, that others....

So.....if you wanna serve it all at once and can only cook bits at a time and then wanna keep them all piled up on the side....

DO PORK and BEEF first on a serious heat, for a short time and then put aside...you can up the cooking on those safely later on...

Sausages are reasonably safe, but you dont know whats in them....so do these next, along with burgers.

BUT NOT WITH CHICKEN......that needs doing in one hit. CHICKEN LAST if its all for one serving..make EVERYTHING else wait for the chicken. Dont kill your family

We all like to baste food......but REMEMBER what you have used the brush on and DONT PUT IT BACK IN THE JAR...pour out the oil or marinade into a dish and apply from that......DONT CONTAMINATE THE ORIGINAL......

right...who else wants to join in?

[megah0]

Keep a spare tin of beer handy for beating back flames from fatty meat.

[TeePee]

It's very important that sausages be heated very very hot (SERIOUS heat, as da man said), in order to kill the bacteria in the excrement they invariably contain.

[Zak33]

both good ones..../\

Beer really is good for it....and handy too

If Sausages are suspect...cut along length and cook the insides too

[Nick]

umm.. gonna throw a spanner in the works here...

I'd do the sausages first. They have a high fat content, so they can be put up on the warming rack of your barbeque and be held there without drying out.

Next on would be the pork, becuase they normally come as fairly thick steaks which need a high heat to cook them so the meat isn't all dry and chewy. Let the fat drip onto the coals and flare a bit, it'll bbrown the off nicely. When they're almost done, whip them onto the warming grid where they'll finsih cooking without drying out.

Now slap on the chicken. If you're using breast, cut it in half horizontally, so it's nice a nd thin. This way it'll cook quickly, staying moist and juicy. It's best if you put some sort of marinade over the chicken as it'll help protect it from the heat at the same time as flavour it up. Again, when its almost done, whip it on to your warming grid.

Last, do the beef, but only if you have steaks of some sort, if you have kebabs, do those just before the chicken as kebabs tend to take longer to cook. Doing the steak last means you can cook them how people like them and serve them straight off the grill. Holding them will only over cook them, especially on a barbeque.

If you're doing chicken drumsticks, which many people seem to, then bake them off in the oven first and finish them on the barbeque. That's the safest way to ensure they're properly cooked. Because chicken legs have so much fat below the skin, they flare up a lot, brown very quickly and look done well before they are, so bake them first and avoid the hassle. If you do the drumsticks this way, they can go on last of all, as all you're doing is giving them a barbeque effect.

The idea with this order is that the barbeque will be cooling the whole time you're cooking, so things that need a high heat go on first, but at the same time you have to worry about what can be held without drying out and tasting horrible. Steaks don't have to have a really high heat to cook well, not as hot as barbies get when you first get them going, plus, although they have a nice bit of fat around them, the meat itself can be very dry and tough if overdone.

[Zak33]

right....that sorted ME out didn't it

OK...as fat cooks so much faster internally that water (why a good Turkey at Christmas cooks so much quicker than a crap one, cos its fatty)

Sausages first....
Then Pork..
then Chicken...(I like drum sticks, so over first if lots to cook )
then steak last....

right....got it.

Will ignore you tho....my steaks always go on the hottest and first....

[Nick]

Sorry!!!

[megah0]

Lets talk Marinades shall we?

I like simple Soy sauce, Honey and a dash of mustard. Chuck in a few dried chilli seeds and you are onto a winner. Brilliant on thinly sliced strips of chicken

[petrefax]

not particularly food related but definitely safety-related & worth mentioning imho

if there are any kids turning up to your BBQ, make sure you have some form of barrier between them & the barbeque especially if you have a kettle barbeque with a large, low "easy-for-little-hands-to-reach" surface area

well fed, watered & sunbaked adults + inquisitive kid + easy to reach, very hot metal surface = lots of screaming + trip to casualty + sour end to a good day

...& nobody wants that

[Zak33]

nice one Petra....all tue.
Now..>Deckard....its not that you're WRONG....I'm just more right on the steak thing than you

You are right about the rest, cos I have to let you win or you cry and get your Mum to phone me about cars

BUT.....steak......

HOT AS POSSIBLE>....SHORT TIME AS POSSIBLE>>>

Seared outer.....pink inner....
I think Tumble puts it best....

"How'd ya like your steak, Tumble mate" says Zak
"Wipe its arse, blow its nose and bring it in RARE"

[Nick]

HOT AS POSSIBLE>....SHORT TIME AS POSSIBLE>>>

Exactly... so you're gonna do it first and THEN re-heat it?

That's why you do it last.... unless the soles of your shoes are wearing thin and you want something to nail on 'em!

[Zak33]

no...dont re heat it.....keep it warm...at the back....

let it relax...like a roasting joint...

[steve threlfall]

Again not food but make sure your dogs dont get near the barby and burn their faces And never give them chicken bones as these splinter and they may end up chocking.

Dont risk the chicken unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Be sure to use a comedy exaggerated Aussie accent

[Knoxville]

Be sure to use a comedy exaggerated Aussie accent

That'd be my area of expertise

now I have a question that i've never found an answer to that hasn't been met with some kind of argument off a back seat cook, what is the best height to have the grill at for the food? should it be at different heights for what your cooking?

[Clingy]

Never mind spanner in works, how about cat amongst the pigeons!!!

/me sits here nice and smug with my Vege burgers.

Actually because of our complicated diets, I have to juggle space and tools for the BBQ between the meat eater (son), us fish eaters (me and the wife) and the proper vege (daughter). Cant use the meat tongs on the vege burgers (well, not while she is looking).

[Zak33]

what is the best height to have the grill at for the food? should it be at different heights for what your cooking?

Most times, one height suits all.....just move it to the edges for less heat.

Nother very cool thing to know....

if you have a lid......and if the food makes it flame....

LID ON for 30 seconds......and then off again....flames out, smoky flavour helps cook meat from above be reflecting heat back down.

But dont leave on for long....the coals need LOTS of air...the vents in the lid aint enough..trust me