The Barbecue is a Smashing Way to Appreciate a Meal
Everyone loves a barbecue A balmy sun kissed day, the lovely aroma of woodchip and charcoal accompanied by a chilled glass of chablis.
Pure heaven!
There are a couple of things you need to do to make sure your barbecue is a success. You don’t want phone calls from all your neighbours next day regaling you with stories of their tummy upsets. If you follow this small set of instructions you can be sure the day will go well.
Getting the barbecue lit can usually be relied upon to set the pulse running for more than one reason. After it’s lit make sure you set aside enough time for the barbecue to reach it’s optimum cooking temperature. Be sure you take that into account.
If you’ve got a gas or electric barbecue to lighting process is whole lot easier, so long as you’ve got enough Gas in the bottle. People who opt for Gas or electric usually cite this as the main reason for their choice of barbecue.
If you are using charcoal never be tempted to use lighter fluid to ease the lighting. It will permeate into the food and make it taste awful. Believe me I’ve done it often enough to know. The only thing I can suggest if you find your better half has already made a replica of Dantes Inferno is to let the coal burn for at least thirty minutes that way you won’t spoil the taste of the food.
For something that will really impress your guests I’d go for cooking over wood chips. If you’re a veteran of the barbecue you’re probably already well aware of this. For those not as seasoned in the art, you cannot beat the smell and flavour that goes with adding wood chips to the mix. Adding BBQ wood chips will promote you into the super league of barbecuers. Whether you’re using an electric, gas or charcoal model the addition of wood chips imparts the true flavour of barbecuing into your food
The secret to using wood chips is not to let them burn too quickly and you can do this by soaking them for about 15 minutes before you use them. Take them out of any water and allow the water to run out. You want them damp not saturated.
You can choose from a multitude of flavours of wood chips for your barbecue. Mesquite, hickory, cabernet and more. My recommendation would be to pick milder chips to go with lighter meats. Cherry fruitwoods go great with veal poultry and pork, Alder Wood is great with seafood. The stronger flavours of maple and hickory are best suited to Lamb and duck and possibly poultry too.
At the end of the day however it’s what you serve your guest that counts. Make sure it’s decent grub and everyone will be satisfied
Sit back and enjoy the barbecue! Now where did I put that glass of Chablis?