The arrival of good weather and summer increase social life even for those who least expect it. Even if you are a misanthropic, it is easy that at some point in your existence you will arrange lunch, dinner or a meeting with friends and family. As a result of their hard work, they have published the definitive manual: a decalogue to prepare the perfect barbecue, which will leave your guests with their mouths open (and their stomachs happy!). Whether you’re an expert chef or just starting out, these tips will help you make the perfect barbecue.
1.Use the right tools
First step for a good barbecue. You do not need to make a very high investment but, as you can guess, with a quality barbecue you will get a better result in less time. Complete your kit with good accessories such as an apron, a stone and a glove, and you will have everything you need to master the art of barbecue.
2.Use good raw material
The use of top quality products will guarantee the best result for your barbecue, whether it is meat, fish or vegetables. And if you also have the right recipes and you follow the steps, nothing can go wrong. By the way, remember our usual recommendation: buy everything in your nearest market.
3.Plan the cooking order
It is important to know which foods require more cooking time and which require less. Organize your menu to know what foods take out first as a snack and which ones as the main dish or side dish. Remember that meat doesn’t have to be the leitmotiv of a barbecue.
4.Temper meat or fish before cooking
Here is a piece of advice for all of you about meat temperature: take the food out of the refrigerator or freezer with enough time for it to be at room temperature at the time of cooking. This will guarantee that meat retains all juices and flavour.
5.Make sure the barbecue has reached the correct temperature
Trying to cook foo before the barbecue has reached its optimal temperature will not save time and will lead to worse results. Fortunately, the gas barbecues are faster reaching the optimum temperature. So you can forget about always being the one with the hot beer, you will have enough time to enjoy the party with the rest of the people.
You can also have a better control of the temperature with the gas barbeques, another wonderful extra cheese for this type of barbeques.
6.Use the barbecue lid
Cooking using the lid is one of the little-known secrets of barbecue that will give you a more tender, juicy and delicious meal, saving time and gas and achieving an incredible barbecue flavour. Better than your brother-in-law’s barbecue, that for sure.
7.Control the temperature, master the flame
One of the keys to cooking barbecues is to provide the correct temperature to each kind of food on a constant basis. One of the most frequent mistakes is to apply too much heat when cooking and leave the food reduced to ashes. The gas barbecues give us greater stability in temperature so, even if you have no idea, you can control the cooking as if you were born in Argentina.
8.Handle with care
A very common mistake when we cook trying to give our best is to over-handle food, flip it several times during cooking, prick or cut to see the cooking point, or open and close the lid constantly. Do not juggle, because the reality is that the less you handle the food, the better it will cook and keep its juiciness and a uniform temperature.
9.Not all foods are suitable for a barbeque
The choice of meats and their type of cut is another step that you learn to master with practice. We can cook any type of meat on a barbecue, but some will be more suitable than others to get the best flavor and juiciness. The same goes for fish. Which does not mean that we cannot cook something different than the same old barbecue food. In other words: when you go to a barbecue you like to try the greatest hits but you also appreciate the occasional B-side or surprising dish. Like these ones, for instance.
10.Always keep the barbecue clean
It is important that you start cooking with a perfectly clean barbecue. If the barbecues is not clean after every use, part of the food can be found stuck on the grill of a previous barbecue and that will spoil the dishes. And cleaning it after each use doesn’t really take so long, really.