Top 10 BBQ Cooking Tips

1. Food Safety When You BBQ

Be sure to prepare and cook food that is fresh and oozing with flavour! Refrigerate food until around 20 minutes prior to cooking and always cook on a clean cooking surface. The most important people at your party or event are you guests – be sure not to food poison them on the day! 

2. Create an achievable Menu for your Party or Dinner that is achievable

I think we all love to receive fabulous feedback when we cook and entertain at home however often people may get too adventurous, forget to prep or plan and end up running late or with some of the foods burnt or not at its best. In creating a menu that is both fresh, easy enough to execute and able to have an amount of prep done in advance will greatly help you on the day. This will of course give you more time with your friends and family o the day!

3. Seasoning the BBQ and Grill Prior to Cooking

Pre-heat your clean grill and cooking surfaces and coat with cooking oil, using a brush or spray. The close the hood and allow it to heat for about 20 minutes on low. Wipe clean with a cloth prior to cooking. This will ensure your cooking surface will be both not stick plus the perfect surface to cook on. 

4. Take Advantage of what your BBQ can do

Be sure to understand and employ all of the facets that your BBQ can do. Especially the hood on your BBQ, where you are able to roast or rotisserie great dishes and cuts with ease. This will allow you to have more time with your guests as the BBQ is doing the work whilst the food is cooking – keeping you free to be the host with the most.

5. Manage the heat on your BBQ

Depending what you are cooking will impact given temperatures for your BBQ. In general it is not favourable to cook on high as it can tend to dry or blacken food unnecessarily. Do heat your BBQ to hot in warming up then turn down to half or ¾ when grilling. Sausages are the perfect example of flare up or fat fire when the heat is too high.

6. Bring Food to Room Temperature prior to Cooking

Bringing food to room temperature prior to cooking allows for the food to cook more evenly as it is less shocked by the intense heat that a BBQ will instantly apply. Imagine how much harder it is food heat to transfer evenly through a steak for example if it is at 4oC from the fridge.

7. Searing & Sealing Your Meat

Whilst it is unfortunately the “Aussie Male’s” go to when cooking on a BBQ, Do not become a “BBQ Tosser” by turning and flipping your food too early. Food benefits from sealing and searing to lock in moisture and can only be achieved by allowing the food to seal effectively. The more turns – normally the dryer or unevenly cooked the food are. You should only turn the meat over once.  Be patient! 

8. Don’t Prick, Poke or Squash your food on the BBQ

So often at a BBQ we see people pricking sausages or poking meat or squashing chicken within an inch of its life. I expect to assist in ensuring the items are cooked. Allow the food to cook and retain as much moisture as possible. Pricking, Poking or Squashing the food is literally squishing all the moisture from the food item and ultimately destroys the look and taste of the item. As above, seal and allow the food to cook naturally. 

9. Allow Red Meats to Rest prior to Consuming

Whilst it may seem OK to do so due to hunger or impatience, there is nothing more important that resting your meat after cooking and prior to eating. Resting allows for the sealed and cooked meat to settle which ultimately ensures that all the moisture will remain in the meat plus assist in the item naturally tenderising prior to eating. Some people think the food will go cold by resting and whilst it may drop slightly in temperature, how hard is it to re-warm your steak for 1 minute on your grill prior to serving. 

10. Cleaning your BBQ

 At the end of your cooking – do yourself favour, once the BBQ is off and spray your grill surfaces will a BBQ cooking cleaner. One that is able to instantly start to eat away at fats and food residue. A BBQ to clean is or can be challenging at the best of times, none more than when it is caked on with major build up. Do try to clean the BBQ whilst it is still hot as it is so much easy to remove any undesirables at this time rather than having to chisel off items from a cold BBQ. A clean BBQ is always a lot safer and healthy to cook on also.