The Saturday afternoon BBQ

The Saturday afternoon BBQ’s are great, as long as they are not always being held at your place.

After a hard morning’s work out in the shed woodworking, it’s difficult to imagine anything better than a hum dinger of a BBQ with a few mates and their families around.

However, the funny thing is that the better BBQ experiences you host, the more BBQ’s get held at your place and the better future BBQs are expected to get; it’s almost as if you have to keep upping your game each time.   In a way, it’s probably easier for you and your family if you just do a crap job at hosting first up and let someone else spend hours putting it all together each Saturday.

In a strange way, I suppose you could say that the BBQ has been around since early cavemen discovered that food tasted great when cooked over scorching hot flames.

Barbequing opens a whole array of types of foods available and the type of foods you serve should largely depend on your crowd and the event in which you are celebrating.

With the wide range of possibilities, you are sure to find at least a few items that will please your crowd.

A potential problem when planning to BBQ is the weather, while you will not be able to guarantee that the weather stays nice your barbeque event, a certain amount of planning will help you avoid the days in which barbequing is just simply out of the picture.

Watch the weather channel or check online for your weekly forecast. If rain or cold weather is likely on the day you were thinking about having your barbeque, it may be a good idea to wait for a better forecast.

Make sure that you prepare ahead for your barbeque, 12 to 24 hours before you plan on beginning the party, make sure to thaw, prepare, and marinate the meat you will be cooking.

Once you have the meat stored away, soaking up the marinate, then you must start thinking about what types of side dishes you will be having.

If you want a completely tradition barbeque, you may want to stick with traditional sides, this includes potatoes, potato salad, baked beans, and coleslaw.

You will need some common household items on hand when it comes time to cleaning your barbeque grill and/or plate.   Brass wire grill brush, Steel wool pads, preferably that contains soap already, Mild dish soap, Sponge or dishcloth, Spray cooking oil, Dry baking soda, Aluminium foil

The first thing that should always be done to your grill is a routine brushing, use your brass wire grill brush (or other brush suitable to your type of grill) you should brush off all the surfaces.   By routinely brushing your barbeque grill, you will prevent any type of build-up.   If build-up from food is left to long, it can become increasingly difficult to remove.

Once you have cleaned the surfaces of your grill, then you must focus on its racks, the racks in your grill are especially important as this is where the food touches when it is cooking.  You will have to use the wire brush to remove as much build-up as possible.   Once you removed as much as possible, start washing the racks with dish soap.

If the racks are really dirty, you may also want to use the steel wool pads but be sure to completely rinse off all soap and residue before cooking on these racks again.

This process should be completed each and every time you cook on your BBQ.

If these steps are not taken, you may find it increasingly difficult to clean your grill and/or plate, and may find that damage will occur and the majority of problems that arise from barbeque grills come from lack of cleaning and maintenance.   That means if you notice something does not seem quite right with your barbeque grill, chances are it can be fixed with just a simple cleaning.

Even if you clean it, and still find that it is having problems, at least you saved yourself the potential embarrassment of taking it to a professional only to find out all it needed was to be cleaned.

Finally, one method of preventing problems with your barbeque grill is protecting it from the outdoors.   Covers are available for grills in all shapes and sizes, so chances are, you will find one that fits your grill.   If you have a cover for your barbeque grill, then all you will ever need to do is do the regular maintenance listed above.

Before you begin cooking, spray your cooking area with a non-stick cooking spray as this will prevent your meat from sticking when you are rotating or removing it.   If your meat sticks and tears, you will lose a large amount of juice, and your meat may dry out.

Never place food on the grill until the temperature is correct.   The fluctuation in temperatures will cause your food to dry out or burn.

If you are using a charcoal grill, make sure that the coals are completely grey before putting the meat on the grill, this will allow the temperatures to level out and the majority of the lighter fluid to burn off.   Cooking with charcoal lighter fluid can be good or bad. The lighter fluid will cause the food you are cooking to taste different then with other types of grills.   Alternatively, attempting to not use lighter fluid may cause a lot of frustration due to the fact that charcoal can be difficult if not impossible to light without lighter fluid.

You must properly prepare the meat you are cooking, before cooking it and you should never attempt to cook meat on a grill when it is still frozen, or even partially frozen.

Thaw your meat by sitting it out about 12 to 24 hours before you plan on cooking it, or by thawing it in a microwave.   If you meat is thawed, but in the refrigerator, set it out long enough for the meat to get to room temperature.

Once meat is cooked, never put it back in on the same plate you had it on when it was raw as this could cause the spread of many unwanted illnesses. Do not handle cooked meat with the same utensils that you used when it was raw.

Never poke you meat while it is cooking because poking holes in meat will cause the juice inside to leak out into the bottom of the grill, not only will this make your food dry and unappealing in the end, but it also could potentially ruin your barbeque grill.   At the very least, it will cause a build-up of unwanted grease and juices on your grill, which will make clean-up harder.

Once the meat is on the grill, try not to open the lid to many times, each time you open the lid, you change the temperature in the grill and  constant change in temperature and the air flow will cause your meat to dry up quickly.

Remember that the higher the heat is not always the better.   While it is ok to quickly cook food, turning the heat up will just cause the meat to dry up and potentially burn.

While using tin foil or aluminium foil will make cleaning easier, it will cause your food to have more of a fried taste then a grilled taste.

If you are planning on using your favourite barbeque sauce, be sure to wait as long as possible to put it on the meat. Putting barbeque sauce on to early will not only potentially because your meat to dry out, but it could also burn.