Essential Steps For Making The Perfect Barbecue

 The aroma and the flavor of perfectly grilled barbecue meats and vegetables are almost divine. Millions of individuals enjoy preparing yummy barbecue items at home and love to throw barbecue parties for their friends. This article is for you if you are looking for ways to cook perfectly barbecued food. If you feel disappointed to see Google giving you the URLs of barbecue manufacturers desperate to sell their devices,  this guide teaches you how to easily cook barbecued food in simple and easy-to-understand steps. 

Picture 1 of Essential Steps For Making The Perfect Barbecue

First Things First: What is a Barbecue?

Barbecue is a term that is used for not just the style of cooking but also the food cooked in this manner. The word barbecue comes from the word Barbacoa used in a Caribbean tribe for the food cooked on a raised wooden grate. In the southeastern United States, barbecue has become associated with roasted pork whereas it is used for cuts of beef cooked in this manner in the southwestern United States. Today, it is not just the meat or chicken that is cooked on barbecue devices as vegetables and even onions and tomatoes are being grilled for their yummy taste. 

Cooking On Fire During The Summer Season

Summer season is synonymous with grilling and barbecuing. People fond of barbecue ready not just themselves but also their barbecue devices to prepare yummy barbecued food items. Even the novices who do not know cooking barbecued food are tempted to throw backyard parties for their friends and loved ones. Cooking delicious barbecue items requires some serious cooking skills. It is not that easy to prepare wonderfully barbecued meats and vegetables when you are also desirous of sipping your favorite chilled beer while soaking the sun in your backyard. It is always prudent to be fully prepared with the ingredients and the device before thinking of throwing a barbecue party for your friends. Once you master the tips provided in this article, you can rest assured of getting praise and appreciation from your friends for your cooking skills. 

The Right Barbecue And The Right Fuel

Before jumping on to the supplies and the ingredients for your barbecued food, it is important to talk a little about the device you need to use for cooking the food. You can use a charcoal-fired barbecue or a gas-propelled device. But if you love the smoky flavor coming out of your meats and vegetables, there is no choice but to simply cook the food on a charcoal-powered barbecue. Most people fond of barbecued food wait patiently for the summer season to arrive and rush to buy charcoal from the parking points at petrol stations. The folks at Buy Firewood Direct explained that if you want your charcoal to burn consistently and easily, it is a good idea to use kiln-dried wood with the least amount of moisture in it. You don't want to sweat hard to make sure that your fuel burns easily and gives the kind of consistent heat that is required for the smoky flavor of your barbecued food, do you? 

Preparing The Grill Before The Actual Show

Seasoning your grill is a necessary step before you are ready to impress your friends with your culinary skills. If you are going to use a brand new charcoal grill, spray the grates with cooking oil and heat them for some time. The idea here is to prepare the grates for excessive heat during cooking. If you are using an old charcoal grill, preheating along with brushing will get rid of any debris stuck on the grates. Preheating may not be necessary if your gates have porcelain enamel coating over them. Do not forget to give a good scrape to the grate with the help of a metal wire brush to get rid of all the goo and gunk. It reduces the efficiency of your grill and barbecuing becomes more difficult. It is a routine maintenance tip that keeps your barbecue functioning at the optimal level all the time.

One thing to keep in mind is to preheat the grill if it is charcoal-powered before your friends start to arrive.  Charcoal barbecue takes nearly 20 minutes to reach the temperature levels necessary to heat the meats properly. 

Always Keep A Fire Extinguisher Handy

The hobby of barbecuing causes nearly 100,000 home fires every year. Whether you are throwing a barbecue party in your backyard or cooking inside, it is necessary to keep a fire extinguisher handy to douse any accidental fire that breaks out because of a mistake or negligence. At times, a fire has broken out simply because the grease collection tray of the barbecue caught fire.  You need to keep your eyes on such freaky things and empty the grease collection tray to prevent mishaps. 

Preparing Meats And Vegetables Before Barbecuing Them

Barbecuing is one cooking method that requires the most preparation before starting the actual exercise. You will face embarrassment when you are ready to barbecue, but your meats are not prepared. Vegetables need to be sliced whereas meats need to be cut, washed, and marinated hours before your barbecue party starts. 

Besides prepared meat, you also need to make sure you have all the accessories ready. The most important accessories during barbecuing are metal tongs to grab and turn over the food items so that they are roasted from the other side also. Good quality tongs make you confident as you know you will not drop your ribs or burgers while cooking at such high temperatures. We have all seen how people burn their hands while attempting to turn over meats and vegetables. The other important thing while barbecuing is heat-resistant gloves. You also need skewers and a long-handled spatula to function properly when making various kinds of barbecue foods. According to the BBQ experts at Outdoor Cooking Pros, it's important to have a good set of grilling accessories so you'd be able to prepare more types of dishes. This will let you handle meats, seafood, and veggies for a well-balanced menu at the cookout.

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Proper Marinading Is The Key To Great Barbecuing

High temperatures over the wood indeed make your meats tender and juicy. But the real flavor comes from marinating. Prepare the marinade according to your liking and leave your meats and vegetables dipping in this marinade for hours if not overnight. The trick here is to allow the food to soak in the flavors as much as it can. Make sure your marinate is there to brush the meats frequently as they are barbecued. This marinade adds moisture to the meat or the fish and traps the smoky flavor to make the barbecued food almost divine when it is ready. Marinate application makes sure that your meat does not become black because of the excessive temperature of the grill. It also helps in locking in all the juicy flavors of the meat. 

The Size And Thickness Of Meats

Does the size of meat pieces you barbecue make any difference to their taste after cooking? Yes of course? Do not waste your time and effort on a piece of meat having less than 4 cm thickness. At least this much thickness is needed to get charred from outside and yet maintain tenderness and juiciness from inside. Do not try barbecuing a frozen piece of meat. You need to carry out tempering before it is ready for barbecuing. Tempering is a process where meat is brought down to room temperature. After tempering, tap dry meat using a soft paper towel to remove any excess moisture that may be there. It ensures that this moisture does not come to the surface when you start to give it high heat during barbecuing. 

Do Not Turn The Meats Often During Barbecuing

This is a tip that most novices don't know a thing about. They flip the meats too often without realizing that they are wasting marinade and also allowing the food to lose moisture during cooking. There is no need to keep the food flipping in a bid to grill it from all sides. Restrict this flipping to just once during the whole grilling exercise. You will find that your food is brown and crispy and also retains its juicy taste that you love so much. Resist the temptation to turn over the meat once too often even if you have metallic tongs in your hands. You will find that the meat after it has received the grate marks, gets released from the grill automatically after some time. Grate marks prevent the tearing of the meat. 

Patting Dry And Adding Salt And Pepper

Grilling is a rather basic skill anyone can learn by doing it once or twice. But if you want your meats to be crisp and yet want them to retain their juicy flavors, there are some tips and tricks that you have to follow. Meats have sufficient qualities of moisture inside them.  After washing them properly, you must pat dry your meat using a paper napkin. It will help in getting rid of excess moisture that can ruin the entire effort that goes in during barbecuing. Your barbecued meat gives the feeling of steam cooking if you do not use this trick of pat drying with the help of a paper towel. Caramelization becomes difficult when there is excess moisture in your meat that you are trying to grill. 

My second tip to keep in mind is to avoid sprinkling salt and pepper when you are grilling the food. Adding salt at this time would pull out the juices to the surface and render your meat hard even before it is ready to be eaten. Keep salt and pepper till the last moment when the meat is about to be eaten as that is the time when juices are required to come onto the surface. 

Serve Meat Pieces After Cutting Against The Grain

You have done all the effort and grilled the meat to perfection. It is neither too hard nor too soft. It is tender and juicy as it should be. Now don't make the mistake of cutting pieces along the grain of the meat. If you have not observed yet, just take a close look at a large cut of meat, and you will see that fibers of meat run parallel to each other. When you make cuts, make sure to run the knife perpendicular to the direction of the fiber. Your guests get short meat fibers in their mouths, and thus they find the meat tender and juicy. If you have ever tried to chew a piece of meat cut along the grain, you know what I mean. 

Meat Thermometer Helps Initially

When you are new to barbecuing, you find it difficult to know if the meat has been thoroughly cooked from inside. It looks brown and crisp from the outside, but you know it is not cooked completely when you bite and chew the piece. At times meat looks burnt from the outside and yet it is not fully cooked from the inside. You need to make use of a meat thermometer to know whether it is cooked or not. Pork and meat are cooked when they show a temperature of 145 degrees Celsius while the chicken is cooked when you see the inside temperature reading at 165 degrees Celsius. However, this thermometer is only for the beginning as you pick up the tricks of the trader very quickly. You can tell from a distance after some time whether the inside of the meat has been thoroughly cooked or not. 

A barbecue party is a wonderful excuse for inviting your friends to your home and to have a weekend party. All you need is a good quality barbecue and the skill to prepare yummy grilled meats and vegetables.  If you follow the steps described in this article, you will get praise for your skills and the taste of perfectly grilled food items. Barbecuing is both a science as well as art. You become perfect through trial and error. You can cut down on your mistakes if you follow the recommendations given in this article.

David Pac

Update 08 November 2020