5 tips for successful barbecue cooking

2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 18:44

We often have a love/hate relationship with barbecues, and for so many reasons! In any case, for me, the core of the war is the cooking of food. Here are some tips to avoid quarrels and burnt steaks.

1. Perfect dumpling

Since the hamburger is one of the most prepared dishes on the barbecue, here is a tip for a beautiful and good hamburger: the composition of the meat in the patty consists of 80% lean meat (never extra lean meat) and 20% fatty meat (regular).

The famous hamburger press is a really interesting tool to make sure you have uniform and well-pressed patties. I also have another trick learned by my brother (former restaurateur): it is important to press, with your thumb, in the center of the pancake to form a small cavity. By doing this, the dumpling will not swell like a soccer ball. This will keep your galette nice and flat to accommodate your cheese (yum! yum!).

2. We don't touch anymore

For all grills, it is not necessary to play "flip the pancake". You should never turn a piece of meat or fish more than onceor poultry. We sear the meat, let it cook according to the necessary cooking time and then, we turn only once! We don't play with it to pretend we're doing something other than sipping our glass of wine (ha ha ha!).

3. Wash, wash…

Grid cleaning is essential. I'm sure any chef would be put off to hear us talk about our BBQ cleaning habits.

To keep our machines looking as good as when they were new, we should take a little fifteen minutes a month to clean the moving parts of the barbecue like the grates. Only that. This operation removes excess food that could block the gas outlets and potentially cause a little big bang in our yard or curl our eyebrows!

It is also advisable to rub quickly cold before lighting the beast and another time hot, before putting our food to grill.

4. A little air

Always wait until the barbecue is cool and dry before putting the cover back on. A good idea: ventilate the thing from time to time to reduce the risk of rust or deterioration of your barbecue. The cover, at home, is not great… Oops! It contains natural ventilation holes!

5. Delicious Onions

Here is a good culinary tip, learned during my meetings with barbecue pros: we cook whole onions after our barbecue sessions to have “candied” onions, to slip intothe barbecue.

How do we do it? When your grilled meats are ready and removed from the grill, close the gas or the air inlet and place whole onions (including the skin!) on the grill. Simply close the lid and let it cook. After supper, remove the onions, remove the skin and put everything in a food processor or finely chop. We put everything in the fridge and when it's time to make the burgers, we put them in the meatballs, before cooking.

A real delight!