Make barbecues easily

Tips for making a good barbecue

BBQ cooking times

BBQ cooking times

Make barbecues easily

Making a barbecue may seem like a simple task but if you have already done one you will know that it is not as easy as most people think. Achieving a perfect result is usually a mix of skill, dexterity and following a good method. Today we are going to explain how to make a barbecue and become a professional.

It is important to do a previous preparation and have the right accessories to carry out a perfect barbecue.

Choose the type of barbecue you choose, it is essential that you take into account the following aspects to ensure that all the foods you decide to cook are just right. Follow our advice and surprise your guests!

Tips to get a perfect barbecue:

1.- How many people are going to come to eat? Before starting to prepare anything, the essential thing is to know approximately how many people you are going to cook for. It is not the same to prepare a barbecue for 5 people than for 10. You can see our question and answer page to see the quantities needed to make a barbecue.

2.- We take this opportunity to tell you that when buying the ingredients that are going to be cooked on the grill, try to do it with your head and if possible with a full stomach.
Most of the time we get too excited buying food (we always think it is better than not enough) and then we almost never finish eating everything we have bought.

3.- Once you know how many people you should prepare the barbecue for and you have all the ingredients purchased, the first thing to do before starting to prepare anything is to make sure that the grill is in perfect condition.

Did you clean it well when you finished using it the last time? Despite having cleaned it, haven't you used it in a long time? If so, you should clean it again now before anything else.

Heat the grill without cooking anything on it for about 10 minutes and in this way you will eliminate grease and bad odors that may have been impregnated in it. Use a metal brush to remove any traces of burnt oil and / or grease. 

Make barbecues easily

Making a barbecue may seem like a simple task but if you have already done one you will know that it is not as easy as most people think

Tips for making a good barbecue

4.- If you already have the barbecue ready, it is time to turn it on. Again, this step is not always an easy task. If you are new to this world, we recommend you start with charcoal that you can buy in any store, doing it with firewood is more complicated, it takes more time to ignite and also much more to make the embers.

Take the meat out of the fridge about 1 hour before cooking.

Do not put the meat on the barbecue until the grill is done, with regard to salt, there are conflicting opinions. There are those who recommend not salting the meat until it is ready, to prevent it from drying out, but it must be said that Argentine and Uruguayan grills salt the meat abundantly with coarse salt before putting it on the grill and if you have ever tried roast Argentinian, you will agree that they know very well what they do. It depends on the cut of meat you have chosen: if you plan to cook not very tall cutlets, which cook quite quickly, do not salt them before.

Depending on the type of meat, aromatic herbs, marinades and marinades can also be used, such as barbecue sauce.

5.- Controlling the cooking temperature is basic and patience is the mother of all barbecues, the meat has to be done little by little. Control the embers if you are using a charcoal barbecue, or the flame because you are doing it with a gas barbecue, it is very important that you know at all times what intensity of heat the food you are cooking needs if you do not want to end the first batches of charred or overcooked food. Using a thermometer fork will help you monitor the temperature.

6.- Use the time of preparation and cooking of the embers to make the famous appetizer that we all like so much. Some chips, olives, cheese, crakers ... could be the perfect appetizer!

Do not abuse this snack too much because we often eat too much with these starters and then ... when it is time to start with the meat, vegetables or fish ... nobody is hungry anymore!  

BBQ cooking times

BBQ cooking times

7.- The cooking time of each food is different, so do not forget to take this aspect into account when deciding what to cook first and what to leave for last.

85% of barbecues that are usually made are meat barbecues so we are going to try to guide you with the order that you should follow to cook all the pieces of meat that you have bought to perfection:

First of all we recommend cooking the starters. They are usually made from pork and also tend to require more cooking time and are: chorizo, bacon, skewers ... Try not to get too overcooked on the outside but raw on the inside. How to prevent this from happening? Separate the grill at least 15 centimeters from the embers (or heat source) and this way you will get the food to cook little by little both outside and inside.
Chicken also takes a long time to cook for it to be well cooked, so as soon as you have the starters ready, put the chicken on the fire and let it cook little by little.
At the same time that the chicken is cooked, vegetables such as zucchini, aubergine, mushrooms, onion, pepper... can also be cooked little by little.In this way, you will have them ready as companions to the same chicken and lamb or veal that you will cook in the end.

We recommend that you soak the vegetables you want to cook in oil to make them more tasty and cook before. Keep an eye on the vegetables because they cook very quickly and they could burn.

Veal and lamb are done quite quickly so they are the foods you should save until the end of everything. With just 5 minutes on each side, you will have the veal and lamb ready to eat!

8.- The barbecue accessories are designed to make our life easier when we start cooking on the grill so… why not use them?
There are many accessories that you can find on the market today and all of them are very useful. But ... in order to make a perfect barbecue, we recommend that you have at least these two prepared:

Gloves to avoid burning yourself
Food handling tongs
Barbecue lighter

9.- Once you finish cooking all the food, do not forget to make sure that the barbecue is well off, whatever its heat source. This remnant of heat can serve to keep the meat warm, you can put the embers on one side and on the other the meat that is almost ready to eat.

Keeping your barbecue grill clean is a very important aspect to achieve good results when cooking.

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