Barbecue hacks, tips, tricks and advice you must read

As the weather gets warmer and summer gets closer, here are some tips to make your BBQ even easier!

Here are some simple hacks to make your summer BBQs really stand out.

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'10 & 2' isn’t just for your steering wheel you know…

Here's the perfect formula to make those oh-so-beautiful criss-cross marks on your meat. Think of your grill as a steering wheel or clock and angle the meat facing towards 10 o’clock and cook halfway through. Then, without flipping, turn the meat so it’s facing 2 o’clock. Do the same on the other side and, voila, you have the perfect grill effect.

Ice makes your burger even better

Simply placing ice chips in a dimple in the middle of your burger will stop the patty from drying out and losing the wonderful meaty juiciness of the burger. Even better, add a pat of butter, it does the same job, and who doesn’t love a bit of butter on their burger?

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Don't become a grill scrubber

To save yourself time and a LOT of effort, aluminum foil is your new best friend. All you have to do is: 1) make sure the grates are warm as this will help the grime brush off easily; 2) crumple a sheet of foil the size of your grates into a ball; 3) using tongs/hands and some good old-fashioned elbow grease, grip the ball of foil and give the grates a good scrub; 4) after cleaning, spray the grates with cooking oil to maintain a non-stick exterior and keep them from rusting.

Or clean the organic way

Onions are natural disinfectants, so if your special grill cleaning brush is out of reach (or you simply don’t have one), cut an onion in half and rub it on the surface of the grates.

Thumbs are perfect meat thermometers

Well, kind of. Using your thumb to check how steaks are cooked is an old trick, but not many people have heard of it. The large base of your thumb when relaxed should feel like a raw steak. With your thumb and index finger touching, it should feel like a rare steak. With thumb touching your middle finger is medium rare, thumb to ring finger is medium, and thumb to pinky is well done.

Photo: Hellmanns UK 

Jars are perfect spice shakers

Instead of getting greasy, sticky fingers when rubbing spices into your meat, throw it all into a jar. Just put your meat in there, throw in the dry spices you fancy using and shake, shake, shake your booty until the meat is nicely coated.

Two tongs are better than one

This way you can have one pair for handling food (preferably with grips!), and another with insulated handles for turning coals. Now you’ll have food that isn’t dusty and your charcoals won’t flare up from food grease.

Potato starch is magic

To prevent the frustrating grill-stick problem, you need to treat your grill surface and make it non-stick. But how? Well, all you need is a potato cut in half, a fork and a grill. Stab the fork in so the potato’s fleshy side faces out and rub, rub, rub back and forth on the hot grill several times – you should hear a sizzling sound and, hey presto, your non-stick grill is ready.

You can smoke your food without a smoker…

You can easily achieve a smoker finish with your average grill by making a “smoker pouch” out of strong, heavy aluminum foil. All you need to do is fold the foil into a makeshift envelope, add soaked chips (that aren’t dripping wet) and fold the pouch up tight. Poke a couple of air holes into the foil to let the smoke out and then put the pack under the grill grate on top of your burner. And there you have it, you have a portable smoker.

Fish and citrus complement each other

Worried about your fish sticking to the grill? Place your fish on top of either lemons or limes before and during grilling to stop this happening. And the citrus fruit really gives it an added edge.

Photo: YouTube/ Chowhound

Cut your hot dogs into spirals

This neat trick is ever so easy to do and you’ll enjoy some nice and crispy hot dogs too. Not only that, your condiments will stick to those perfect sausages. All you have to do is poke a long wooden skewer through the centre of the sausage, hold a knife at a slight angle all the way down to the skewer as you roll the dog away from you, cut all the way to the edge, pull out the skewer and you’re ready.

Inventive skewers

Thread rosemary sticks instead of wooden cocktail skewers through meat and veg pieces. This makes a delicious alternative as the freshly-cooked meat juices will infuse the meat with the rosemary’s flavour. It’s the same with fruit kebabs and cinnamon sticks!

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Tortilla chips aren’t just tasty snacks…

If you’ve ran out of firelighters, just throw some tortilla chips on the grill. They make fantastic barbecue kindling!

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Keeping the pests away

To keep those bugs off your cooked food all you need to do is place cloves on your table. Cloves are basically dried aromatic flower buds of a plant named Syzgium aromaticum and are dark brown, pungent and nail shaped. Flies hate the subtle scent of cloves, so the little spice will make your life a whole lot easier.

A spray of apple goes a long way

Spray 100% apple juice at different intervals while cooking as it will improve the colour, flavour and tenderness of your meat. This will go especially well with pork, mmmmmm.

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The sharper the better

Always have a top-quality sharp knife next to the BBQ, because you never know how much excess fat you might have to trim from your meat.

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Add a little pucker to your pout

For your next BBQ, why not try making some smoked lemonade for your guests to enjoy by roasting a few lemon slices on the grill? You could stick them in some traditional cloudy lemonade, or pair the smoked lemon juice with a smoky-flavoured liquor.

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Herbs roasting on an open fire

Adding a handful or so of herbs to your burning coals will give your food a little extra kick as it cooks. Some of the best herbs to use are basil, bay, blackcurrant, fennel, rosemary, sage, sweet cicely and blends such as thyme and mint to get that subtle herby hue.

Pizzas aren’t just for the oven

Did you know that you can cook pizza on your grill and it will taste delicious? The grill will make your pizza taste like it has just come out of a brick oven! All you need to do is preheat a pizza stone for 30 minutes on the grill with indirect heat. Make sure the stone is very hot! And there you go, your very own makeshift pizza oven.

Give your meat some breathing time

Taking your meat out of the refrigerator 15 minutes before cooking allows it to come up to room temperature. This will make your meat cook more evenly, and the outside is less likely to char before the middle is cooked to your culinary perfection.

Protect your veggies

For the full barbecue experience, we want to grill everything. But delicate vegetables can’t withstand the heat as meat can. Top tip – wrap your veggies in foil. This locks in the heat so they cook faster, but protects them from catching on the grill and burning.

Soak those skewers

Leaving your skewers to soak in water for 20 minutes before barbecuing will stop them from burning too badly, so you can still have all the fun of eating a kebab.

Safety in numbers

Use two skewers instead of one for your kebab, as this will stop individual pieces from rotating as you flip them on the grill. This way all your meat will cook evenly.

Prep, prep, prep

You should always grease your grill before adding food. This handy tip won’t just help the food cook, but it will also stop residue and food from sticking to the grill. This way you’ll still get the good ol’ smoky barbecue-charred flavour with minimal fuss.

Squirt that sauce

OK, so you’re at a barbecue, and there’s a crazy scramble to be fed – we know, that’s totally normal! But how do you let the chef know the way to cook your burger? Well, just squirt R, MR, or WD with the sauce of your choosing and hey presto you’ve requested your perfect patty!

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Today isn’t the day to push

It’s a common error we make wanting to flip, turn and press the meat – but it’s actually doing your meat no favours. Continually flipping the meat prevents a caramelized crust from forming, while pressing down with a spatula or tongs makes the juices run out, which makes your meat dry. And nobody wants that.

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Safety in numbers

Use two skewers instead of one for your kebab, as this will stop individual pieces from rotating as you flip them on the grill. This way all your meat will cook evenly.

Time waits for no-one

If you’ve been having too much fun, chatting with friends and catching up so you’ve forgotten to start up the meat, you don’t need to worry. To speed things along, you can start the cooking process in the microwave and finish off on the barbecue. So go and grab another cold beer, you’ve earned it.

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Two-zone fires are the answer to your prayers

Dividing your grill into two parts can help you manage the temperature. Keep burning coals heaped on one side of the grill so you can cook meat on one side, then move it to the cooler side to rest when it’s done.

So you don’t waste a drop of heat

Grills will stay warm way after you’re done cooking. To make the most of the heat, you can keep foods on the grill that need to stay warm, like burger and hot dog buns, extra cooked meat and grilled vegetables. As an added bonus, you can use the last bit of heat to cook desserts in foil for your guests.

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