BBQs, it is the season

Look out of the window, go on, do it now. Is it raining? Is it sunny? Is it snowing?? It doesn’t matter. It’s July and you know what the means – it’s BBQ time!!!

Time to cook that meat…outside!

The word barbecue usually conjures up thoughts of spareribs or baby back ribs coated with sweet, finger licking good barbecue sauce. Pork ribs or baby back, beef ribs but other meats we barbecue are sausages, chicken, turkey, veal and suckling pigs.  Among the foods some people barbecue are fish, deer chops, turtle and lamb such as lamb chops. Vegetables such as corn on the cob and baked beans can be delicious whether cooked on a barbecue outdoor grill or in an indoor oven.

This is the time during summer when the search is on for Britain’s Best BBQ’er or Gastro Griller. The Tesco Community Fairs, which began on Sunday June 29, will continue on Sundays through July 19. The regional Heats are in full swing and barbecue is on everyone’s mind. Last year more than 7000 people entered the Heats. The fires in barbecue grills raged on until Kevin Douglas of Brixton and Jenny Mason of Lancashire jointly took the first prise. They won a holiday trip to the USA

This year there are more contestants than last year and the BBQ’ers have 90 minutes to serve up a plate of Chicken Ciabatta and a second dish of their choice. The cook-offs create a lot of excitement and many Gastro Griller contestants have already completed their day at the barbecue grill and await the final Heats. Check out the gastro-alfresco website to learn where the 10 remaining Heats are taking place on July 19. You can find all of this year’s winners listed on the website after the final Heats are over.

The Alfresco Experience Roadshow is on its road tour visiting over 130 supermarkets around Britain this summer. Get your BBQ tips, samples and giveaways by visiting your local Supermarket. While at the supermarket, stay for the master class presented by a special guest. August 24 is the Have a Better Barbi Day when master grillers will be cooking and serving the biggest alfresco live event where everyone can eat, drink and enjoy the entertainment.

Enjoy the entertainment of a BBQ, with your fresh meat!

Many people seem to equate barbecuing with grilling meats such as hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, bratwurst, and other popular meats over hot flames in an outside grill. However, genuine barbecuing takes a lot more time, effort and patience. Barbecuing on an outside grill or an inside oven cannot be rushed. Barbecuing meat too fast will lead to uncooked, burnt and usually tough meat. Cooking the meat slowly over steady heat is a skill many people who like to barbecue have not mastered. The secret to tender meat is steady, even heat whether barbecuing on an outside grill or barbecuing in an inside conventional oven.

Barbecuing meat on an outside grill is not a phenomenon modern man discovered in the eighteenth century. Building grills goes back to ancient times and perhaps even beyond. The early Jewish people built grills of stones and cooked lamb and doves and even baked bread cakes.  Grilling to many people is simply dropping a bunch of wood chips or charcoal chips in a grill, setting them on fire and letting them, burn until there are only hot coals over which they can cook the meat.  Others cook over a flame, which in reality sears and burns the meat rather than cooking it. Cooking in an oven is the best way to cook all foods evenly and safely. The best BBQ foods to cook in an oven when the rain comes are all the foods you cook on an outside grill and more.

The art of barbecuing equates with slow cooking then coating the meat with a barbecue sauce purchased from supermarkets. Some people are clever enough to create their own tasty barbecue sauce like those who enter the Gastro Griller Heats each summer. These BBQers know how to slow cook meat in a barbecue grill and they know barbecue sauce is not what makes delicious tasting barbecued meat. The purpose of adding barbecue sauce to tender, slow cooked meat is to enhance the flavors of the meat. Meat cooked slowly for a long time on an outdoor grill or in an indoor oven is the secret to good barbecued meat.

Cook the meat slowly. This has been going for 6 days

Among the best foods to cook in an oven when the rain comes is a rack of ribs. Set your oven temperature to 250° F/218°C. Rinse the ribs under running tepid, tap water. This removes any preservatives, dust or paper lint, which accompanied your ribs home from the supermarket. Carefully cut away excessive fat near the ribs tips. Pat dry with a clean linen clothe and place on a rack. Rub with your preferred meat rub or sea salt and black pepper. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil and pop into the oven for 2½ hours. Some ovens burn hotter than others, you may need to increase or decrease the time by about ten minutes.

Oven cooking – not the same is it?

Remove meat from the oven then remove aluminum foil carefully. Spoon barbecue sauce over the ribs and pop them back into the oven for 30 moments, remove and serve. Serve barbecue sauce in a gravy boat for those who like more sauce. Remember to parboil meat such as duck, deer, rabbit and other wild game to remove the bitter or wild flavor before cooking. However, domestic meats lose their flavor when parboiled.

Among the best foods to cook in the oven are baby back ribs, chicken breasts or legs and various kinds of roasts, meat loaf and pork chops.  Cook potatoes or sweet potatoes buttered and wrapped in aluminum wrap in an oven until tender. Sliced and seasoned vegetables such as summer squash, green beans, peas and carrots cooked in an oven are very tasty. The secret is patience and avoiding turning the temperature up to speed up the cooking process.

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