Why is BBQing so bloody difficult?

[tututastic]

DH and I moved into our first ever house, with first private garden last summer. We bought a BBQ with dreams of easy, summer grilled meals but are obviously both too stupid to figure out how to work it. Would anyone have complete beginner tips?

I’ve tried searching online but it all seems so complicated - kettle bbqs and smokers and wrapped/ unwrapped cooking etc etc. I just want to know how to do a simple BBQ.

We have a normal drum BBQ from Argos. We fill it with self lighting (?) coals. It smokes like bugger. I put meat on. The marinade/ oil drips on the coals. Smoke billows. The outside burns. The inside is pink. I scape off the meat. Then we have to wait for the BBQ to cool, scrub the grill by hand, creating a huge mess of burnt black bits in the white kitchen. Tip over the BBQ to clean the coals. The drum shape holds the bits of coal in so we basically have to turn it upside down. Dispose of the ash and burnt coals. It’s SUCH an immense pain I can only assume I’m BBQing completely wrong.

Any help?

www.which.co.uk/reviews/barbecues/article/how-to-cook-on-your-barbecue-ab5vb7C45uMA

Food that's burnt on outside but raw on inside means bbq was too hot. The goal of bbq isn't to make it all flamey and dramatic.

Thank you, @Katesblazer and @TheSandgroper. I clicked on this thread thinking I knew roughly how to BBQ, but it turns out it was rather rougher than I thought. Good posts!

Don't use smokeless coal - it's great for stoves or solid fuel heating but the fumes it gives off can be toxic and don't mix well with food, and it won't burn at as high a temperature as charcoal (which will give you a lovely steady hot cooking temperature once that initial 30 minutes or so have passed).

And yes, light it with a little kindling (easy to pick up from petrol stations or some large supermarkets), let the charcoal burn til it's starting to turn grey/white, then experiment with stuff that's not too expensive until you get the knack of which areas of the grill are hotter, cooler, how often you need to turn things. Then you can 'graduate' to stuff with marinades and fancy flavours

Look for proper BBQ/outdoor cooking recipes as well rather than stuff that gives a BBQ flavour - some marinades aren't designed to cook well with direct heat, so something that has a lot of sugar in it for example might come out really well if it's cooked in an oven in a nice heavy dish but will burn to fuck in no time if it's cooked over flame/coals.

We swear by the chimney starter method as it's so easy. You put the coals in the chimney and light with firefighters. After 30 mins the coals will be white and you tip them out of the chimney and onto the bbq. Then you arrange the coals depending on how you are going to cook ( direct heat or indirect heat)

We cook whole chickens , the Xmas Turkey and whole fish on our one. We use it every weekend in the summer.

@AngelsWithSilverWings

We swear by the chimney starter method as it's so easy. You put the coals in the chimney and light with firefighters. After 30 mins the coals will be white and you tip them out of the chimney and onto the bbq. Then you arrange the coals depending on how you are going to cook ( direct heat or indirect heat)

We cook whole chickens , the Xmas Turkey and whole fish on our one. We use it every weekend in the summer.

I came on to recommend the chimney starter!

Great minds and all!

Don't forget the important step after you've cooked your meat. Toast marshmallows over the coals. You need to keep the coals going long enough for that. We have a gas barbecue as we have a small garden and the smoke was a bit antisocial for the neighbours. I miss toasting marshmallows properly!

@BootsScootsAndToots

Gas! We bbq about 3 months of the year (we live in Aus) and the faff of trying those coal crap ones when we lived in the UK did my nut in.

This!! We grilled on our gas Weber a good chunk of the time in Aus and now feel quite smug when we light it and cook with ease instead of titting on with smokey coals like all the neighbours.

It is shit and alot of work. I think they are only useful for blokes to stand around whilst proclaiming they are cooking.

Then there is all the salad, bread, side bits to shop for. And the washing up.

On the very rare occasions we have one we buy the disposable ones. Even then it is alot of work for little return.

I always clean the grill bbq whilst it's still hot much easier

With one of those metal scrubber things...

I use a mix of briquettes and when they've gone white I put some decent charcoal on top....

Meat should be out of the fridge.. room temp

Always add oil to the marinade if your using large cuts of meat like a butterfly of lamb or chops etc

Always cook the kids stuff first

I cannot recommend the chimney starter thing enough. Oh and a decent bbq with a lid - the lid on with vents open allows it to cook through much more evenly and not spit so crazily. Spread the coals out, don't pile them up at all - that makes things burn and spit crazily.

Buy a Weber kettle, that's my advice, they are the best you can buy and will last forever. I really don't see the point of gas barbecues, they don't taste as good and you might as well use your cooker.

Agree with all of the advice, especially about waiting for the charcoal to go grey white. Choose the lid, and away you go.

Oh and don't use ordinary firelighters of course, you'll tastes them on the food 🤮