to think barbecues just aren't worth the effort?

[GulesMeansRed]

First barbecue of the year today.

Retrieve barbecue from back of shed, give it a good scrub because although it was put away clean (or DH sys it was) and covered, it's sticky and mucky after 9 months. Search for charcoal. Search for firelighter thingies. Get the thing going. Stand around while it gets to the right stage for cooking. Start cooking the stuff. Constant debate about whether it's done or not. Multiple trips back into the house to get salad, salad dressing, cheese slices, another beer, tomato ketchup, another plate, another spoon, forks. Then all the clearing away and disposing of the charcoal.

Total faff.

We're in the UK and were lucky enough to have a garden kitchen in the basement, but even then there's a lot of to and froing unless you have two of everything you need and can keep it there.

It's weird. All my friends and people I mix with do banging BBQs!! I've never had a pink chicken or sausage. Or half a lettuce leaf. It's always been delicious. And I usually leave asking for the recipe for a particular sald that was delicious. There's obviously a helluva lot of people out there who haven't got a clue how to cook!

*salad

We're in the UK and were lucky enough to have a garden kitchen in the basement, but even then there's a lot of to and froing unless you have two of everything you need and can keep it there

Another who doesn’t understand the to’ing/fro’ ing aspect. In your kitchen, before guests arrive you make majority of salads or sides ahead of time, there may be one or two that may go soggy you can prep but you take 2mins towards the end to finish constructing. You have meat all prepped before arrivals, nibbles done. Plates stacked etc.

Once BBQ is ready to go, meat goes out to BBQ together with utensils and platters to put cooked meat on. That is one trip from the kitchen involving 2 people (and if larger gathering a tray to hold more stuff than hands could).

Once BBQ is 5 mins from being done, one goes to kitchen, 2min finish for any salads, get other salads out of fridge together with any butter/condiments required. Meanwhile BBQ cook platters meat at BBQ and places on outdoor/indoor table (depending on weather/season). You announce to everyone foods ready, please go in and grab stuff to bring out. Everything should now be on bench and you have ‘helpers’, everyone takes a salad or pile of plates or condiments they can carry. All put on whatever table. Wine/drinks on table, beer in ice in esky, to avoid in/out when anyone wants a drink.

When meal is finished, it simply works in reverse. People take it all back inside and dump on bench. People leave kitchen. You then take 10mins to put anything required back in fridge, scrape plates into bin, stack plates etc.

One more trip when desert is up, few helpers back into kitchen, all in/out in one go.

When people leave, you stack dishwasher, any hand washing while the other quickly cleans BBQ.

You learn this endlessly as a child and then become one of the ‘helpers’ as you get older and you just replicate whatever role, be it as a guest at a BBQ or doing your own BBQ. No idea what people find challenging.

Buy a Cobb. Put entire thing in dishwasher after use. Be smug.

I hate bbqs , think there smelly, smoke goes in the house or other peoples houses everytime the wind changes direction, makes washing stink, everything tastes awful.
Waste of time, just switch oven on chuck it all in, much simpler.

yes totally agree was just saying this to dp the other day but I thought it was just us moaning as others seem to love them. I even usually use a disposable bbq which saves all the faff of washing but it's still a huge faff in and out of the house to chop salad grab extra plates, cutlery, sauces etc. just easier when you cook in the kitchen where everything is. BBQ food tastes lovely when it's cooked but yeah huge faff.

I understand how to do it, it is just absolutely definitely more faff and carrying than a regular meal cooked inside, plus - and this I think is the crux - bbq food is not better or even as good as food cooked in any other way, and so ANY effort for it is utterly pointless.

I very rarely grill single items inside, so most of what we eat just doesn't translate to bbqing. We eat a lot of vegetables (but no, not stuck on skewers and chargrilled), curries and stews, rice with veggie "meatballs" or falafel type things with sauces, pasta, couscous again with pulses and veg and sauces....it's just not the type of food that translates onto being cooked over an open fire (and we have a gas bbq from back when DH was a meat eater and VERY into bbqing).

I totally know how to do it, I just don't LIKE it very much, which makes the effort involved simple too much. Once or twice a year, yes fine. More than that? Nope.

Chargrilled is the best way to eat veggies! BBQ'd cauliflower is lovely

I have sneak tactics to get out of it.

Let DH crack on with the BBQ.
Volunteer to handle things like wedges inside, plus do sausages, skewers on my cast iron griddle inside.
Put all sides bread etc on the kitchen worktop.
Invite people in to fill up their plates before getting their burgers before I join the with exclusively kitchen cooked food.
Secretly be smug that my food was cooked better, with less hassle and less clear up.
Use the dying coals to slow roast aubergines for baba ganoush, which absolutely does benefit from the smoky flavour.

This.

Far too much hassle for a few bits of charred meat and a rice salad. 😀

a rice salad.

Hmm last time I had one of those it was at my SiL wedding in 1984.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a rice salad. Certainly not at a bbq. The key take away there is… don’t cook things you don’t actually like.

🙈

Love a BBQ… healthy way to eat and my DH does it all! We have a gas BBQ/outdoor kitchen kinda set up though so we don’t have a lot of faff… I drink beer and get out the sauces/salad, but I’d be doing that anyway if we were eating in the kitchen

Again, you are doing it all wrong

But why would you want MORE work?

It's really not healthy............@

I actually find it less work than cooking normally indoor for 8😅

Fair enough @venus, we grill a lot of veg (including lettuce!) and meat on ours, so less frying/baking/roasting in oils, fats etc than we do indoors although it’s all still marinaded in it it’s just not sitting in it and being served with it.
So I’m sticking with healthy actually 😂 but you disagree and that’s fine!

Yes ! DP loves to do a bbq invites loads of people .. I do the food shop then prep all salads and other stuff and then have the clean up and washing after … he don’t understand why it’s an effort cause he “ does the cooking “ … basically stands there why I rush back and forth with raw meat and then serving up cooked stuff 😂 hate it hate it hate it

Totally agree! I do enjoy food cooked on the bbq, but it’s such a pain! Hubby is the type that will just be like “ooh let’s shove a few sausages on the bbq” just for us, on a sunny day! He gets annoyed cus I always grumble! I don’t see the point when I can Chuck em in the oven and it’s dead easy 🤣 When it’s for loads of people coming round it’s not as bad, but still a pain

I think the problem is that, in the UK, people often make an unnecessary fuss of BBQing. We BBQ at least once a week, year round, often 2-3 times a week in the summer. I don't find it any more difficult/ faffy than cooking indoors and some foods (ribs, pulled pork, smoked aubergine, shell-on king prawns, thick-cut steaks and so many more) just taste so much better to me when cooked over charcoal.

I love using my gas bbq to cook just my own tea

no smells in the house and a nice chilled out evening in the garden with a paper plate so no washing up 🤣🤣

@childfreebychoice how often does it rain or blow a gale in summer where you are?

weather makes a difference, easy to be smug if you don’t have U.K. weather