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.

All the people complaining about trips back and forth to the kitchen are overcomplicating things. The point of a BBQ is not to bring your entire kitchen outdoors. Just BBQ some burgers, have a bag of shredded lettuce, buns, ketchup, done.

Whoever decided barbeques needed fancy salads, cutlery etc was an idiot in my opinion 😂

@GulesMeansRed

It’s only as faff as you make it.
We barbecue year-round and love it.
Don’t like it? Don’t do it. Easy peasy.
Maybe you haven’t had really good BBQ, I don’t know, like Texas or the U.S. south.
It’s mouthwatering.

YABU, you’re just amateurs, that’s all. If you can’t stand the heat, get back in the kitchen.

1000% agree OP

There is really no need to do additional things to an inside meal, like napkins, puddings etc… it’s just a meal but cooked on the bbq.
I think people are assuming a bbq is always an event, most of our bbqs are just me, DH and DD.

Nit U at all. I much prefer a picnic.

I love them , I love a charcoal bbq , not sausages and burgers ( I can’t think of anything worse than wasting my time with just that ) but proper meat , seafood or fish is amazing

The only reason to have a BBQ is to cook decent meat and fish. I mean a proper BBQ, not gas. A decent sirloin steak is at its very best when cooked on a BBQ, if you know how to cook.

Couldn’t agree more OP. Faffy, dirty, smokey.

No I don’t want a sausage in a white finger roll. No I don’t think your cremated burger will be anywhere near as nice as Five Guys.

Cook something nice indoors using a civilised hob and oven and then eat it in the garden.

I HATE them!

The worst was when our cousin and family were over from Australia. He's a chef so instead of the usual burgers and sausages effort, we had to marinade all sorts of stuff and do fancy salads etc.

My hangover was seismic...

No I don’t want a sausage in a white finger roll. No I don’t think your cremated burger will be anywhere near as nice as Five Guys.

hmm could be the problem right there.

I’m with you 100% , I would not waste my time on burger and sausage but nice meat or fish it’s amazing . We had some sirloin steak and port loin on the bbq yesterday . It was lovely

Agreed! I've never seen the appeal, even as a child. The taste of the food is overrated.

YABU - gas BBQ here though
2 minutes to clean after use (wash grill bits)
heat up whilst throwing salad together n assembling buns - sauces chutneys etc
cook whilst enjoying a drink
eat

I think you have to cook decent food to have a decent meal indoors or on a BBQ.

If it's crap sausages and burgers it's still going to be crap sausages and burgers wherever you cook it.

Our bbq was literally a blot on the landscape. It was like even the bbq cba anymore. So it went to the big b and q in the sky last year.

My OH is really indecisive about the new bbq. So I have been blessed without the contstant nagging for a bbq the second it's vaguely warm. I am loving it.

We need a new car. Am convinced more effort and research had gone into the bbq to date.

I love cooking on the BBQ. But for my OH the BBQ has to be an event.
So if we plan to have friends over for drinks and I say I'll do proper piri-piri chicken on the BBQ, that's unacceptable - we have to do burgers and sausages etc too.
Sod that, I can't be arsed with it.

Yeah, there are loads of posts assuming that people have guests when they have a bbq. We rarely do, it’s usually just the 5 of us. We don’t cook cheap burgers and sausages, or do loads of extra ‘sides’ etc, we just cook the food we’d normally eat, on the bbq. Last night we had sea bass done on the bbq.

God your neighbours must dread summer

We use the gas bbq a lot, and all year. It’s right outside the kitchen. Frozen salmon put straight on it cooks beautifully, prefer to cook fish like sardines or mackerel on it than the kitchen.

agree though that my heart sinks when get invited to one and it’s cheap sausages and burgers, cotton wool buns and coleslaw bathed in vats of mayonnaise.

Why? Nearest one is about half a mile away, not sure they give a shit what we’re cooking on.

They smell amazing but yanbu. Food either burnt or give you food poisoning... luckily no one I knows BBQs and only been twice to one in my life....however I love the smell in the summer..so BBQ away neighbours...(sadly they don't) as the smell is a summer pleasure

I feel sorry for all these posters who have only ever had a burnt sausage in a cotton wool roll, or food poisoning!

You don't know what you're missing. There is nothing quite like carefully and beautifully cooked tasty food on a barbecue. But it's like anything isn't it? I don't know how to use an instant pot or an air fryer for instance. However, we can barbecue.

You have to learn how to cook properly on a barbecue. Many of us don't burn food, serve up uncooked black sausages, horrible rolls, pink chicken and nasty salads.

Why are people BBQing shite food? You need decent quality ingredients for quick cooking methods, cheap stuff is for slow cooking.

Steak or chops for the meat eaters, tuna or mackerel for the fish eaters, halloumi and vegetables for everyone.

The barbecue needs time to get hot, sure, but you just ignore it until it’s ready.

A carb - potato salad or pitta bread; some vegetables - ideally cooked on the BBQ or a green salad; a protein - steak, fish whatever. That’s no more faff than any other meal.

We eat outside every warm day anyway.

I love BBQ and we've done 5 already over the past 2 weekends 😅 but I agree the first one of the year is a faff.

We tend to do a lot of small BBQs though, just my partner and I during the baby's nap. We get drinks out, some snacks or starters whilst the BBQ heats up, and chill in the sun.
And we bought a good reliable BBQ so we know it takes about 30 min to heat up and don't need to stand over it, and it has a thermometer anyway. Cleaning is 10 min brushing at the end, done.