Hire a large bbq or buy?

[Clarabellawilliamson]

I'm planning a 40th birthday party at my house for July. I think the easiest way to feed a large varied group of people is with a bbq. We have a medium charcoal bbq, but bigger (and gas!) would def be easier for the numbers. Should I hire? Have you ever done this? Should I just buy then sell on after?

How many people are you catering for? Would starting the cooking in the oven then transferring to the BBQ for a smokey crust make your current BBQ work?

Numbers wise probably about 40? That could work, we have a tiny oven too, which was why I thought bbq would be easier

Australian here. If it will be a one off, I certainly agree that picking something up secondhand would be the best way to go about it. Do you have access to a trailer/white van for transport?

And keeping my Australian hat on, do you have enough fridge space for a possibly hot day? You really need to think about food safety. A second fridge for the day might be the best investment ever.

How often have you cooked on the kind that you would hire?

I'm a big fan of BBQ's generally but I really wouldn't want to be using a gas BBQ for the first time, when cooking for a party.

Oh, good point. Prioritise fridge space for food on a hot or even warm day.

I've done parties where the drinks were kept cool in dustbins and wheelbarrows filled with ice.

All good 😁

Thanks everyone- good points raised! Fridge space we are ok for ( extra fridge and freezer in the garage plus parents fridge down the road) Currently leaning towards just buying ourselves a gas bbq to keep afterwards rather than just pay to hire, which is looking at about £100-£140 for the weekend. If we put that towards buying one we could get something decent...

With those numbers, how about just hiring caterers to do it? (Just the BBQ part, you could still do the rest of the buffet yourselves) We regularly hold BBQs for 20, and it involves 1-2 people manning the BBQ throughout. You will spend so much time hosting and sweating away, it won't be much of a celebration for you. Caterers will supply their own BBQ too, so that solves that problem also.

Have any of the attending friends/families got one or 2 you can borrow?
this is what we do with large family bbqs!

Another one from southern hemisphere here.

Does your butchery not offer out a service that they supply the meat and then cook it for you?

Most of our butchers here do this (we call it a spit, maybe someone knows the correct UK term..maybe it's rotisserie?). So you pick 3 or 4 meats, the butcher comes to your house, brings along the BBQ, he cooks it all and cuts up the meat ready for serving. So you don't have to be worried about all the cooking for that amount of people.

I am sure something like this would be so much easier for a crowd.

BBQ for 40 people is huge and a lot of work!

For 40 people you could look at hiring someone to do it all.

Failing that we have a gas bbq from b&q about 200£ with 3 burners and we use it all.the time. Theres 2 of us but usually bbq for 8 or 10 most weekends and use the oven too. But dh isn't v relaxed about bbq and likes to cook it so it's all ready at the same time. Impossible for 40.

The gas makes it easy.

A friend regularly does bbq for parties and does whole joints of meat so its much easier. Then lots of sides. Leg of lamb, pork joints, ribs.

Thanks everyone! Good suggestions here. I won't actually be stood at the grill myself.... there are competitive menfolk for that! I think we are moving towards having two separate bbqs- one for meat and one for veggi, as there will be vegetarian/ vegans to cater for too. So I will probably either borrow or buy a second.

I'm loving all the input from the Aussie's! You can pay for a hog roast or someone to cater a bbq for you, but it's not something I would think to do outside of a wedding/ large event. 40 includes kids btw. Will need to make sure we can bulk buy ice to keep drinks cool in trugs while the fridges are in use!