Winter or summer, barbecuing is now a yearlong passion for most people. To make your bar-b-q party the talk of the town, follow some easy barbecuing tips. Armed with these barbecuing tips it is guaranteed that people will gatecrash to your BBQ party and your grilling wonders will be lapped up in no time. ™ All barbecuing tips are based on the premise that you have fresh food for the bar-b-q dish. Thus, the beef should be firm to feel, not squashy. It should be bright, cherry-red and its fat, milky white. The fish should be shiny, damp, while its steak or fillet must be intact. Small cuts, whether animal products or vegetables, cook faster and evenly. And when grilling small food bits, use a grill basket. This makes grilling and cleaning-up easy. A handy barbecuing tip is that marinades tenderize meat and also impart a delightful flavor to every bar-b-q food it graces. Tender beef cuts need to be marinated for only 15 minutes but if you want more intense taste, keep on the marinade for 2 or more hours. The flavors of the marinade will automatically seep into the meat. Don't pierce the meat, else all the juices and moisture will ooze out during the grilling. Remember to always marinate in the refrigerator. However, take out the meat at least half an hour before grilling and keep it at room temperature. This makes the meat tenderer. Cooking meat at high temperatures scorches the outside of the meat well before the insides are thoroughly cooked. A thin layer of fat around the steak preserves its succulent juiciness while grilling. Also pressing the meat robs it off its moisture. A handy advice to preserve the moisture of fish is to douse it with limejuice while grilling. Grilling greats have come up with a few other ingenious tips to retain the moisture of fish and meat. One such way is to place a can of beer over the hot fire with the grill lid down. As the beer vaporizes, the meat soaks it in, flavors and all, and becomes moist. Else, during grilling add a pot of water close to the fire but away from the meat. Light basting sauces can be added throughout grilling. Vegetables soaked in water for about 30minutes before grilling prevent them from being drying out. To prevent fish from sticking on the grill grate, spray the grill rack with cooking spray or brush it with vegetable oil. Alternatively, the grill can also be covered with perforated foil. After grilling, remove the food and cover it with a foil. This will also retain the moisture. The barbecuing tips also hint at maintaining hygiene by ensuring that food is thoroughly grilled. A brown exterior can be deceptive and you should check the doneness of the meat and fish with a food thermometer or poke around with your fingers for firmness. Ride atop these barbecuing tips and boast a barbecuing prowess. Long before the advent of charcoal briquettes and propane people were cooking their meals over wood fueled fires. From the days of cave-men to less than one hundred years ago wood was the fuel of choice when it came to cooking. In this modern age we are constantly looking for a faster, cleaner and easier way to do everything, including preparing our meals. This has led to the development of bigger accessory laden gas fueled grills lining the isles of home improvement stores and showing up in our backyards. But for the barbeque purists out there nothing tastes quite the same as preparing their favorite barbeque dish over a wood fired grill. Why is this? What could possibly work better then the latest and greatest in barbecue technology? Depending on the type of wood used the "Grill-Master" (that guy who hovers over the grill creating barbecue master pieces) can create flavors in the meat, poultry or fish that just cannot be had over a more modern gas fueled grill. This flavor can further be adjusted just by the amount of wood used, how hot the fire is, and how much smoke the meat is allowed to marinate in. There are several types of wood fired barbeques on the market today. They are sometimes referred to as smoker grills. The offset firebox is the one most of us are used to seeing. These come in all sizes, from small family sized units to large trailer born monsters capable of feeding several hundred people. The distinguishing characteristic of the offset firebox is, well the offset firebox. Set off to the side and slightly below the main b&q watford cooking chamber is the firebox. This separates the food from direct heat and allows for a nice slow cooking temperature. The bullet style smoker is not actually a smoker but more of what is called a cold smoker or water smoker. They use a pan of water between the heat source and the meat, thereby blocking any direct heat that would cause any overcooking. In a sense they are not really considered a barbecue because of the way they work. The main chamber cooker is the third type of wood fired barbeque. These are barrel shaped and allow the fire to be built off to one side with the meat offset from the wood allowing for an indirect cooking method. You do need to be careful with how large of a fire gets built because there is no physical separation between the heat source and the meat. The fire need to be kept small and tended in a timely manner throughout the cooking process. Of course all this is a moot point if you do not select the right type of wood. For a wood fired barbecue nothing works better than a fruit bearing hardwood such as oak, hickory, pecan, maple apple and of course from Texas mesquite. Do not use softwoods or the wood from evergreens or conifers. Aside from burning at a lower temperature they are loaded with sap which will leave a bad taste on anything you cook. Cooking meat over a wood fire has been something humans have been doing for thousands of years. With the newer and more modern wood barbecue smokers on the market today it is possible for just about anyone to enjoy real wood fired barbecue.
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