Can you smell that, it’s freshly cut grass, it’s a warm breeze, its sausages on the grill! The time has arrived and it’s time to get out those ‘Kiss the Chef’ aprons as BBQ season has begun!
Whether you’re grilling up some patties on a portable camping BBQ or roasting a whole hog on your triple leveled masterpiece, we have 6 tips from a BBQ mastermind straight out of South Africa, for your Best BBQ season of 2011.
1. It Makes the Difference – Grilling and BBQ-ing
Grilling is cooking food quickly and directly over a very hot fire, whereas barbequing is the slow, indirect cooking of meat over a low, smoky fire. When you can keep your hand over a fire for three seconds, it means you have medium heat. At this temperature, most foods grill without burning on the outside.
2. Get Your Meat Right
If you’re picking steaks or sausages, pick something that contains a little bit of fat. In a steak you want ‘marbling’ which is very small, thin streaks of fat throughout the meat. With sausages you could try South African boerewors or Spanish chorizo. The fat will cook the meat from the inside and most of it will drip out in the cooking process.
3. Get Saucy
As with meats, marinades that contain oil or fat tend to do better on a barbeque. Marinade meat 24hours to 20minutes before you cook it to bring out an amazing flavor! Brush vegetables with a little bit of olive oil before you barbeque them and experiment with flavors. Try mixing balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and adding bell peppers, onions, zucchini, and then grilling. Put them back into the dressing when they’re done!
4. Turn on the Hot and Cold
On your BBQ grill, designate two separate areas. One area which is very hot where the actual cooking of the meat will take place. The other, a cooler area where the meat can sit after it’s been cooked, the meat will still be cooking and it will keep it warm, without that charcoaled effect. The areas can be separated by a bottom or top shelf with propane BBQ’s or stacking the coals to one side on a charcoal BBQ. Perfect way to have all your meat fully cooked without being burnt.
5. The Art of Searing
‘Sear’ the meat quickly on a high heat to get some brown or black char marks on the meat. This starts something called the Maillard reaction which gives meat that delicious barbeque flavor. Once it has some color move it to the cooler part of the grill to cook slowly.
6. Keep It Tender
There is no point buying top grade meat to then go and stick a fork in it whilst cooking to lose all those juices and dry it out. The only tool you want to be using when cooking are tongs to turn the meat. To test whether you meat is ready and for tenderness, touch the centre of the meat. The rawer it is, the more flesh like it will feel. The better done meat will feel much firmer to the touch.
If you want to try out these insider tips whilst you’re here in Banff, we have our very own Bed and Make your Own BBQ package which you can add on to most room types along with shared BBQ stations dotted around the property for you to use. BBQ-ing out in the open in the middle of the Canadian Rockies is something that no summer should be without.
So don those aprons, grab those tongs and let the BBQ season begin!
Banff Douglas Fir Resort 