It's National BBQ Day! Here's Your Top Tips For Grilling
Today marks National BBQ Day, and to celebrate, here’s your top tips when it comes to BBQing, thanks to Ben Forte a master BBQer of Masterbuilt.
Of late there has been a surge of charcoal barbecue sales (an increase of a whopping 96%) as people are all wanting that authentic taste and depth of flavour.
And, right in time for summer, leading BBQ brand, Masterbuilt is here to help with its range of BBQ smokers and grills. With an aim to make charcoal barbecuing as simple as possible, just like switching on a gas grill, you can fire up their range of grills and smokers by pressing a button, but they’ll provide that smoky flavour. A dial lets you adjust heat and it’ll achieve this in 10 minutes. At this point, you simply set the temperature on the digital control panel or your smart device and the digital fan maintains the desired cooking temperature. As for the unique part, the GravityFed charcoal hopper holds up to eight hours of charcoal and if you let gravity do its thing, it’ll constantly top up the fire!
To celebrate National BBQ Day today, BBQ enthusiast and Global Marketing Manager for Masterbuilt and Kamado Joe, Ben Forte has shared his top tips for BBQing this summer.
- Set up cooking zones. Having a hot zone and an indirect zone is key to being able to achieve great results, don’t just have a roaring hot grill!
- The lid isn’t just there to keep out the rain. In the barbecue world we say: ‘If you're looking, you're not cooking’. Closing the lid will keep the fire under control and help cook your food through, like in an oven.
- A barbecue tip for vegetarians? One of my favourite vegetables to cook is butternut squash direct in the coals, put the whole thing in the fire and cook for around an hour, the skin will burn but it protects the flesh inside and gives it an amazing smoky earthy flavour.”
- You really should have a food thermometer. It gives you the confidence to know the food you are serving is cooked to perfection.
- Use good quality charcoal. Big Block (Restaurant Grade) is what you need. Big blocks burn hotter, give better air flow and last longer.
- Lastly, cook low and slow. Cooking at lower temperatures for a longer time gives you amazing smoky flavour and helps keep your food from drying out. The biggest mistake is often getting the barbecue too hot. As soon as things get too hot it’s hard to cool them down and food will burn on the outside and not be cooked in the middle.