4/08/2009

Are You Ready To Barbeque?

Are You Ready To Barbeque?

There's something about preparing and eating food outdoors that seems so much more exciting than usual cooking. Maybe it's because those of us living in the UK just like to make the most of rare spells of good weather!

When barbeque cooking is done right, there's also a particular flavour that many of us love. By experimenting and improving your BBQ skills, you can prepare food that will make you extremely popular with family and friends.

If BBQ cooking is done incorrectly then you can be left with a nasty, charred mess. This is clearly far from being ideal!

Since cooking on a barbeque grill often involves a more casual occasion, many amateur cooks make the mistake of being too casual about the way that they prepare and cook the food.

This can lead to BBQ disasters and even, in the worst cases, health problems for you and your guests. These are occasions that should be great fun - the last thing that you want to do is to give your treasured guests a bout of food poisoning.

There are some things that you need to remember, for the safety of all involved. The first one is that you should never allow raw meats to come into contact with cooked meats.

This is absolutely vital - allowing such contamination to occur could prove fatal. Make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly after dealing with any meat products. Don't mix the two under any circumstances.

Another golden rule is that all food that you serve should be could through thoroughly. If you're not certain that it's safe to eat then don't serve it.

Hygiene and safety should be of prime importance. It may be a casual occasion, but you don't want it to be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Find out about Weber S650 barbeques by reading further articles by Keith Barrett. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.

The Difference Between Barbecuing And Smoking

The Difference Between Barbecuing And Smoking

If you've ever had the pleasure of tasting barbecued ribs cooked in competition, then you know what real barbecue cooking tastes like. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the weekend warriors that fire up their weber charcoal grill to throw on a couple steaks. But for unparalleled flavor and tenderness, there is no barbecue grilling that can match the heavenly fare that comes out of barbecue smokers.

The main difference between barbecue grills and smokers is the time and the temperature the meat is cooked at. In barbecue smokers, meat is cooked all day; until it just falls off the bone. Grilling, on the other hand, is just using a fire to heat meat quickly. The difference is like night and day.

Smoking meat involves cooking the meat in a lower (very controlled) temperature for a longer period of time. In addition, different types of wood are added to the heat source to give the meat different flavors depending on the type of wood used. Examples of woods used are: Hickory (the most widely used), oak, and different varieties of fruit wood; apple, cherry, etc. But DO NOT use any wood from needle bearing trees such as pine or spruce, they will make you sick! For the same reason, don't use scraps from the lumberyard, as they may be treated in some way and give off noxious smoke.

Ordinary grills such as a weber charcoal grill can be used to smoke meat, but it involves incorporating an indirect heat. The charcoal is burned in a ring, and the meat is cooked above the center. This works fairly well with a two burner propane grill, but with a charcoal grill, because of the long cook time, the charcoal has to be constantly replenished, meaning the lid has to be raised a lot; and there is an old saying among seasoned smokers, "if you're looking, you ain't cooking!"

If you are serious about smoking meat, you can pick up a starter smoker grill to try your skill. Then if it seems like something you like to do, you can always move up to a larger, more expensive smoker.

John Phillips is owner of http://www.bbqsecrets.smmsite.com

Learn how to become a BBQ smoking master. All the secrets are contained in the book, BBQ Secrets

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