BBQ blunders by man

Feature

Men: dust off your cooker and tongs - the BBQ beckons. All women know that all men are experts at barbequing food (often to a crisp). Be honest, you are prone to the odd mistake or at the very least you're guilty of not making the most of your ingredients.

While you may think your BBQ dishes are the most delicious food offerings in the world, honesty may reveal that the barbequed food you cook is not as good as you've had elsewhere. Your offerings might be thoroughly cooked but chances are they are as tough as old boots and as dry as a Martini, despite marinating the meat for hours.

Though man somehow acquires a keen desire to BBQ all things meaty, few actually follow recipes or guidelines and absolutely none seem willing to take any female advice on the matter of hygiene and food poisoning.

Evidently, this can lead to the odd BBQ blunder. Make a mental note of these outdoor cooking tips to improve your innate BBQ skills.

If you started with frozen meat, make sure the meat is thawed completely. Trying to cook the inside of a still-frozen piece of meat is next to impossible without burning the outside. Worst case scenario is that you give your friends and family a touch of nasty food poisoning to take home with them.

When using a charcoal grill, try to start the fire without charcoal lighter fluid. Lighter fluid taste will always get into your meat no matter how much you cook the coals down first. Ensure that air can circulate under the coals and wait for the charcoal to turn flameless, glowing and white.

Never poke or prod meat with a fork after cooking has begun. This is one of the most common mistakes and one of the most deadly for your barbeque. When poking with a fork, the juices will run out of the meat and right into the bottom of the barbeque pit or grill. Your meat will be dry and less tender. Use a long set of tongs to turn the meat.

Lower the heat. Slow cook over low to medium heat, except for steaks, which need a quick searing. Lower heat is much more manageable and it will make the meat tender and juicy.

If you are using a smoke hood, avoid lifting the lid too frequently to check the meat. Every time you do that it changes the temperature inside the BBQ grill or pit. Air from you opening the lid acts like a sponge and dries the meat up. Opening the lid also increases your chances of flare-ups.

This is more of a food safety mistake. Never put the cooked meat back on the same plate or platter that the raw meat was on without washing it first. Mixing the cooked with the raw just begs for someone to get sick. This also applies to tongs. Keep one for raw meat and turning and leave one set aside for serving.

Now, who's the BBQ daddy?

Picture caption: Ensure all barbecued meat is thoroughly cooked through before serving it up - or risk poisoning the people who eat it.



MyVillage 01st June