You don’t need much to barbecue apart from a grill, fuel and a lighter. But today’s game is pretty advanced and there are endless tools to enhance and ease the pursuit. When it comes to choosing a barbecue, I’d recommend buying one that has the potential for different accessories. That means you can build up a collection over time to make your options for cooking endless.
Essential kit
Temperature/thermometer probe
As the saying goes: cook to temperature, not to time. A temperature/thermometer probe will tell you what’s going on beneath that delicious-looking exterior.
Wire brush
I never bring my grill indoors to clean – it’s too messy and unnecessary. A wire brush can clean it quickly – whenever you light the barbecue, just let the oil burn off then give it a good scrub.
Metal tongs (ideally long-handled ones)
Those kitchen silicone-tipped tongs won’t cut it when you’re cooking on the grill because the food easily slips off them.
Chimney starter
A chimney starter speeds up the time it takes to light coals by concentrating the ignition beneath a column of coals. Lumpwood charcoal can be ready to go in less than 10 minutes, making quick cooking realistic with a charcoal barbecue.
Firelighters
Avoid the petrol ones and go for firelighters made from wood “wool” and wax. They can burn for as long as 10 minutes, giving your fire plenty of time to get going.
Helpful kit
Fireproof gloves
There’s nothing like having a set of gloves specifically for the barbecue, and having a decent pair will make everything run more smoothly.
Basting mop/brush
Basting is a frequent occurrence in barbecue, and mops and brushes come in different forms, from the wooden-handled ones that look like miniature floor mops to silicone brushes – anything is better than nothing.
Metal skewers
Ideally, go for ones that have flat and twisted areas on them, which will help secure the food more than the thin round ones.
Grill basket
These sit on the grill and are brilliant for little things – prawns, small veggies, etc – that might otherwise fall through the bars.
Pro-level kit
Rotisserie
A rotisserie cooks food evenly and it ends up beautifully moist with a lovely flavour.
The set-up
Choosing a set-up depends on what you are cooking, how long it needs to cook for and at what temperature. The most common mistake people make when grilling is to throw a load of lit charcoal on to the grate and hope for the best. But this poses a couple of problems. Firstly, using that much coal is going to make your grill really hot. But, more importantly, there is no cool area on the grill to put food that’s ready while the rest of the food is trying to catch up. The solution for this is to “zone” your grill, so that you have different temperature zones for direct and indirect cooking.
There are three charcoal set-ups I mainly use:
50:50 method
The most common and my go-to. I add coals to just one half of the grate, and leave the other half without.
Clear channel method
This has coals on either side of the grate with a clear channel running through the middle. I use it for food made up of lots of individual smallish pieces that need to be cooked indirectly, but it also works well for long, slow cooks in a pan.
Bullseye method
The coals are positioned in a pile in the middle of the grate. I use this for direct cooks to get a sizzle going in a pan, before the coals are then pushed to the sides for indirect cooking.
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