Thursday, February 19, 2009

Some Ideas to Guarantee a Great AND Delicious Barbecue

By Ashley T Cassell

Everyone loves a barbecue

The warm breeze on your face, the gentle drift of aromatic smoke accompanied by a chilled glass of chablis. Pure heaven!

There are a couple of things you need to do to make sure your barbecue is a success. Don't have the day ruined by a mishap that could easily have been avoided.Keeping to a few simple guidelines will ensure that any excitement is of a positive kind!

Lighting the barbecue always provides a mixture of fear, frustration and excitement.

After it's lit the next thing to remember is that it will take the barbecue a goodly amount of time to heat up. Make sure you allow for that.

Of course if you're using a gas or electric barbecue you can probably avoid too much fuss or problem at this stage - ease of lighting is one of the main reasons people choose these types.

Charcoal barbecues can be a nightmare to light but don't be tempted to use lighter fluid or God forbid, petrol. At best the food will taste awful. At worst you will have the Fire Brigade enjoying your barbecue alongside your friends and guests.

To get everyone's juices flowing I'd suggest adding wood chips to you barbecue. If you have been impressing your guests for some time you in all likelihood already knew that.

If you haven't tried it, there's nothing better than the smell of steak sizzling over wood chips.

Using BBQ wood chips will take you to the next level of barbecuing.

Whether you're using an electric, gas or charcoal model the addition of wood chips imparts the true flavour of barbecuing into your food

Soaking the wood chips for about 10-15 minutes earlier will ensure they don't burn so quickly or give off too much smoke. You ideally want your wood chips damp but not soaking.

You can choose from a multitude of flavours of wood chips for your barbecue. Mesquite, hickory, cabernet and more. I'd suggest that the more delicate the meat the milder the wood chip you use.

Cherry fruitwoods go great with veal poultry and pork, Alder Wood is great with seafood. Maple and hickory give of a stronger aroma and might be better with duck, lamb or chicken.

Essentially of course it's your food that really matters. With the finest cuts of meat and the freshest of seafood, your guests will sing your praises.

Relax and have fun at your barbecue. Now where's that bottle of ice cold beer with my name on it? - 16887

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