Barbecue - Timings

While you should always check meat is properly cooked on the barbecue both by sight and, preferably, with a meat thermometer, it can be useful to have some idea how long it should take to cook - the timings below are for each side, on a barbecue that has been burning for at least half an hour. It's important to remember that timings relate to the thickness of the meat so suggested times should always be adjusted for thicker or thinner cuts.

Beef steaks - if you use sirloin or rump that is 2cm thick, two and a half minutes on each side for rare steak, four minutes for medium and six for well done. Fillet steaks are approximately 1cm thicker so will need an extra one or two minutes cooking time each side.

Pork loin or leg steaks1-2cm thick take six to eight minutes on each side, chops, which tend to be 2-3cm thick require eight to ten minutes on each side.

To barbecue lamb, using chump steaks that are 1 to 2 cm think, allow four to six minutes per side, chops with the bone tend to be 2 cm thick and take six to eight minutes and cutlets which are also generally 2 cm thick only require four to six minutes.

Kebabs that have meat in one inch cubes will take fifteen minutes in total - you should try to turn them every four minutes and give them a quarter turn rather than a half turn so that each side of the cube is closest to the heat.

You must ensure all sausages and burgers are thoroughly cooked - by checking that the juices run clear - before serving.

Burgers (pork, beef, lamb) take four to six minutes, turning once

Sausages (standard pork, beef, lamb) require ten to fourteen minutes in total

Sausages (chipolata pork, beef, lamb) need ten to twelve minutes or eight to ten if you have threaded them on a metal skewer which allows the heat to be transmitted to the centre more thoroughly - if you skewer larger sausages, they simply spit and cause fat fires before they can cook right though, so only use this method with thin chipolata or cocktail sausages.

Barbecue timings photograph by Thomas sly, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

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