Barbecue – parties
Family barbecues are one thing, throwing a party is something else entirely. You don’t want to give a party that looks like this picture, do you?
Preparation
Remove meat and poultry from the fridge an hour before cooking and leave covered in a cool kitchen or garage until required. This will help bring the food back to an ambient temperature, and will result in a more succulent cooked result rather than a charred, dried offering. It also ensures meat cooks right through more quickly.
Always store raw foods in a covered container that you keep closed at all times - and inside the house if there is direct sun.
Setting the scene
Burning citronella candles keeps flies and biting insects away, this is even more important if you’re serving sweet food or drinks like a punch bowl. You can buy bamboo garden torches filled with citronella which look great and give your garden a cosy glow at night.
Make sure you know how many guests are coming and check there’s a comfortable seat for everyone.
Drinks
Keep jugs of iced water handy – particularly if you’re barbecuing on a hot day. If you only offer beer or wine your guests will soon be dehydrated and you yourself may become too tipsy to tend the barbecue with care. A non-alcoholic fruit bowl is a good choice too, especially if children are present. Serve drinks in plastic rather than glass – it means you don’t have to worry about breakages.
Warm beer spoils the palate and tastes gassy. To prevent people having to travel in and out to the fridge you can fill a couple of buckets with iced water to hold sealed cans and bottles.
Barbecue party photograph by semarr, used under a creative commons attribution licence.