The BBQ Basics

Preheating Your Barbecue

Before you put any food on the plate or grill, you should preheat the barbecue for a few minutes so the cooking surface and the vapouriser grid reach optimum cooking temperature. The first thing you should do is lightly oil the cooking surfaces.

Turn on the burners as follows:

1. Flat top barbecues (without hoods) - Turn all burners onto high for about 10 minutes. Then reduce the burner settings to achieve the desired degree of heat and flame before cooking.
2. For barbecues with roasting hoods - Turn the outside two burners onto high, and leave on for about 8 minutes with the hood down. Then reduce the burner settings to medium to commence cooking.

For safety reasons, you should not leave the barbecue unattended during this time. Test the surface by placing a small amount of food on it. The times given are approximate. Extra time should be allowed for cold or windy conditions.

The Hot Side Of The Grill

You will notice when cooking that some parts of the cooking surface are hotter than other parts. This design feature will help you control your cooking better. The BeefEater is designed so that the outer edges of the cooking surface, especially the right and left sides, will have a lower temperature than the centre when all burners are on identical settings.

When cooking various cuts of meat and different types of food, most of which will be different thickness, size, texture, some will cook quicker than others. By moving the thicker pieces to the outer edges of the cooking surface, which will be cooler, they can continue to cook by the indirect, slower method. This allows greater control and also helps to control flare ups.

Direct Cooking - The Simple Alternative

There are two different ways to cook on a barbecue - Direct or Indirect. As the name implies, Direct Cooking is where the heat or flame is directly under the food being cooked.

Direct cooking on the hot plate (griddle)

The plate or griddle is ideal for cooking foods that contain a great deal of fat, such as sausages and hamburgers that are either very small, thin, or hard to control on the open grill, such as bacon strips, tomatoes, thin steaks, some fish fillets, or pineapple etc that would traditionally be cooked on a fry pan, such as onions, pancakes, pizza, flapjacks, or eggs.

It is advisable to cook all foods on the plate (griddle) slowly and on a moderate or medium heat. This helps to retain the foods natural juices and consequently flavour. If the heat is too high, your food could be cooked, or even burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. Remember, it is the heat in the plate that cooks the food, rather than the flame below. As such the plate will retain the heat for some time after the flame is reduced - so make allowances for this when cooking.

You can cook using the direct method with the hood up, or down - the choice depends upon the taste you are trying to achieve. But remember, if you do prefer to cook with the roasting hood down, never cook with the burners on high. Best results can be achieved by keeping the burners on low to medium heat within the desired cooking area.

If you are cooking without a hood, or with the hood in the open position, heat will be lost, therefore you can use any burner configuration that suits the recipe, or your personal taste.

Direct cooking on the grill

This method of barbecuing is probably the most common Australian method of barbecuing meat, chops and steak, for the food retains the true barbecue taste and flavour. Generally thinner cuts of meat, fish and poultry that cook fast, are more successful with this form of cooking, whereas thicker cuts are best cooked by the indirect method, or a combination of both.

Firstly, lightly oil the grill before lighting the BBQ. Then pre-heat and when the BBQ is hot, place the food directly on the grill to quickly sear it and seal in the flavour and juices.

If your BeefEater has a roasting hood, there are a number of ways you can combine both direct and indirect cooking.  You can quickly sear both sides of your food on the grill, then transfer the food to a non-lit portion of the BBQ, lower the hood and continue cooking in an indirect manner.

Or, you can leave your food cooking over the lit grill and lower the hood. However, it is advisable to reduce the flame so that the convection heat created within the hood can complete the cooking process. Because this method of cooking circulates the heat, there is less need to turn the food.

What Gives Food that Unique Barbecue Flavour

Surprisingly, it has little to do with the fuel you use. Many people believe you need wood or charcoal to have a real barbecue, but the experts definitely disagree. It's a simple three step process.

• Food cooks on the open grill.
• Juices fall onto the flame or coals below.
• The juices burn or evaporate, sending flavour filled vapour back up to the food where it came from.

In other words, it's the vapourising of the cooking juices, not the smoke from the fuel that does the trick.

How Vaporizer Bars help

The problem with too much juice falling on coals is that it can build up and burn with a full flame. This is called flare up. A little is okay, but too much tends to leave your food charred and unattractive.

Vaporizer® Bars are designed to prevent juices from building up, by causing them to spread out and evaporate faster. More of the flavour from the cooking juices finds its way back to the food  instead of falling through to the drip tray, or building up and burning in a full flame.

A roasting hood makes it even better

By trapping the vapour inside an "outdoor oven", the cooking vapour will fall back on the food on all sides, not just from underneath. The food stays moist while it's cooking.

The problem with too much juice falling on coals is that it can build up and burn with a full flame. This is called flare up. A little is okay, but too much tends to leave your food charred and unattractive.

Vaporizer® Bars are designed to prevent juices from building up, by causing them to spread out and evaporate faster. More of the flavour from the cooking juices finds its way back to the food  instead of falling through to the drip tray, or building up and burning in a full flame.  

Indirect Cooking - Far More Versatile

Indirect cooking is where the heat circulates around the food, cooking by convection. Little or no heat is directly underneath the food. This method of cooking applies only if you have a roasting hood.

Indirect cooking is similar to an oven and is recommended for rotisserie cooking, roasts, poultry, casseroles, vegetables andwhole fish. 

The indirect method of cooking can also be used to cook such items as thick meat and fish steaks that have been quickly seared on the grill by the direct method (to seal in the natural juices) then completed by the indirect method. The golden key to success in indirect barbecue cooking is to take your time and cook slowly. Firstly pre-heat the BBQ as previously described, then:

• If your BeefEater has 2 burners - turn both burners down fractionally below medium
• If your BeefEater has 3 burners - turn the central burner off and reduce the two outside burners to medium
• If your BeefEater has 4 burners - turn the two inside burners off and reduce the two outside burners to medium
• If your BeefEater has 5 burners - turn the three inside burners off, leave one outside burner on high and reduce the other outside burner to medium.

 Now raise the hood and place the food on the unlit, centre portion(s) of the cooking surface. If you are cooking a roast, it is a good idea to use the special BeefEater roast holder which not only keeps the meat away from the heat source, but sits neatly into a baking tray. This is essential in the case of the 2-burner barbecue where the meat tray will be sitting over direct heat.

Meat Temperature Chart

A meat thermometer is the only really safe way to to test that meat is cooked to your satisfaction. Use the chart below as your guide. Using a meat thermometer is easy, but you should keep a couple of points in mind:

• Insert the prong into the thickest part of the meat.
• Make sure that it does not touch any area of bone.
• For large sections of meat, check the temperature in more than one place.

 For easy reference, this temperature chart should give you a starting guide.   

Pork

• Rare: 60°C / 140°F
• Medium: 70°C / 160°F
• Well Done: 75°C / 165°F

Veal

• Medium: 70°C / 160°F
• Well Done: 75°C / 165°F

Beef

• Rare: 60°C / 140°F
• Medium: 70°C / 160°F
• Well Done: 75°C / 165°F

Lamb

• Rare: 60°C / 140°F
• Medium: 70°C / 160°F
• Well Done: 75°C / 165°F

Chicken

• 85°C / 185°F

Poultry

• 90°C / 195°F
  

Cooking Times and Temperatures

Although there is no substitute for experience, we can give you a guide to cooking times to get you started. The roasting hood temperatures and cooking times given below should be used as a rough starting guide only

Unlike an internal oven that is being used under controlled conditions and is insulated - the very nature of outside cooking means that the barbecue is subject to a large and varied range of conditions, such as external temperature, wind, sun, humidity and altitude, all of which can affect the overall cooking temperatures, times and performance.

If the barbecue and hood are used in a cold climate, or in an exposed, cool or windy position, then the internal temperature under the roasting hood may be considerably less and your food will take longer to cook. On the other hand, if the barbecue is situated in a hot, sunny area, the temperature under the roasting hood could increase, speeding up the cooking time.

The best way to take the guess work out of indirect cooking and make sure that your food is cooked to your satisfaction is to use a meat thermometer, or meat probe.

Below are some examples of approximate cooking times. As a guide, two burners on medium with the roasting hood down for the 3, 4 and 5 burner barbecues, produce approximately 195°C (385°F). Two burners on medium, with the roasting hood down on the 2 burner barbecue, produces approximately 205°C (400°F)

Beef

• 45-55 minutes per kg (20-25 minutes per Ib) at approximately 180°C (355°F)

Lamb

• 45-55 minutes per kg (20-25 minutes per Ib) at approximately 180°C (355°F)

Pork

• 55-60 minutes per kg (25-30 minutes per Ib) at approximately 170°C (340°F)

Veal

• 40-50 minutes per kg (18-23 minutes per Ib) at approximately 160°C (320°F) 

Chicken

• 20-30 minutes per kg (9-14 minutes per Ib) at approximately 150°C (300°F)

Poultry

• 40-50 minutes per kg (18-23 minutes per Ib) at approximately 180°C (355°F)

Controlling Flare Up

Flare ups, when flame reaches over the top of the grill, are a common, though poorly understood barbecuing experience. Luckily your BeefEater barbecue is fitted with a unique Modular Vaporizer® Panel System, that helps to reduce these flare-ups.

Grease and juices from cooking meat act as fuel. When this "fuel" builds up it can catch alight. It is quite common especially while cooking fatty foods like sausages, to have brief bursts of flame above the grill. Some flare up in these circumstances is inevitable. This flare up, if it only happens occasionally and is controlled, can add to the outdoor flavour of your food. If it happens too often it can spoil a good meal.

How to minimise flare up

The BeefEater Modular Vaporizer® Panels go a long way to vaporising grease before it builds up. This has the added benefit of sending flavour back up through your food while it is cooking. Other things you can do to minimise flare up include:

• Avoid the temptation to keep turning or poking the food once it starts cooking. Every time you poke, prod, or turn the food, valuable juices are lost, drying out the food and causing flare-ups.
• Try cooking leaner cuts of meat
• Trim excess fat from meats to be grilled. 
• Par boil sausages before grilling to remove excess grease. As mentioned, some flare-ups are inevitable. However, if they do occur, relocate the meat to the plate (griddle), or another part of the cooking surface until the flames subside.

Using a Side Burner

Your BeefEater side burner turns the barbecue into an outside kitchen. Combined with the roasting hood and rotisserie, you can cook almost everything that can be cooked in a conventional kitchen.

The BeefEater side burner is similar to the burner on a gas stove. As such you can use any conventional pan, including saucepans, fry pans, wok and cast iron cooking pots to cook any number of foods or recipes.

One word of warning. It is advisable not to use the side burner on very windy days as the flame can be extinguished.